ABC to help out its commercial rivals

ABC Managing Director Mark Scott has announced that the public broadcaster will provide content and links back to commercial rivals to help strengthen the nation’s struggling media sector.

He says he believes the ABC needs to work co-operatively with the rest of the Australian media and will not “pull up the ladder” once it implements innovation.

Scott talked about his strategy with ABC 702’s Richard Glover


The ABC’s MD spoke at length about Australia’s changing media landscape and the corporation’s place in it during a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Sydney yesterday.

Every time the ABC has delivered something new to audiences, it has stimulated and nourished Australia’s media ecology. And we don’t pull the ladder up after us. For instance, when we started iview—the first and most successful catch-up TV service in the nation—we were willing to make the architecture available to Australia’s free to air TV services.

When we innovate, we create markets. New content that we provided though Australia’s pioneering digital television service ABC2, drove uptake of digital television. Similarly, ABC3 and ABC News24 triggered giant steps in the market takeup of digital TV. Our partnership with the other TV services in Freeview was the next step, promoting the entire free to air offering. We have been working in partnership with the Commercial Radio Association to drive uptake of digital radio.

With News Limited, Fairfax, SBS, AAP and Australia’s commercial TV and radio stations, we formed Australia’s Right to Know Coalition to pursue freedom of speech issues. ABC and Fairfax journalists have worked together on stories that have appeared on ABC Online and Four Corners.

All in all, whenever there’s a partnership that will benefit audiences, you can rely on the ABC to pull its weight.

We’re very alert to the balance between public and commercial media in this ecology. We understand that we need each other.

Read the full transcript here.