Looks like the ABC have made up their minds and wont telecst the VFL in future.
Scott: ABC to focus on drama and news
Amanda Meade
From: The Australian
August 31, 2011 2:39PM
THE ABC will steer clear of broadcasting reality television and live sport, instead focusing on drama and news, the ABC managing director Mark Scott said today.
In an address to the National Press Club in Canberra, Mr Scott said reality and live sport were best left to commercial TV broadcasters who were pursuing a mass audience.
“Neither of these will be spaces for the ABC,†he said. “For the ABC, the delivery of an outstanding quality news and current affairs service on free-to-air television is a key to our enduring offering.â€
“In addition to news and children’s [shows], in the decade ahead I see a commitment to quality Australian content, including drama, and programming of a specialist nature as particular places where the ABC needs to deliver.
Mr Scott mounted a strong defence of outsourcing ABC internal production and elaborated how the corporation set up ABC News 24 without direct government funding.
“At the ABC, we want to reflect the nation to the nation,†Mr Scott said. “But it does not automatically follow that in order to do this, the ABC has to be the creator of that television everywhere. Increasingly, we have found that working with the independent sector allows us to make a range of programs, using outstanding local talent, in a way that helps show the richness of the Australian story.â€
Of ABC News 24, Mr Scott said he found efficiencies by reducing the number of people it took to put programs to air; and introducing studio automation, desk-top edit and file-based technology.
“ABC News 24 has been a great success for the ABC—and money has not been taken from elsewhere in the organisation to fund it,†he said.
“We saved the money—making efficiencies and we invested it in something new.â€
Mr Scott said some of the broadcaster’s most enduring content did not have big audiences - Radio National and Classic FM, Compass, First Tuesday Book Club and Lateline – but they were engaging and they fulfiled the ABC Charter.
