ABC Chair Kim Williams refutes News Corp articles alleging the public broadcaster costs Australians more than a Netflix subscription and fails to reach a significant portion of the population. Williams asserts the ABC reaches 80% of Australians annually and highlights its diverse services, including emergency broadcasting, 24-hour news coverage, and international bureaus.
ABC Chair Kim Williams has labelled claims published in News Corp oration articles the public broadcaster costs Australians 'more than the price of a Netflix subscription' as 'inaccurate, unbalanced and agenda-driven'.
The articles, published across News Corp's mastheads by journalist Stephen Drill on Friday, claimed that the ABC "fails to reach 10.6 million Australians", despite managing a budget of $1.1 billion."On a monthly basis the ABC reaches around 80 per cent of Australians. Annually, fewer than 3 per cent of Australians don't use the ABC," Mr Williams said in a statement.
The ABC chair's response detailed the important services provided to the Australian public by the national broadcaster, including Emergency Broadcasting, continuous 24-hour news coverage, metro and regional news services in 67 locations across the country, and 10 international bureaus. The ABC is also Australia's number two digital news publisher, number one news provider by followers across all social media platforms, and ABC Radio reached an estimated 4.77 million people each week across the five capital cities.
Mr Drill's article also claimed that the ABC has refused to reveal how much incoming managing director Hugh Marks would be paid. The ABC chair has also defended hiring sports broadcaster Bruce McAvaney to cover the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
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