Is the ABC's business model sustainable?

This is set to be devastating for the ABC. If as suspected, the ABC's production costs are being inflated to keep them "in house", that increased redundancies that will blow out the existing provisions, that some new funding has already been siphoned into inflated salary packages at the expense of production budgets, and current salaries are set to balloon as a percentage of income, then suddenly Mark Scott has a monumental business challenge on his plate.

Add to this the ABC's poor program ratings and the scene is set for epic changes at the ABC, most of which they will have brought on themselves through questionable business management.

The ABC seems to sense a change, they no longer refer to "ratings" because they are very poor, they now refer to "reach". This basically means they are producing less and less content for a greater share of a shrinking audience, strange business?

The ABC's current financials look like this;

Total revenues 2009, $972m. In 2014, $1.2bn (+$228m)

Total non-salary (production) costs 2009, $681m. In 2014 $840m (+$159m)

Total salaries inc. redundancy provisions 2009, $428m. 2014 $477m (+$49m)

Of the $228m in new revenue, 26% went into ABC salary packages?

(Alarmingly if the unspent 5 years of the 10 year overseas broadcast budget is taken out, then 43.5% of new income for the period went into salaries?)

But with the potential introduction of an ED and the potential loss of the O/S franchise, the ABC fiscal outlook on current projections looks like this;

Total revenues 2014, $1.2 bn, 2019 $0.95bn, (-$250m)

Total non-salary production costs 2014, $840m, 2019 (index linked) $1.34bn, (+ $160m)