ABC Television Sport:

Public Broadcasting, Innovation and Nation Building

Michael Ward Bachelor of Arts, Murdoch University

Supervisor: Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts (Research)

Creative Industries Faculty

Queensland University of Technology

2017

ii

Keywords

Public broadcasting, innovation, nation building, sport, cricket, World Series Cricket,

Dix Inquiry, public broadcasting policy.

iii

Abstract

ABC TV test cricket coverage to the 1970s showed that only the ABC had the national

organisation, infrastructure and network to organise, negotiate and deliver sport across

the country. The ABC dominated cricket broadcasting as commercial interest and

coverage was sporadic. However, this changed with World Series Cricket. (WSC). The

received wisdom in popular culture, history and myth is of a WSC “revolution”. While

WSC was a pivotal moment, much of what is perceived as a revolutionary change in

fact evolved from innovative production and audience strategies developed over

twenty years. Post-WSC the ABC reinvented itself as a sports broadcaster. The 1970s

changes established a point of departure for a second era of ABC televised sport, with

a new focus on local (state and territory) competitions and codes, and a range of sports

that had been ignored by commercial broadcasters. The history of the ABC’s

development of a television audience for test cricket and a cricket rights market pre-

WSC, and its development of profile for minority and regional sports post-WSC, are

examples of public broadcasting’s innovation role, providing insight into how the

ABC provided key research and development for the broadcasting ecosystem. This

thesis charts that history of public broadcasting R&D, using ABC television sports as

an illustration of the ABC’s role as both a comprehensive and a complementary

broadcaster – at different times.

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Table of Contents

Keywords .................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ...................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ...................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................ vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................ vii List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................. viii Statement of Original Authorship ........................................................................... ix Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... x Chapter One Introduction ....................................................................................... 1

Cricket’s place in ABC sports history ···················································· 6 Primary research methods ·································································· 8 Chapter structure ············································································· 8

Chapter Two 1956–1977: The ABC as a “Dominant Supplier” Sports Broadcaster ........................................................................................................ 12

Organisational innovation ································································ 14 ABC Television sports output ···························································· 20 The ABC establishes a sports rights market ··········································· 24 Development of a television audience for cricket and the decline of match attendance ··················································································· 33 Audience innovation: cricket programming strategies and technology developments ··············································································· 37 Conclusion ·················································································· 42

Chapter Three The WSC moment, 1977–1981 ..................................................... 45ABC and the WSC ‘evolution’ ·························································· 47 The WSC negotiations ···································································· 51 The WSC media technology ‘revolution’ ·············································· 56 The sports administration shake up: WSC and the relationship between cricket’s administration and broadcasters ························································· 58 A workers revolution ····································································· 61 The WSC marketing and promotion “revolution” ····································· 63 The impact of regulation – Australian content rule changes and tobacco advertising prohibition ···································································· 64 The WSC – ACB rapprochement ························································ 65

Chapter Four 1981 – Present: The ABC’s Complementary Broadcasting Role in the Post-dominant Phase of its Sports History .......................................... 68

The ABC’s television sports broadcasting reinvention ······························· 68 The 1980s ··················································································· 71 The Dix Inquiry: The ABC in Review: National Broadcasting in the 1980s ······ 74 The ABC’s post-WSC role in test cricket broadcasts ································· 79 The ABC diversifies ······································································· 80 The impact of satellite distribution, commercial television ownership de-regulation and the Review of National Broadcasting Policy ····································· 82 1988 Review of National Broadcasting Policy ········································ 84 1990s ························································································ 86 Paralympics ················································································· 88 1997 Mansfield Review: The challenge of a better ABC ···························· 90 National and regional sports broadcast after 2000 ···································· 91 Women’s sport ············································································· 93

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2011 – Present: Further revision of the ABC’s complementary role as a multi-platform provider ·········································································· 97 Conclusion ················································································· 101

Chapter Five Conclusion ....................................................................................... 103Research methodology ··································································· 105 Further research ··········································································· 105

Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 107

vi

List of Figures

Figure 2.1: ABC Television: annual hours broadcast by genre (Australian): 1961–1977 (Sport hours noted) .................................................................................. 22

Figure 2.2: Average annual hours broadcast by genre (Australian): 1961–1977 ...... 23 Figure 2.3: ABC and Commercial Television: annual sports hours broadcast

