Time for a rethink...and a better... more useful ABC

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Friends of the ABC : One Thread

Auction some of it ...turn a loss into income

SBS will do...keep that

sell TV, JJJ and metro radio keep radio national, Rural radio,Newsradio,abc fm

radio australia and asiapacific goes to foreign affairs

popular abc programs can be funded to run on SBS

keitha

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2003

Answers

Keith writes: "It is in 2003 hardly fair to expect 90% of Australian Taxpayers who never mostly watch or listen to the abc to fund the ten percent who do and at a yearly cost of a billion dollars"

If this were true, it would be a fair point. Why should a ninety percent majority pay for the pleasures of a 10% minority?

The logic is right, but the premise is wrong.

A billion dollars sounds a lot for the ABC, doesn't it? For a a little less than a billion dollars Australian taxpayers get:

. ABC domestic TV - channel 2 in capital cities, differnet channels in regional areas. . Five radio networks - ABC local radio (all capital cities and around fifty regional centres), ABC Radio National, ABC Clasic FM, the ABC youth network - Triple J, ABC News Radio. .Six symphony orchestras. . Radio Australia, the ABC's overeas service directed to Asia and the Pacific. . Australia TV, our external television service.

For approxmately the same amount of money Australian consumers, every time they pick up the telephone, or enter a supermarket, pay for the commercial media. What do they get for one billion dollars. Just one TV network. That's right. They pay just as much for just one TV network as they do for the entire ABC suite of services.

Close to ninety percent of Australians use the ABC every week. The evidence?

In 1990, Newspoll, a commercial opinion poll company owned by Rupert Murdochs News Limited (no friend of the ABC) found that 86% of Australians use the ABC each week. The survey concluded:

"The ABC has a genuine broad appeal to the community. The great majority of Australians in all demographic groups and in all parts of the country listen to or watch the ABC for some period every week."

Now Keith, lest you say that 1990 was a long time ago, and anyway that was just one survey, we have more evidence.

In 1996 Bob Mansfield, the high profile businessman appointed by John Howard to review the ABC reported that in the five major capital cities 69% of people watched ABC TV each week. He also found that 41% of the population aged ten and over listened to ABC radio each week. You can't add these figures together, because many of those watching TV are the same as those listening to radio, but it is clear that when you take account of both TV and radio the audience is greater than 69%, and may easily be as large or larger than the 86% figure found by Newspoll.

More recently, between July and September 2001, OzTam, the company that uses "people meters" to measure TV audiences for both commercial audiences and the ABC, found that in the five major capital cities 12, 086, 211 people tuned into ABC TV over the three month period. This represents 94% of the population in these cities.

There are two commonly used measures of audiences, commonly called "share" and "reach". Both are valid measures - they just measure different things.

The ABC has a large reach but a fairly small share. Enemies of the ABC often choose just to selectively quote the less favourable figure (share), and ignore the more favourable one (cumulative audience sometimes known as 'reach' or "cume")

If Station A has 300,000 viewers, who watch for an average of one hour, it will have 300,000 viewer hours.

If Station C has 100,000 viewers, who watch for an average of four hours, it will have 400,000 viewer hours.

Despite the fact that Station C has 200,000 fewer viewers than station A, it will have a higher audience share, because it has fewer people watching for a longer time. Despite the fact that Station A has three times as many viewers as Station C it will have a lower audience share, because its viewers don't tune in for so long. Station A will of course have a large reach.

Here is a current example. In the fifth ACNielsen survey of radio audiences in Melbourne for 2003 (http://www.nielsenmedia.com.au//en/pdf/mri/11/Radiometrosurvey5_2003_ Melbourne.pdf), 774 ABC Melbourne (formerly 3LO) had a reach of 771,000. Its commercial rival, 3AW with a similar talk format, had a reach of 681,00. That is, 3AW had 90,000 fewer listeners than ABC 774. On the other hand 3AW had a larger share - 14.1% compared to ABC 774's share of 12.3%. Who has the most listeners - ABC 774. Who has the most 'listener hours' - 3AW.

Survey after survey has demonstrated that the vast majority of Australians, almost nine in every ten, regularly use the ABC. The claim that only 10% do so is simply, factually, WRONG.

In 1990, Newspoll, a commercial opinion poll company owned by Rupert Murdochs News Limited (no friend of the ABC) found that 86% of Australians use the ABC each week. The survey concluded:

"The ABC has a genuine broad appeal to the community. The great majority of Australians in all demographic groups and in all parts of the country listen to or watch the ABC for some period every week."  Lest you say that 1990 was a long time ago, and anyway that was just one survey, we have more evidence.

