ABC’s advertising spend skyrockets as audience numbers fall
ABC has spent more than $20 million on advertising and audience research in the past year, as it struggles to maintain the interest of the public.
According to 2023/24 financial year records, obtained by the Institute of Public Affairs under an FOI, the national broadcaster increased its overall advertising and audience research budget by more than 33%, spending a total of $21.41 million.
The ABC’s advertising spend alone jumped from $8.29 million in the prior financial year to $12.52 million, an increase of 51%, while a further $1.39 million was spent on ‘promotions’, which is a separate line item in the national broadcaster’s accounting.
An advertising blitz in June saw $2.44 million spent in that month, but it’s yet to be seen if this spend can arrest the fleeing audience numbers the ABC saw at the start of the 23/24 financial year, when an annual report revealed its total website and app audience has fallen by 23% in a year.
New ABC chairman Kim Williams used his first public address in June to call for more public funding, sharing his plans to uphold the ABC’s “purpose and intellectual ambition”, while conceding the national broadcaster had strayed from this purpose in recent times.
“A starting point must be a greater understanding of the wants and behaviours of our audiences, and some tough assessments about whether we are fulfilling our audiences’ needs, interests and aspirations to the extent we should be,” he said of rebuilding the broadcaster.
“How else can we be the reliable and compelling microphone and mirror to the nation?
“Of course, achieving our goals will also take something else. Something you have probably guessed. Investment. We all know greater investment will be needed. The ABC is an investment in Australia’s future because a revitalised ABC will be a source of great national strength.
“A great national campfire around which our stories can be told and can coalesce into a renovated national narrative about our future. A narrative able to draw all Australians a bit closer together to face up to and make sense of the disrupted times we are in. Such an investment will repay itself over and over and over again.
“I am confident that we, at the ABC, can make the case for it. The budgetary outlook is tight – however the rationale is plain.”
The ABC’s funding for 2023/24 was $1.138 billion, according to its latest annual report.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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OH … MY … GOD.
The ABC is a national TV and Radio entity that broadcasts to virtually all of Australia and all ages and demographics … name anything else that does.
Further, the ABC Population Clock pegs it as 27,365,317 people. And yet the management have the gall to spend $21.41m in 2023-2024.
Yep folks, that is 78 cents per person. That’s about a saving of one coffee after something like 8-10 years.
Oh, and that is across the last financial year. So the daily advertising (and audience research) amounts to the massive expense of 0.21 cents per person per day … or about one cent per person per the 5-day week.
Does anyone seriously think that is extreme? If so, go into the Hall of Mirrors and have a long hard look at yourself.
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What a ridiculous non-story.
ABC iview is currently the Number 1 BVOD in the market, with one of the smallest marketing budgets in the media space. A simple look at SOV would tell you that.
Remove the cost of industry measurement from the overall budget and do the math on what’s left over.
You can’t grow audience if you don’t tell them what’s there.
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This version of ABC management who is listening too much to the marketing department and trying to be a commercial broadcaster will guarantee its demise.
The ABC is a public service to the community – if it stuck to that and focused on content development and covering Australian stories it will be just fine.
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Time to defund #TheirABC and make it subscription only.
Such a burden on the taxpayer, invest the billions into education and healthcare instead.
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