(Australian) 1965–1974 .................................................................................... 24 Figure 2.4: Cricket test series rights payments 1958–1976, in real and actual $ ....... 32 Figure 2.5: Ashes test series attendance 1928–1979 ................................................. 35 Figure 2.6: ABC Film Highlights First test 1958: Peter May, England captain ........ 41 Figure 2.7: ABC Film Highlights First test 1958: Richie Benaud, Australia captain 41 Figure 3.1: Average hours of ABC Television Australian programs 1977–1981 ..... 50 Figure 3.2: ABC Television Australian sport hours 1962–1982 ............................... 51 Figure 3.3: Australian international cricket matches (1920s–1970s) ........................ 63 Figure 4.1: ABC TV average annual, national sport hours broadcast by decade

(1960s–2010s) .................................................................................................... 71 Figure 4.2: ABC Television average annual Australia hours broadcast by genre

(1981/2–1990/91) ............................................................................................... 72 Figure 4.3: ABC Television average annual Australia hours broadcast by genre

(1991/92–2000/01) ............................................................................................. 86 Figure 4.4: ABC Television average annual Australia hours broadcast by genre

(2001/2–2010/11) ............................................................................................... 92 Figure 4.5: Regional and National Sports annual average hours broadcast on ABC

TV: 2008/09–2010/11 ........................................................................................ 99 Figure 4.6: Average annual hours broadcast by genre (Australian): 2011–2016 .... 100

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List of Tables

Table 2.1: Indicative list of ABC Cricket innovations (“milestones”) ...................... 20 Table 2.2: ABC & commercial television Test cricket rights fees 1958–76 (all

shared) ................................................................................................................ 26 Table 2.3: International cricket matches broadcast on Australian television: 1958–

1976 ................................................................................................................... 29 Table 4.1: ABC Television annual hours – women’s sport broadcast (2001/2–

2005/06) ............................................................................................................. 95

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List of Abbreviations

ABC (a) Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932–1983

ABC (b) Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1983–present

ABCB Australian Broadcasting Control Board

ABC TV Sport ABC (b) Television Sport department

ACB Australian Cricket Board

AFL Australian Football League

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BRU (British) Broadcasting Research Unit

CPH Consolidated Press Holdings

DOTAC Department of Transport and Communications

FTA Free-To-Air

ICC International Cricket Council

ITV (UK) Independent Television Network

NSWCA New South Wales Cricket Association

MCC Marylebone Cricket Club

ODI One Day International cricket match

PBL Publishing and Broadcasting Limited

PMG (Australian) Post-Master General’s Department

PSB Public Service Broadcasting

QON Question On Notice

QRL Queensland Rugby League

SANFL South Australian Football League

SBS Special Broadcasting Service

TCCB Test and County Cricket Board

VCA Victoria Cricket Association

WAFL Western Australian Football League

W League Australian Women’s National Football League

WSC World Series Cricket

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QUT Verified Signature

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Acknowledgments

I especially thank and acknowledge my supervisor, Professor Stuart Cunningham, for his generosity of time and wonderful advice and assistance.

I would also like to thank the HDR staff in QUT Creative Industries for their assistance and to Mary Jane Stannus and the staff of the ABC’s Content Services department, in whose safe hands rest the history of the ABC’s audio-visual, audio and business records.

Professional editor, Dr. Guenter Plum, provided copyediting and proofreading

services, according to the guidelines laid out in the university endorsed national

‘Guidelines for editing research theses.

Thanks also to my partner, Ruth Phillips, without whom I would never have started

this project and whose love, encouragement, advice and support has been so important

to me.

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Chapter One

Introduction

For a long period, ABC Television sport content was a central part of Australian life,

allowing Australians to experience and share in the drama and emotion of local,

national and international sporting competitions. From the Melbourne Olympics to the

final day of the 1961 tied cricket test between Australia and West Indies, to football

finals at Lang Park, Subiaco Oval or Princes Park, this was among the ABC’s highest

rating and most compelling content, forming part of a comprehensive service to

audiences across the country. It was a critical means by which the ABC met key

elements of its legislative and strategic imperatives, which in turn are key components

of the defining characteristics of public service broadcasting.

