Gough Whitlam's fans (which include current labor leader Mark Latham) like to see their idol as the great visionary of Australian politics yet his decision to do away with TV licence fees maybe responsible for the strange irrelevance of the taxpayer-funded ABC as an innovator in the digital age.
Emma Somerville, head of interactive TV programs at the broadcaster, says the UK licence fee-funding model, by providing the BBC with a guaranteed revenue base, is intended to make the public broadcaster braver and more of a risk-taker than commercial networks.
With its guaranteed funding base from the fees and its charter obligations to "extend the reach of public broadcasting", the BBC has played a leading role in the rapid expansion of consumer choice.
More than half of British homes now have a digital television and the penetration of digital radio is proceeding rapidly.
Government policy is to completely phase out analogue broadcasting by 2012 and replace it with an all-digital system. The BBC takes the credit for driving the pace of the switchover and says that its development of digital services and programs was expressly designed to force the pace of digital take-up in the country.
And, along with its push into digital television, it has taken a lead in introducing and promoting interactive television. BBC management claims to be the world leader in the development of interactive TV services that turn the TV set from a "force feed" medium to a "you choose" service.
Link: Australian Financial Review -.
And, the BBC has already taken the plunge into podcasting, with the popular Melvynn Bragg program (BBC4), at a time when I doubt that anyone in a senior role at our national broadcaster(s) has even heard of podcasting let alone understand its tremendous potential. BBC Scotland and America's NPR had representatives at Bloggercon in November, indeed NPR was one of the sponsors along with other innovative media players like AP and Google. But there was no-one there from ANY sector of the Australian media.
With the Howard Government seemingly happy to let the ABC drift on a windless sea, and the ABC bluntly refusing to innovate without additional funding, it looks like the ABC will become another Telstra - by which I mean, an institution which steadfastly refuses to show leadership in innovation. Why is wifi so limited and so expensive in this country? Why is broadband rollout so slow in Australia?
Of course, this ABC positioning and obstinancy is a suicide note. They will become irrelevant as the number of channels expands through digital pay and, perhaps, multi-channeling. And, think about it, as people start podcasting and bittorrenting the best of audio and video offerings from around the world, the competition faced by the ABC is going to be intense.
One of the big lessons to learn from the rapid technology change that is going on at the moment is that information and entertainment markets are becoming global and niche at the same time. A big problem for anyone trying to serve a national 'minority' market with just one terrestial station!
Whitlam's decision was very popular at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight, it was probably a terrible mistake.
Recent Comments