Sky sets up rival to ABC overseas

SKY News Australia is planning to launch an international news platform, which could replace the ABC’s Australia Network.

Mark Scott , Managing Director of ABC speaking at Universities Australia Higher Education Conference 2014 at the National Co...

SKY News Australia is planning to launch an international news platform, called Australia Channel, which could replace the ABC’s embattled Australia Network if that service is cut in the May budget.

The Australia Channel, which could be launched without taxpayer funding within months, will have five channels of news, business, political and sports content available to 180 countries, including key markets of China and the Middle East.

Sky has not yet informed the Abbott government about its planned service, which will be delivered via IPTV, or internet-based television.

The ABC has a 10-year $223 million federal government contract to deliver the Australia Network.

The new venture will make it obsolete because such funds will no longer be needed to provide a service. It is understood the new venture would be produced and distributed at no cost to taxpayers. Sky submitted a tender for the service that was favoured by two expert recommendations but the Gillard government chose to retain the ABC.

The new proposal has come together in the last four months. All five channels will feature full Australian content, produced from the local Sky News operation, with one channel dedicated to business, particularly focusing on the Asian market, to encourage Australian investment in the region.

The channels will champion Australia’s business, trade and investment interests.

They will include a 24-hour sports channel, and all channels will feature live or current coverage. Parliamentary proceedings will also be broadcast. The service means Australian television content will, for the first time, be broadcast in North and South America, Europe and Africa.

Even with federal funding, the ABC’s Australia Network has been struggling. In February The Australian revealed the ABC had asked rival networks for content to show on its international broadcasts.

Australia Network television controller Patrick Emmett wrote to Sky to ask whether it could ­acquire and broadcast programs including Australian Agenda, Asia Pacific Outlook and the Switzer Show.

The Abbott government is looking at cutting the Australia Network’s Asian broadcasting service in the budget. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has questioned whether it was being trumped by the internet and whether it was an effective use of funds.

ABC managing director Mark Scott defended the service in a speech at Melbourne University last month, saying it was crucial to Australia’s soft diplomacy aims and ambitions, and was targeting Asia’s rising middle class. He said axing it would be a step backwards.

Tony Abbott has accused the ABC of being unpatriotic and said he was considering the network’s future.

Howard government foreign minister Alexander Downer, who had previously granted the contract to the ABC, said in February its programming choices were poor.

“What I had in mind was news and current affairs, not cooking shows, English-language programs and Bananas in Pyjamas,” he said.