This project will analyse the history of ABC1 Television sport as a public broadcasting

service to provide an insight into how it was a fundamental aspect contributing to the

ABC’s nation building role through the combination of innovative production and

audience development strategies. The cornerstone of this research will be a pivotal

moment in the history of Australian and ABC Television sport – when that service was

apparently in decline following the loss of test cricket broadcast rights. Public

understanding of the 1970s “World Series Cricket (WSC) revolution” and the

positioning of the ABC has been shaped over almost 40 years by accounts that overly

celebrate the activity of commercial media while diminishing public media in the

sports history of Australian television.

This research will present a “revisionist” history of the “WSC revolution”,

reconstructing the ABC’s innovative sports broadcasting history and reconsidering the

received view that a technological and commercial media revolution replaced a

sclerotic public service.

This is an institutional and policy history of ABC Television sport, a research project

utilising primary sources in academic research about public broadcasting and sports

history. The primary research sources are Australian public broadcasting policy

documents, including ABC Annual Reports and submissions to public policy reviews

as well as public broadcasting inquiry reports, with a focus on the 1981 Dix Inquiry,

1 ABC: Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-1983, Australian Broadcasting Corporation since 1983

2

The ABC in Review: National Broadcasting in the 1980s (Committee of Review of the

Australian Broadcasting Commission, & Dix, A. T., 1981), the 1988 Review of

National Broadcasting Policy (Department of Transport and Communications, 1988)

and the 1997 Mansfield Review, The Challenge of a Better ABC (Mansfield, 1997).

The research will look back at ABC sports development up to the time of WSC in 1977

and then forward after WSC, from 1981, as the ABC reinvented itself as a television

sports broadcaster. The ABC’s work can be analysed in terms of public broadcasting’s

innovation2 role “embrace[ing] not only the dominant notion of innovation based on

science and technology, but in addition creative sector innovation, public sector

innovation and social innovation” (Cunningham, 2015, p. 205). Because commercial

broadcasting is organised to “sell audiences to advertisers, purchasing programming

according to its ratings potential … the majority are well served, while minorities are

marginalised” (Debrett, 2010, p. 19). Further, a commercial tendency to maximise

revenue leads to repetition and similarity in content development, commissioning,

production and programming. This characteristic of “adherence to proven formulas

and formats … tends to discourage risk taking” (Debrett, 2010, p. 19). Freed of

immediate, commercial-style imperatives such as audience ratings and advertiser

revenues, although politically required to ensure high levels of community support

(usually measured through commercial media style ratings metrics), Public Service

Broadcasting (PSB) organisations have the ability to experiment and innovate in the

development, commissioning and programming of content.

Cricket broadcasting innovation, developing creative skills, experience and capacity

within the ABC and for the wider media sector can be framed within the ABC’s

invocation of PSB principles. A set of principles, developed by the British

Broadcasting Research Unit (BRU) in the context of a 1980s BBC review (Peacock

Report, 1986) are frequently used to provide an understanding of the role, purpose and

functions of public broadcasting (see for example, Cunningham, 2013, p. 94; Debrett,

2010, p. 19; DOTAC, 1988, p. 4; Scherer & Rowe, 2014, p. 3). While variations appear

in different analyses, the principles include universality of service availability and

appeal (comprehensiveness), provision for minorities (complementarity); political and

commercial independence, nation building and national identity, innovation and

2 “Innovation” is used in the sense of organisational action or processes that apply new or changed approaches or improved solutions to meet identified policy or strategic needs. The emphasis is not just on the “new” but on process, system and business model adaptation and change.

3

programming quality. To implement these principles a range of content and

programming strategies, policies, organisational structures and funding arrangements

are deployed by PSBs. These principles provide a framework for description and

analysis in this research.

The research describes how the ABC moved from a comprehensive to a

complementary PSB role, insofar as sport was concerned, as it reinvented television

sports broadcasting as a national and regional identity cultural project. A

comprehensive broadcasting service provides content that is intended to appeal to a

wide audience, achieved through commissioning, programming and scheduling

strategies that provide a range of genres and forms, seeking to maximise the audience.

A complementary service provides more specialised programming to meet minority

interests. As articulated in its legislation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act

1983, the ABC’s role is to do both – “to provide … comprehensive broadcasting

services …” and “… a balance between broadcasting programs of wide appeal and

specialized broadcasting programs” (ABC Act 1983, s 6). While the ABC has

employed a combination of comprehensive and complementary strategies to achieve

PSB principles and legislative goals, such as contributing to a sense of national identity

and cultural diversity, these have developed in the context of scarce resources, where

funding has been limited in comparison to the potential programs, genres and

platforms that could be delivered. This has meant a prioritisation of organisational and

funding arrangements, staffing and facilities to meet strategic goals. Prioritisation of

content and platform goals has involved the development and implementation of

innovative processes to ensure commissioning and delivery, especially in the context

of regionally located and networked “local” services (Australian Broadcasting

Commission Annual Report, 1954/55, pp. 4–5; Scott, 2013).

