Ita Buttrose has revealed she doesn’t understand the ABC’s biggest problem

“I don’t think the ABC could be accused of not giving younger talent opportunities,” the chair of the ABC board incredulously declared on the broadcaster’s RN Breakfast program on Friday morning, in an interview pegged to Ageism Awareness Day.

With that simple statement Ita Buttrose, the most powerful person in the organisation, revealed how little she understands about the ABC’s current programming slate, its trajectory, its growing disconnect from younger Australians who deserve a national broadcaster that caters to them and, perhaps most importantly, the experiences of its precariously employed younger workers.

ABC chair Ita Buttrose.Credit: Oscar Colman

The context for Buttrose’s remarks was a softball interview on her own network that referenced a column in this masthead that argued the ABC’s new chat show, Frankly, starring veteran RN broadcaster Fran Kelly, was a missed opportunity to take a risk on fresh talent, something the ABC used to have a reputation for, and to re-engage with younger audiences.

The column echoed the sentiments of many inside the ABC – some of whom had been developing and pitching their own light entertainment shows, albeit with an explicit focus on attracting new, younger and culturally diverse audiences, and were caught off guard when told that resources would instead be allocated to Kelly’s dream program.

Unfortunately, Buttrose and Kelly’s Breakfast replacement Patricia Karvelas dismissed this critique as an example of “ageism”, as though the ABC should be immune to good-faith and well-intentioned pleas to think more about younger audiences, who are far less likely to engage with its content than older Australians. Buttrose patronisingly discarded the criticism as the “ignorance of youth”.

Perhaps the ABC’s kneejerk defensiveness of any criticism is in part the result of unfair attacks from sections of the media – particularly News Corp outlets. As a former ABC employee, I experienced many of them first-hand. But as one of the biggest media companies in the country, in receipt of over $1 billion in taxpayer funds a year, it shouldn’t be immune from interrogation, especially on behalf of younger people who also pay tax and deserve a broadcaster that engages with them.

Buttrose went on to say that “a lot of our comedy shows are hosted by wonderfully young people”, but didn’t name a single one. That’s because there aren’t any. There is not a single ABC TV comedy or panel show hosted by anyone under the age of 35. Of course, it’s not the ABC chair’s job to know the entire programming slate off by heart, but claiming “a lot of shows” are hosted by young people, when that isn’t true, is a problem.

Buttrose also claimed that to host a show like Frankly, “You’ve gotta have the experience Fran has”. That’s certainly not what the ABC used to believe. Wil Anderson started hosting The Glass House when he was just 27. The Chaser crew were in their mid-20s when they hosted their first TV specials.

The average age of the hosts of ABC TV’s most popular current comedy programs is 49. The ABC is far from alone in being less keen to give younger Australians opportunities on TV, but outright denying it has a problem helps no one.

The irony is that very few people within the ABC would disagree that it has a big – and growing – problem with younger audiences. Even the youth wing of the organisation, Triple J, is experiencing well-documented audience losses.

There has been an exodus of high-profile, young and diverse talent in recent years. Well-loved young broadcasters like comedian Gen Fricker and journalist Brooke Boney left the ABC for opportunities elsewhere. A lack of certainty and resourcing has recently seen two popular podcasters jump ship from the ABC to an independent YouTube channel. One of Australia’s most popular comedy exports, Ronny Chieng (who has multiple Netflix specials to his name, and starred in Crazy Rich Asians), is very vocal about how the ABC has failed to invest in younger talent.

None of this is a secret, which is why it’s so bizarre to hear Buttrose deny the problem even exists. Ageism is absolutely a form of discrimination that we should all be wary of, but it’s difficult to see where in the ABC being older is a structural disadvantage, considering the average ages of those given primetime shows, senior managers and the people who run the organisation.

On the other hand, younger people are barely on screen, and behind the scenes they overwhelmingly make up the growing number of casual and contract-employed staff – the employees most at risk when there are budget cuts.

“If younger people think there’s no place for someone in their 60s, they need to think about how they would want to be treated when they get to that age,” Buttrose said on Friday.

Perhaps instead she should be thinking about how younger ABC staff, and potential talent, are being treated right now.

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