The ABC and SBS: A marriage that won’t happen
In early 2008, during the Camelot days of then-PM Kevin Rudd, SBS management floated the concept of rationalising its transmission and distribution service with the ABC. It was one of the thought bubbles to float out of Rudd’s 2020 “meeting of the minds” summit, but five years, two prime ministers and a lot of hot air about fiscal responsibility later, nothing has happened.
And nothing will happen in 2013 if for no other reason than it is an election year. It is also the year in which the national broadcasters’ triennial budgets will be renewed.
SBS currently receives around $220m a year from the government. The ABC’s budget is around $1billion, including a bit more than $20m which it has been gifted in perpetuity to run Australia Network, the country’s international television service.
The rationalisation strategy was interpreted at the time as a toe in the water by the SBS to test Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy’s response to the broadcaster’s policy of…
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