Leveraging legislative requirements, strategic focus and operational activity, a

national capability was built to broadcast sports content through local (state and

territory-based) production that ensured delivery to local and national audiences. In

turn, this has influenced public debate about the appropriateness of ABC priorities, in

relation to both whether the ABC should be a comprehensive rather than “market

failure” broadcaster, and whether it meets complementary service expectations. The

4

transformation from traditional broadcasting to digital media3 has renewed criticism

and argument regarding cultural and media policy settings for the provision of

comprehensive media services and to meet the diverse needs of minority groups. The

need for public broadcasting has continued to be a site of contestable viewpoints that

debate the replacement of public policy goals with market-driven outcomes. These

debates, recorded and articulated at key policy moments such as policy reviews and

inquiries, provide insight into issues of identity and cultural diversity.

The PSB innovation principle is in evidence as the ABC plays a Research and

Development (R&D) laboratory role for the whole broadcasting sector (Cunningham,

2015, p. 205), developing, testing and refining concepts such as the arrangement and

presentation of programs (scheduling and programming), genres and program formats.

This innovation activity is critical in researching and developing new approaches to

content and engagement with audiences. Having developed and trained creative and

technical staff and / or developed audience interest and support measured through both

ratings data and qualitative measures such as industry awards and reviews, it is typical

for the transfer of personnel to the private sector and for similar program genres,

formats and / or styles to be adopted by commercial broadcasters. This thesis shows

that the ABC has been able to maintain an R&D role for the media sector from both a

comprehensive and a complementary position in the sector, meeting the objectives of

comprehensiveness and complementarity differentially across a range of genres and

over time. This provides a fresh analytical frame from which to view ABC sports

broadcasting history.

In producing a revisionist history of ABC TV sports, the research documents how and

why the ABC moved from being a comprehensive television sports broadcaster to

playing a complementary role, including how that transition occurred. Further, the

research demonstrates how the ABC has continued to play a key R&D role for the

media sector while having the strategic agility to shape and reshape its content and

platform mix, including the range of sports broadcast, to meet its public broadcasting

goals.

The provision of comprehensive and complementary programming, always in tension

due to competing strategic needs and scarce resources, is central to achieving the PSB

3 Defined by delivery mechanisms – analogue broadcasting to multiplatform digital delivery (e.g. online, mobile).

5

principles of universality of appeal and provision for minorities. While attention has

correctly been paid to the manner in which, for example, Australian drama, children’s

and news content has played a role in providing comprehensive broadcasting services

and how arts, religion, rural or science programming are examples of a complementary

broadcasting role, less attention has been paid to the ABC’s public service role in

delivering sports programming around the country and to the nation. This is not unique

to ABC history. Sport is rarely addressed in detail in the history of Australian

television. Despite its huge role in popular culture and nation building, ABC sport has

not been given sufficient prominence in cultural histories and analysis of the ABC.

The lack of attention to the changing role of ABC Television sport is surprising given

the level of critical analysis about the place and role of sport in nation building

(Cashman, 1984, pp. 25-26; Hutchins, 2005, pp. 9–24; Rowe, 2014, p. 166; Scherer &

Rowe, 2014, p. 1). For the emerging media platforms of the day (radio in 1932 and

television in 1956), sport, and more precisely, representation of Australia in an

international sporting context, was a critical component (Goldsmith, 2015, p. 71). The

first ABC Annual Report notes the “… keen national interest in sport” that inspired

the provision of daily cricket broadcasts to the nation (Inglis, 1983, p. 36). According

to ABC Chairman, Richard Boyer, the November 1956 launch of ABC Television was

timed to enable those with television receivers and others watching via other means

(e.g. shop windows) in Melbourne and Sydney to view the Melbourne Olympic Games

(Inglis, 1983, p. 198; Stewart, 2005, p. 41). The ABC has been part of what can be

described as a national cultural public policy project; a nation building role in which

broadcasting cricket, the only sport considered, until recently, a truly national sport

(Cashman, 2007, p. 25; Herd, 2012, p. 237; Hutchins, 2005, p. 9), has been a key

element.

