Australia Institute supports ABC merger with SBS

The Australia Institute has joined calls for a merger of the ABC and SBS.

The Australia Institute think tank has joined calls for a merger of the ABC and SBS, saying ­reform would provide “financial and political security for both ­organisations”.

The independent policy group’s new report, written by a former ABC manager, says a “comprehensive rationalisation of services, leadership and management” and a consolidation of the digital services of both broadcasters “must be explored”.

It says abandoning advertising on SBS should be a goal.

The discussion paper “I Want My ABC (and SBS and NITV)” notes its broad support for the public broadcasters and the many “opportunities and risks” of any reforms, but sides with ABC managing director Mark Scott, who said a fortnight ago that a merger was “worthy of consideration”.

Mr Scott will speak to the ­National Press Club in Canberra tomorrow in a quasi-valedictory speech before leaving his role in April. He is expected to expand upon his comment at Senate ­estimates earlier this month that a merger of the two broadcasters was valid, as SBS was now “an analog solution in a digital world”.

The Australia Institute paper argues “over the last decade” the operations of the ABC and SBS “have sprawled” and their high number of TV and radio channels “is likely to become increasingly anachronistic in the modern media age, where audiences personalise their consumption”.

Choice is not useful when the choices are inferior to on-­demand services available elsewhere, says the paper, written by Fergus Pitt, a former ABC manager who designed and developed ABC Radio’s mobile and web products.

The duplication of digital services at both broadcasters is a major inefficiency, the paper says. “It is not immediately clear how the ABC, SBS, NITV and Australian public benefit from maintaining (at least) two separate digital networks for article and media publishing, program guides, program extensions, on-demand video and podcast distri­bution, live streaming infra­structure or smartphone and tablet apps for TV and Radio,” it says.

Combining the multi-platform and on-demand products, or digital services, of the ABC, SBS and NITV would be the least painful of four possible merger options.

The discussion paper also considers there to be “considerable benefit” in removing advertising from the SBS because it not only diminishes audience enjoyment of programs but ­interferes with SBS delivering on its charter and it is an “insecure revenue source”.

The SBS charter is also worth investigating as the multicultural broadcaster “appears to have turned toward providing global and multicultural programming for a mainstream audience” rather than for a multicultural audience. It states 55 per cent of content on SBS One is in English and 40 per cent on SBS2.