Mixed results for broadcasters in Federal Budget

Treasurer Wayne Swan delivered the federal budget on Tuesday with increases for both national broadcasters, but a lack of specific extra funding for digital radio.  Here’s how it shaped up for the ABC, SBS and the community broadcasting sector.

 

ABC

An ABC corporate spokesperson told radioinfo:

“We were given some capital funding. There was no separate funding for digital radio.”

In Budget Bill No 2 the national broadcaster’s increased equipment allocation was described like this.

“The Government will provide the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) with additional one-off capital funding of $14.5 million in 2010/11 to assist the ABC to maintain its current asset base. The additional funding will help the ABC replace analog studio and related broadcasting equipment with digital equipment without impacting on the ABC’s content generation activities.” 

An analysis of the budget papers shows that ABC Radio received an increase of about $10 million for normal radio services, with $326.5 million allocated this year, compared with Radio Division expenditure in 2009/10 of $315.6 million.

 ABC Radio will give specific focus this financial year to:

• continuing to develop the role of ABC Local Radio and ABC Local Online as the primary points of connection for communities across Australia at times of emergency;

• continuing to develop its digital radio broadcasting capability; and

• internationally, strengthening the reach and impact of Radio Australia in designated target countries.

The ABC will receive an extra $151.7 million for its new children’s tv channel and to lift Australian content. The extra money comes on top of its base allocation of $2.14 billion, announced in the Budget as part of its triennial funding arrangement.

 

SBS

SBS will receive an extra $20 million over the next three years to produce up to 50 hours of new Australian tv content each year on top of base funding of $382.6 million over the triennial funding period.

The budget papers show that SBS Radio received an increase of over $1 million for normal radio services, with $41.7 million allocated this year, compared with Radio Division expenditure in 2009/10 of $40.4 million. The budget for digital radio transmission and distribution has been dropped from $2.4 to $1.9 million.

SBS Radio’s primary objective is to “deliver multilingual and multicultural radio services that reflect Australia’s multicultural society.”

 

CBAA

Despite its pre-budget lobbying campaign by the CBAA and individual stations to secure additional funding of $25m in 2010/11, there was little joy for the community broadcasting sector.

Budget portfolio documents show no additional funding support “other than the usual small increase through partial indexation.” No new initiatives were announced or funded by DBCDE.

The CBAA says: “While this is a disappointing result, our work has not been wasted… The profile of the sector has been increased significantly, both at the grass-roots level in marginal electorates around the country and in Parliament. The groundwork has been laid for a strong federal election campaign.”

The Department’s allocation for community broadcasting in 2010/11 is $12.5 million, which includes funding for sector projects including the Digital Radio Project and also RPH transmission support funding.

The Indigenous Broadcasting Program, which is allocated from a different department, DEWHA, received $30 million which includes funding for National Indigenous TV.