In describing the history and contemporary significance of ABC Television Sport in

meeting public policy objectives, the research also investigates a key element of public

media, specifically, how the requirement to “contribute to a sense of national identity”4

was met through delivery of national and regional sporting programs. Key research

questions which have animated the research are: Does the dominant narrative of the

modernisation of television sports in Australia need to be revised in the light of fresh

4 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act, 1983, S 6

6

research into the ABC’s changing role in the 1970s and How have debates about the

ABC’s role as a complementary versus comprehensive broadcaster been demonstrated

in the history of ABC sports broadcasts?

Sport in this history is the modern phenomenon of sport as spectacle, organised with

legislative and commercial arrangements, in “an ensemble of institutions, relations,

practices and meanings that is characterised by competitive, regulated physical culture

(Rowe, 2016, p. 27). This sport consists of complex legal and financial structures and

media and sponsorship relationships, in which broadcast sport is located as a public or

private good that is both part of wider markets and as a regulated service. Sport

occupies a cultural space like the arts and religion, to which it was compared in

Australia’s most recent cultural policy statement, Creative Australia, as “one of ‘the

great markers of culture’” (Australian Government, 2013, p. 32). Creative Australia’s

comparison made the case for the arts having more direct community involvement

than either religion or sport. However, in terms of broadcasting, while arts and religion

programming have always occupied a complementary, that is, niche broadcasting

space, sport has appealed to both general and niche audiences. It is ABC sport’s ability

to be, over time, both comprehensive or complementary that is a central element of the

research.

Cricket’s place in ABC sports history

Cricket occupies a unique cultural and historical space in Australia. While each sport

is important in sports history, cricket is emblematic. During the period up to the 1980s

cricket was the only truly national sport, in that it was played in all states and

territories, with a national competition and international matches from the late 19th

century on, and which had been broadcast to an increasingly national audience by the

ABC from 1932 (Stewart, 2002, p. 51). Cricket’s position as the national game

emerged through support and interest in a national team, with test cricket involving an

Australian team (1877) preceding Australian Federation, and an interstate Sheffield

Shield competition, which had begun in 1892/93 (Hutchins, 2005, p. 11). Cricket has

been linked by sports historian W. H. Mandle “to an emerging nationalism … [where]

success … provided the necessary stimulus for the development of national pride”

(Lawrence & Rowe, 1986, p. 23) becoming both a symbol of Australian identity and

a demonstration of alignment to the Empire / Commonwealth (Hutchins, 2005, pp. 11–

7

12). Other sports only began to offer national broadcast coverage and competitions

from the 1980s on and later.

Consequently, test cricket is located at the centre of the ABC’s sport’s broadcasting

history for a number of reasons. Firstly, within weeks, often days, the launch of

television in each mainland state capital was followed by the broadcast of national and

international cricket matches, using local production facilities. This began with the

broadcast of an interstate Sheffield Shield cricket match from Saint Kilda Oval,

Melbourne in November 1956 (Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report

1956/57, p. 75) and test cricket from the Woolloongabba Cricket Ground, Brisbane in

November 1958 (Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report 1958/59, p. 4).

Secondly, this local production capability deployed for cricket provided the capacity

for the production of other sports and other genres for delivery to the local ABC service

and for the network. Thirdly, ABC’s development of a cricket audience demonstrated

the potential for large, committed and on-going audience interest and engagement for

cricket and other sports, including, tennis, golf and various football codes.

Finally, it was the major change in cricket, WSC, a series of international cricket

matches developed to rival the established test cricket series, that marked the end of

the first period of ABC Television sports.

The 1970s and early 1980s was a pivotal moment for PSB as commercial media sought

to play an increasing role in sports broadcasting. This required a rethinking of the PSB

approach, evolving from a comprehensive to a complementary role. By the 1970s, the

economics of sports broadcasting had fundamentally altered. Although it would not

end until 1993 with the rugby union tests going to commercial broadcasters, the

beginning of the end of the ABC’s comprehensive sports broadcasting role effectively

occurred with the transfer of test cricket broadcasts to the Nine Network in 1979.