In 1996 Bob Mansfield, the high profile businessman appointed by John Howard to review the ABC reported that in the five major capital cities 69% of people watched ABC TV each week. He also found that 41% of the population aged ten and over listened to ABC radio each week. You can't add these figures together, because many of those watching TV are the same as those listening to radio, but it is clear that when you take account of both TV and radio the audience is greater than 69%, and may easily be as large or larger than the 86% figure found by Newspoll.

More recently, between July and September 2001, OzTam, the company that uses "people meters" to measure TV audiences for both commercial audiences and the ABC, found that in the five major capital cities 12, 086, 211 people tuned into ABC TV over the three month period. This represents 94% of the population in these cities.

When you quote a figure of 12.5% cound not be talking about how many people are using the ABC. However you may be getting confused with the ABC's average share of audience which is around 14% for TV and 20% for radio.

There are two commonly used measures of audiences, commonly called "share" and "reach". Both are valid measures - they just measure different things.

The ABC has a large reach but a fairly small share. Enemies of the ABC often choose just to selectively quote the less favourable figure (share), and ignore the more favourable one (cumulative audience sometimes known as 'reach' or "cume")

If Station A has 300,000 viewers, who watch for an average of one hour, it will have 300,000 viewer hours.

If Station C has 100,000 viewers, who watch for an average of four hours, it will have 400,000 viewer hours.

Despite the fact that Station C has 200,000 fewer viewers than station A, it will have a higher audience share, because it has fewer people watching for a longer time. Despite the fact that Station A has three times as many viewers as Station C it will have a lower audience share, because its viewers don't tune in for so long. Station A will of course have a large reach.

Here is a current example. In the fifth ACNielsen survey of radio audiences in Melbourne for 2003 (http://www.nielsenmedia.com.au//en/pdf/mri/11/Radiometrosurvey5_2003_ Melbourne.pdf), 774 ABC Melbourne (formerly 3LO) had a reach of 771,000. Its commercial rival, 3AW with a similar talk format, had a reach of 681,00. That is, 3AW had 90,000 fewer listeners than ABC 774. On the other hand 3AW had a larger share - 14.1% compared to ABC 774's share of 12.3%. Who has the most listeners - ABC 774. Who has the most 'listener hours' - 3AW.

The facts are that in the capital cities ABC TV has an audience share just over 14%, while ABC Radio has an audience share of just over 20%. The ABC's share figures are higher than this in regional areas. This is significantly higher than the 12.5% that you quote.

More importantly, survey after survey has demonstrated that the vast majority of Australians, almost nine in every ten, regularly use the ABC. The claim that only 12.5% do so is plain wrong.

In 1990, Newspoll, a commercial opinion poll company owned by Rupert Murdochs News Limited (no friend of the ABC) found that 86% of Australians use the ABC each week. The survey concluded:

"The ABC has a genuine broad appeal to the community. The great majority of Australians in all demographic groups and in all parts of the country listen to or watch the ABC for some period every week."  Lest you say that 1990 was a long time ago, and anyway that was just one survey, we have more evidence.

In 1996 Bob Mansfield, the high profile businessman appointed by John Howard to review the ABC reported that in the five major capital cities 69% of people watched ABC TV each week. He also found that 41% of the population aged ten and over listened to ABC radio each week. You can't add these figures together, because many of those watching TV are the same as those listening to radio, but it is clear that when you take account of both TV and radio the audience is greater than 69%, and may easily be as large or larger than the 86% figure found by Newspoll.

More recently, between July and September 2001, OzTam, the company that uses "people meters" to measure TV audiences for both commercial audiences and the ABC, found that in the five major capital cities 12, 086, 211 people tuned into ABC TV over the three month period. This represents 94% of the population in these cities.

When you quote a figure of 12.5% cound not be talking about how many people are using the ABC. However you may be getting confused with the ABC's average share of audience which is around 14% for TV and 20% for radio.

There are two commonly used measures of audiences, commonly called "share" and "reach". Both are valid measures - they just measure different things.

The ABC has a large reach but a fairly small share. Enemies of the ABC often choose just to selectively quote the less favourable figure (share), and ignore the more favourable one (cumulative audience sometimes known as 'reach' or "cume")

If Station A has 300,000 viewers, who watch for an average of one hour, it will have 300,000 viewer hours.

If Station C has 100,000 viewers, who watch for an average of four hours, it will have 400,000 viewer hours.

