The Editor
Austrtalian Financial Review
18 February 2001

Trevor Sykes (AFR 17/2/01) was wrong when he wrote "Roughly 30 percent of Australians never watch the ABC".
In fact 86.6% of residents of the five major capital cities watch ABC TV at least once a month. (ABC Annual Report 1999-2000)

He also forgot one of the ABC's radio networks. The ABC has five, not four, domestic radio networks. It also runs an overseas service, Radio Australia, another ABC asset which he forgot.

Also omitted was ABC Online, consistently rated in the top ten websites in Australia.

Mr Sykes argues that "the ABC should be allowed to raise some money through co-productions, commercial deals and sponsorships". A glance at the ABC Annual Report shows that last financial year the ABC raised $8.4 million from co-productions, $5.4 million from sponsorships and subsidies, $53.7 million from merchandising, and $17 million from royalties. In total the ABC raised $139.6 million in revenues from independent sources.

These factual errors and omissions aside, Mr Sykes basic assumption misses the point. What the ABC would be worth to a commercial investor has little relevance to how the ABC should be funded.

A more appropriate measure is public willingness to pay. A study by the Economic Planning Advisory Commission found that the ABC is one of the few government activities which most Australians say they would pay more tax for. Respondents supported an increase in funding for the ABC, schools and hospitals, and a decrease for welfare, public housing and industry assistance. The average increase for the ABC suggested by the respondents in this 1999 survey was 31% above the prevailing level of support. At the same time 82% of Australians say the ABC is doing a good job. Can any other government agency, any commercial enterprise or any politician claim that sort of support?

An appropriate measure of the ABC's efficiency is by comparison to Australian commercial media, and to overseas public broadcasters. Professor Glenn Withers (Australian Financial Review, 22 March 2000) calculates that per broadcast hour ABC TV costs only 36% of the average commercial network. He adds that British citizens pay more than 300% more per person to fund the BBC, while Canadians pay $150% more per person for the CBC. By any measure the ABC is overwhelmingly well regarded, and extraordinarily cheap.

Darce Cassidy
National Spokesperson
Friends of the ABC