On 13th September ABC’s Managing Director Mark Scott appeared on 891 ABC for an interview. During the discussion Mark Scott made the following statement:
‘we are broadcasting what looks and feels like community television rather than professional sports broadcasting’
This has caused outrage by ABC staff in South Australia who see this comment as slur on their professionalism and performance.
In response CPSU Section Secretary wrote to Mark Scott advising that it would have been more appropriate and respectful to ABC staff to discuss performance issues internally rather than aired on radio broadcast.
So if Mark Scott feels this way about local sports coverage what hope is there for SANFL and WAFL after the cuts to Lawn Bowls?
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The Advertiser 16 September 2011
SENATORS from all sides of politics and every state have voted to unanimously reject ABC plans to dump SANFL broadcasts.
The motion passed yesterday as the SA Friends of the ABC accused ABC managing director Mark Scott of misleading it over plans to drop coverage like SANFL telecasts.
"The Senate today has sent a clear message to the ABC that it does not want to see local sporting coverage dumped for commercial reasons," SA Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
"Local footy is enjoyed by thousands of SA families and is a key part of the culture of our state. This is precisely the kind of thing our national broadcaster should promote."
Mr Kenyon, the state Recreation, Sport and Racing Minister, this morning urged the ABC to ``immediately commit to ongoing television coverage of SANFL matches next season and beyond''.
``I understand that discussions regarding the extension of the current broadcast contract have been placed on hold pending an ABC review of programming,'' he said.
``That's not good enough and I'm dismayed that the ABC is considering dropping telecasts of these local and much-loved SANFL matches.
``There's no better time than right now for the ABC to re-commit to these telecasts as the SANFL prepares to enter another popular and highly anticipated finals series.
``..The SANFL is the best-supported football league in Australia outside of the AFL, followed passionately right across the state and it would be of significant concern if the ABC decided to drop these broadcasts at season's end.''
A spokesman for the ABC stressed there had been no final decision on programming changes, which have been hotly debated since the organisation announced it would make internal production cutbacks last month, the result of "financial pressures".
At the same time the ABC put negotiations with the SANFL about broadcasts after this year on hold.
Senator Hanson-Young's motion won support from all parties and was co-sponsored by Nick Xenophon, Labor's Anne McEwen, Liberal Simon Birmingham and Greens colleague Penny Wright.
It states: "That the Senate ... calls on the ABC to maintain its broadcasts of SANFL games."
The ABC will not be bound by the vote as a independent government corporation but is under increasing pressure from Australian football and other sports such as bowling, which is circulating a petition to stop the planned cuts.
SA Friends of the ABC committee member Sandra Kanck yesterday told the The Advertiser she had written a letter to Mr Scott in April 2009 as president of the organisation because she feared the sort of action that was now being considered by the broadcaster.
In a written submission to a Senate inquiry into the plan she states that Mr Scott assured the group in writing there was " ... no deliberate strategy to move away from internal productions" in SA.
"We were misled by him (Mr Scott) because you can't have all this stuff happening now accidentally," she said.
"The man is in charge and if he is not doing it deliberately then who is?
"There were enough people who were both friends of the ABC and on ABC staff who told us we needed to keep an eye on these things."
A letter from Mr Scott to the Friends of the ABC obtained by The Advertiser confirms that an assurance of no deliberate outsourcing was given, but it also noted that there had been an unplanned trend away from locally produced shows.
When asked for a response to the complaint, a spokesman for Mr Scott stressed the organisation had made no decision about whether local sports coverage would be dumped.
Meanwhile, in its own seven-page response to critics of possible changes to local production policies, the ABC has told the Senate inquiry its total investment in production over the past five years had remained the same in SA.
However, there has been a "shift of resources from internal to external production" that the organisation argues has boosted local production employment in the private sector.
In another submission to the inquiry, South Australian Film Corporation chief executive Richard Harris defended the ABC's outsourcing of production and its contribution to external production houses, including the South Australian Film Corporation.
"It would be difficult to argue against the contention that most of the ABC's best Australian programs made over the past twenty years have been generated and commissioned from the independent sector," the submission states.