Despite the fact that Station C has 200,000 fewer viewers than station A, it will have a higher audience share, because it has fewer people watching for a longer time. Despite the fact that Station A has three times as many viewers as Station C it will have a lower audience share, because its viewers don't tune in for so long. Station A will of course have a large reach.

Here is a current example. In the fifth ACNielsen survey of radio audiences in Melbourne for 2003 (http://www.nielsenmedia.com.au//en/pdf/mri/11/Radiometrosurvey5_2003_ Melbourne.pdf), 774 ABC Melbourne (formerly 3LO) had a reach of 771,000. Its commercial rival, 3AW with a similar talk format, had a reach of 681,00. That is, 3AW had 90,000 fewer listeners than ABC 774. On the other hand 3AW had a larger share - 14.1% compared to ABC 774's share of 12.3%. Who has the most listeners - ABC 774. Who has the most 'listener hours' - 3AW.

The facts are that in the capital cities ABC TV has an audience share just over 14%, while ABC Radio has an audience share of just over 20%. The ABC's share figures are higher than this in regional areas. This is significantly higher than the 12.5% that you quote.

More importantly, survey after survey has demonstrated that the vast majority of Australians, almost nine in every ten, regularly use the ABC. The claim that only 12.5% do so is plain wrong.



-- Anonymous, September 14, 2003


Plan to reshape ABC No Advertising in new plan to redesign and Upgrade our national public broadcaster

This reshape is to reflect the different times that that the abc now operates in.

It is inclined to rethink its services and provide a more useful and clearly defined and in fact a better ABC

What may have been useful in 1930,1940 or1950 is not at all relevent to the media needs of australians if it can only reach at the moment a total score of 10 percent of total audience share

It is in 2003 hardly fair to expect 90% of Australian Taxpayers who never mostly watch or listen to the abc to fund the ten percent who do and at a yearly cost of a billion dollars/

The ABC in its present form is also not performing to its own act of Parliment and instead of complimenting other media is competing head on with other heavily taxed private services,costing them hundreds of millions of dollars each year in audience share and a subsequent loss of revenue.

The ABC enjoys superior transmitting facilities. For instance its pretend sydney commerecial radio station 2BL 702 AM transmits at 50,000 Watts,Where a commercial station is limited to 5000 Watts.Some slight advantage!

The improvements call for the establishment of an updated version of the new zealand broadcasting model to be called Australia ONAIR The best of the ABCS long running TV programs would then be produced by them and shown on SBS or offered to commercial free to air channels beingthen available to much wideraudiences.,

ABC TV,JJJ and the metro abc radio services would be auctioned

The ABC would retain radio national,newsradio, rural radio, abc fm The orchestras and ABCshops without advertising

with Asia PacificTV and radio Australia being moved to foreign affairs

The abc then could well rediscover childrens radio,school broadcasts and other formats dumped through the years as not being competitive Plan to reshape ABC No Advertising in new plan to redesign and Upgrade our national public broadcaster

This reshape is to reflect the different times that that the abc now operates in.

It is inclined to rethink its services and provide a more useful and clearly defined and in fact a better ABC

What may have been useful in 1930,1940 or1950 is not at all relevent to the media needs of australians if it can only reach at the moment a total score of 10 percent of total audience share

It is in 2003 hardly fair to expect 90% of Australian Taxpayers who never mostly watch or listen to the abc to fund the ten percent who do and at a yearly cost of a billion dollars/

The ABC in its present form is also not performing to its own act of Parliment and instead of complimenting other media is competing head on with other heavily taxed private services,costing them hundreds of millions of dollars each year in audience share and a subsequent loss of revenue.

The ABC enjoys superior transmitting facilities. For instance its pretend sydney commerecial radio station 2BL 702 AM transmits at 50,000 Watts,Where a commercial station is limited to 5000 Watts.Some slight advantage!

The improvements call for the establishment of an updated version of the new zealand broadcasting model to be called Australia ONAIR The best of the ABCS long running TV programs would then be produced by them and shown on SBS or offered to commercial free to air channels beingthen available to much wideraudiences.,

ABC TV,JJJ and the metro abc radio services would be auctioned

The ABC would retain radio national,newsradio, rural radio, abc fm The orchestras and ABCshops without advertising

with Asia PacificTV and radio Australia being moved to foreign affairs

The abc then could well rediscover childrens radio,school broadcasts and other formats dumped through the years as not being competitive

Plan to reshape ABC No Advertising in new plan to redesign and Upgrade our national public broadcaster

This reshape is to reflect the different times that that the abc now operates in.

