Myths about the ABC

Myth:The ABC is biased.

Fact: High profile businessman Mr Bob Mansfield was appointed by the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, to review the ABC in 1996. Mr Mansfield reported that allegations of bias in the ABC were largely unfounded. Investigations since that time into individual allegations of bias have also found them unsubstantiated. Reality: Governments of all persuasions have been unhappy with fearless ABC reporting on occasion. (If the ABC pleased the government of the day, every day, would it be doing its job?)

Myth: Commercial broadcasting is free, but we pay a lot for the ABC through taxes.

Fact: The average Australian household pays $470 per year for commercial radio and TV. This is built into the price of everything we consume and finances $3 billion worth of advertising on commercial radio and TV every year. For the ABC we each pay less than 8 cents per day—and remember that's for quality television, four specialist national radio networks, nine metropolitan radio stations, etc. All this the ABC achieves with a budget around half the Nine Network's budget for TV alone.

Myth: All taxpayers pay for the ABC while only a minority use it.

Fact: In a recent five-city (S,M,B,A,P) radio survey, ABC Radio was listened to by 3.6 million listeners each week in these cities. ABC TV was viewed by 85% of the population—10.9 million people.

Myth: The ABC is wasteful & inefficient.

Fact: The ABC is far more efficient than commercial broadcasters in Australia and significantly more cost-effective than Britain's BBC and Canada's CBC.

For more myths about the ABC, see Myths and Facts on the FABC National Resource Centre website.

For any technical difficulties with this website, please email webmaster@fabcact.org.