ABC ‘needs renewal’ as audiences slump, says Kim Williams
ABC chair Kim Williams is flagging a ‘cultural renewal’ for the taxpayer-funded broadcaster in coming months, after a dramatic fall in its TV and radio audiences.
ABC chair Kim Williams has flagged that the taxpayer-funded broadcaster will undergo a “cultural renewal” in coming months, amid a dramatic slump in its TV and radio audiences in the past financial year.
In a foreword published in the ABC’s 2024 annual report, which was tabled in parliament on Tuesday evening, Mr Williams says he and “my board colleagues believe it is imperative to aim over the course of the next few months to develop an invigorated sense of purpose for contemporary relevance at the ABC”.
“We are of the view that we must consciously reference these primary instruments that artfully describe the ABC remit in terms to meet today’s needs, ensuring we are well aligned in determining the right priorities to serve Australians well,’’ he says.
“This will require a cultural renewal in many settings at the ABC and a determination to thoughtfully review our performance with a keen eye on our never-ending obligations to the community and the many audiences contained within it.
“The ABC is, after all, owned by all Australians.”
In his foreword, Mr Williams did not specifically reference the decline in the ABC’s audiences, but the numbers laid out elsewhere in the annual report were jolting in showing the popularity of the national broadcaster is waning.
The ABC’s combined national audience reach across television, radio and online was estimated to be 61.9 per cent over a period of a week in 2023-2024, a decline of 3.5 percentage points compared to the previous year’s net reach of 65.4 per cent.
“This overall decline was driven by softening of broadcast TV reach and to a lesser extent, radio reach,” the report says.
“This decline in broadcast consumption was partially offset by growth in ABC-owned digital and third-party platforms.”
In 2023-24, ABC TV news and current affairs reached 5.2 million average weekly metropolitan and regional viewers, down 4 per cent on 2022–23.
According to the annual report, broadcast audiences for the ABC News 7pm bulletin also “softened”, with the combined metro and regional average audience for the weekday edition falling 4 per cent, and the combined Sunday audience dipping 5 per cent.
The broadcaster’s audiences across its radio and digital divisions also slipped in the 2023-24 financial year.
Average weekly reach in the five-city metropolitan markets for total ABC Radio was down 4.1 per cent, while total ABC Digital, including its news website, registered an overall decline of 5 per cent in the number of weekly active users.
The ABC’s flagship audio brand, Radio National, continued its slide, with its five-city metropolitan average weekly reach down 4.5 per cent on the 2022–23 result of 529,000.
One area of growth for the national broadcaster was TikTok. The ABC’s average monthly video views on the social media platform were up 114 per cent on the previous year.
The ABC’s overall top TV program of the year was the Bluey episode The Sign, which drew an average of 12.5 million viewers across broadcast and ABC iview, and is now the highest-rating program ever on ABC iview.
The report shows the ABC was allocated $1.138 billion in the May 2023 federal budget for the 2023–24 year, and its expenses were $1.239 billion for the financial year, up $35 million on the previous financial year.
The outgoing managing director, David Anderson, whose total remuneration for the 12-month period was $1.156m (as previously reported), says in the report that in the year ahead, the ABC “will modernise its news website and app to broaden their appeal and enable audiences to quickly find stories of relevance and interest to them.”
“The redesigned site will support increased personalisation while retaining a core of curated news.
“During the year, the corporation will refresh ABC’s Radio National and continue to commit resources to local ABC Radio services around the country to enable an increased level of engagement with local communities.”
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