Our national public broadcaster is both efficient and much appreciated

For example, a major Newspoll survey in December 1998 found that 88 per cent of those surveyed rated the ABC and its services as valuable to the Australian community, and that for all answering respondents 86 per cent rated ABC television programming as good, compared to only 44 per cent for commercial television. It was also established that 81 per cent felt the ABC did a good job at providing television programs they personally liked to watch - as opposed to 50 per cent for commercial television- and that 89 per cent rated ABC radio programming as good quality compared to 66 per cent for commercial radio. Finally, 85 per cent thought ABC radio did a good job in providing the amount of programs they liked to listen to as opposed to 66 per cent for commercial radio.

In a separate survey by AMR Quantum Harris in 1999, respondents were asked how satisfied they were with various public services - 82 per cent per cent said that they were satisfied with the ABC. Respondents were also asked whether the quality of services was improving, getting worse or the same compared with a year ago and, based on net results, the ABC's quality of service was considered to have improved.

A growing gap between taxpayer preferences and ABC budget has been shown in recent quantitative research. March 2000 data in the National Social Science Survey indicate a mean willingness to pay for the ABC itself of $48 per head versus an actual outlay in 1994 of $37 per head.

It is also instructive to contrast support for the ABC with related areas of endeavour of comparable expenditure magnitude. A very limited constituency exists for cuts to the ABC and a sizeable group want increases, in contrast to the case of arts or sport. The strong public valuation of ABC services therefore is very evident in these findings.

Indeed, if the mean preferred percentage change for each major area of government outlay is examined the ABC comes in as having the largest preferred increase in public expenditure. It is likely that areas with a large absolute base of spending may attract a small percentage increase only but the ABC outcome is still a significant one in affirming public support.

Looking Forward

The picture emerging from this review of salient data on the issue of public benefit from ABC public broadcasting is that the ABC is a highly efficient broadcaster by both domestic commercial and global public standards.The public is demonstrably satisfied that its tax support for public broadcasting is warranted and, indeed, there is rigorous evidence of support for priority expansion of funding in this area. Moreover, there are dangers now that efficiency for the ABC is coming at a growing cost in terms of some indicators of public benefit such as Australian content.

There are also dangers for the future as broadcasting technology changes, if a comprehensive public broadcasting presence across existing and new media is not maintained. Substantial ongoing public benefit from public broadcasting via the national broadcaster will be delivered if there is appropriate funding support, respect for political independence combined with parliamentary accountability, and full access to the new delivery platforms created by the use of the new digital spectrum and other distribution mechanisms.