Hot on the heels of rampant industry whispers, The Guardian now reports that the ABC will axe all but one of its Radio National music programs as it makes the transition into becoming a talk-only station.
Reports suggest Aunty is looking to save some $5 million from the budget and according to The Guardian eight staff and a string of programs will be cut from Radio National’s 2017 schedule.
RN Afternoons, The Body Sphere, Soundproof, Daily Planet, and The Live Set, which recently broadcast Courtney Barnett’s set from Splendour In The Grass, have all been axes, as has Sunday Nights, John Cleary’s religious affairs program.
The changes are set to put at least $3 million back in Aunty’s pocket, to be diverted to ABC Radio’s digital strategy. Although the redundancies come just weeks after managing director Michelle Guthrie insisted there would not be redundancies at RN.
“I can tell you that we are not planning any redundancies on any particular programs at the moment but I will try to reiterate to you that the programming strategy is not static, nor has it ever been, and we will regularly review our program schedules across radio, across television and across our news output,” she said.
Meanwhile, Radio National may be getting a major fundamental overhaul, with plans to turn the broadcast network into a digital platform by 2020. “In 2017, RN will embody digital content creation from the beginning, through to the end, with all our content,” an internal ABC document read.
“This will coexist with a high regard for our linear audience. An increased investment in digital will help us reach younger and more diverse Australian audiences.” The changes are part of a broader push to make the ABC competitive in the market place.