It is inclined to rethink its services and provide a more useful and clearly defined and in fact a better ABC

What may have been useful in 1930,1940 or1950 is not at all relevent to the media needs of australians if it can only reach at the moment a total score of 10 percent of total audience share

It is in 2003 hardly fair to expect 90% of Australian Taxpayers who never mostly watch or listen to the abc to fund the ten percent who do and at a yearly cost of a billion dollars/

The ABC in its present form is also not performing to its own act of Parliment and instead of complimenting other media is competing head on with other heavily taxed private services,costing them hundreds of millions of dollars each year in audience share and a subsequent loss of revenue.

The ABC enjoys superior transmitting facilities. For instance its pretend sydney commerecial radio station 2BL 702 AM transmits at 50,000 Watts,Where a commercial station is limited to 5000 Watts.Some slight advantage!

The improvements call for the establishment of an updated version of the new zealand broadcasting model to be called Australia ONAIR The best of the ABCS long running TV programs would then be produced by them and shown on SBS or offered to commercial free to air channels beingthen available to much wideraudiences.,

ABC TV,JJJ and the metro abc radio services would be auctioned

The ABC would retain radio national,newsradio, rural radio, abc fm The orchestras and ABCshops without advertising

with Asia PacificTV and radio Australia being moved to foreign affairs

The abc then could well rediscover childrens radio,school broadcasts and other formats dumped through the years as not being competitive Plan to reshape ABC No Advertising in new plan to redesign and Upgrade our national public broadcaster

This reshape is to reflect the different times that that the abc now operates in.

It is inclined to rethink its services and provide a more useful and clearly defined and in fact a better ABC

What may have been useful in 1930,1940 or1950 is not at all relevent to the media needs of australians if it can only reach at the moment a total score of 10 percent of total audience share

It is in 2003 hardly fair to expect 90% of Australian Taxpayers who never mostly watch or listen to the abc to fund the ten percent who do and at a yearly cost of a billion dollars/

The ABC in its present form is also not performing to its own act of Parliment and instead of complimenting other media is competing head on with other heavily taxed private services,costing them hundreds of millions of dollars each year in audience share and a subsequent loss of revenue.

The ABC enjoys superior transmitting facilities. For instance its pretend sydney commerecial radio station 2BL 702 AM transmits at 50,000 Watts,Where a commercial station is limited to 5000 Watts.Some slight advantage!

The improvements call for the establishment of an updated version of the new zealand broadcasting model to be called Australia ONAIR The best of the ABCS long running TV programs would then be produced by them and shown on SBS or offered to commercial free to air channels beingthen available to much wideraudiences.,

ABC TV,JJJ and the metro abc radio services would be auctioned

The ABC would retain radio national,newsradio, rural radio, abc fm The orchestras and ABCshops without advertising

with Asia PacificTV and radio Australia being moved to foreign affairs

The abc then could well rediscover childrens radio,school broadcasts and other formats dumped through the years as not being competitive



-- Anonymous, September 13, 2003


Tom ,pleaser understand that the CNNN sep 11 excess concerning those last phone calls is just shocking

You obviously have taken care with your reply. thank you ..but the barbarians are well inside the gates, and some do hold key management positions

Do they have any friends?

I am not alone and think that it is time for a rethink and an abc refocused on the act. An end to commercialism keitha

---------------------------------------------

I am one of the 90 percent paying a billion dollars a year just so ten per cent of the population can watch Sept 11 being laughed about on cNNN on the ABC

the Holocaust the Week before

Sept 11 this week

Bali next week????

ABC management has lost control

not even the bbc would go that far

keitha

-------------------------------------------------------

Imagine what the saleprice of the following useless ABC inventory would realise

and what the yearly saving would be!

This Money saved ($ 800 Million a Year)

Could be used for defense, developing water resources and the north, education ,maintaining welfare and medicare foreign aid Papua is &300 million a year) Some of the money could be used to fund the establishment of "Australia On Air" a program development company to produce former abc tv programsand place them on commercial sbs and community tv to reach a much wider audience than before

FOR TENDER

ABC Television

Metro radio in Sydney,Melbourne,Hobart,Adelaide,Perth

Triple J

=======================================

The Core of the ABC would then be

Radio National

rural radio

PNN/Newsradio

ABC Shops and Orchestra

ABC FM

This would return the ABC to an honest compliance of the act

keitha

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2003


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