ABC confirms job, programme cuts

Australian pubcaster ABC has reconfirmed its commitment to investing in local content despite announcing there will be more than 400 redundancies as a result of federal government budget cuts.

The ABC is closing its production studio in Adelaide and winding back its remaining non-news and current affairs production activities outside Sydney and Melbourne.

Announcing 40 so-called efficiency measures, ABC MD Mark Scott said: “The ABC will continue to work closely with the independent sector to produce programs like The Code, ANZAC Girls and The War that Changed Us that have strong local flavours.

“We will strive to produce programming that better reflects local diversity in each state and territory. To demonstrate its commitment, the ABC will deliver annual reports on its local production.”

Scott said management will be stripped back, accounting for about 10% of the redundancies, and more than 100 websites will be shut down.

He told staff the ABC was committed to using back-office and overhead savings to fund the A$207m (US$180m) that will be cut from the its budget from July 2015. That’s on top of funding reductions of A$120m announced by the government in May.

However, the ABC declined to comment when asked by C21 if there would be any cuts to its spending on Australian adult and children’s drama, comedy and documentaries or on its acquisitions budget.

Nightly current affairs show, the 7.30 Report, will be replaced by a new national programme, while another current affairs show, Lateline, will move to digital channel ABC News 24 and sports coverage will also be scaled down.

On the plus side the ABC will invest A$20m in a fund for new digital content over the next few years and it will create the ABC Digital Network, replacing the innovation division.

Catch-up service iview will be enriched with fast-feature development, improved personalisation, 24-hour support, capacity for audience recommendations and the development of stand-alone content.

“The changed funding and media environment has meant that the ABC has had to carefully consider its spending priorities,” Scott said.

“We anticipate that more than 400 people – close to 10% of our ongoing workforce – face potential redundancy as we adjust our activities over coming months.

“We regard the changes as vital to securing the long-term health of the organisation but I acknowledge that is no comfort to those who will lose their positions.”