WSC is the first major Australian example of the changing sports television market

that saw the shift from a predominantly shared role (public and commercial

broadcasters) to the contemporary situation of a commercial media sports market. Its

establishment in 1977 was an upheaval for established international cricketing

arrangements, with WSC supporters labelling “it ‘a great cricket hijack’ (Christopher

8

Forsyth), ‘a staggering coup’ (Trevor Kennedy) and even ‘a democratic revolution’

(Andrew Caro5)” (quoted in Cashman, 2011, p. 100).

Primary research methods

Primary research sources are Australian public broadcasting policy documents,

including ABC Annual Reports and submissions to public policy reviews as well as

public broadcasting inquiry reports, with a focus on the 1981 Dix Inquiry (The ABC

in Review: National Broadcasting in the 1980s), the 1988 Review of National

Broadcasting Policy (Department of Transport and Communications, 1988) and the

1997 Mansfield Review The Challenge of a Better ABC.

The research has included the construction of extensive original sets of time series data

sourced from tables and charts in more than sixty documents – Annual Reports,

published submissions and public review documents. Describing the range, extent and

changing nature of ABC Television sports commitment, the research has collated and

built long-term data sets (1961-2016) to provide the basis for an extensive analysis of

historical data. Further, the research has collated disparate information, from

international cricket match and attendance data, to television audience figures and

broadcast rights financial and related information from a range of historical sources as

diverse as histories of Australian cricket, test cricket records and sports histories, to

build a picture of the development of a test cricket broadcasting market in Australia.

To the author’s knowledge no such data sets, analyses or comparisons have previously

been undertaken or presented.

There are some gaps and limitation in the research given the paucity of data sets,

especially in relation to television audiences. Nonetheless, the research has drawn

together extensive historical data to build new, empirical research findings. For

example, in relation to ABC Television sports hours broadcast, only Goldsmith (2015)

has published a similar data set showing ABC and SBS sports output.

Chapter structure

The focus of this research is on the evolution of ABC Television’s sports broadcasting

during three distinct periods:

5 Former Managing Director of World Series Cricket

9

• 1956–1977: “dominant supplier” role as a sports broadcaster • 1977–79: the WSC moment • 1980s–2010: ABC television sport moves to a complementary broadcasting

role.

Drawing on primary sources and academic sports histories, Chapter Two describes the

introduction of television as the ABC built a revised organisational structure and

developed the technical capability and knowledge to deliver the new medium. As the

decision was for a dual public and private sector model, the ABC was to play a major

but not exclusive role in the delivery of the new television service. Focussing on ABC

Television sports, this chapter describes that history, including the evolving structures

and approaches that characterised the sports department. ABC Television was based

on a local (state and territory-based) production capability, as noted above, that

delivered a range of television genres utilising local talent and facilities. Without that

regional capability, it would not have been possible to provide, for example, the

Melbourne Olympics, Davis Cup and other tennis matches, golf competitions, various

football codes and other sports from around the country. In contrast to commercial

television services, which were legislatively limited by the “two station rule” and

therefore without a networking capability, the ABC was uniquely placed as the

national broadcaster to provide an increasingly elaborate and technically viable

production, distribution and transmission network around Australia.

In dialogue with prior research conducted by Haigh (2007), Harte (1993), Cashman

(2011), Goldsmith (2015), Inglis (1983), and others, Chapter Three describes WSC

from an ABC perspective. While the research will parallel and adhere to the factual

elements of these narratives, it will focus on what the ABC was doing and attempting

to do in relation to these events. This is important given there is almost no PSB

research perspective on the WSC events. Almost all accounts focus on the WSC

impact, with other entities (such as ABC) secondary in the narrative, while the current

research documents events from a PSB perspective, acknowledging that this major

change, WSC, marked the end of the first period of ABC Television sport. The impact

of WSC, still felt in the manner and form in which the game of cricket is played,

organised, promoted and broadcast, has been extensively described and analysed

(Cashman, 1984, 2011; Haigh, 2007; Harte, 2003; Lee, 2012). However, creating an

alternative view of the impact of WSC, the current research focusses on the WSC

impact from an ABC perspective. This is especially pertinent as Kerry Packer’s

10

objective was not to establish a rival cricket tournament but to obtain exclusive rights

to broadcast test cricket (Cashman, 2011, p. 103; Haigh, 2007, p. 33; Harte, 2007, p.

33; Herd, 2012, p. 237). Within two years of the leaking of the WSC story and its

publication in the media on 9 May 1977, WSC was over. In May 1979 the Australian

Cricket Board (ACB)6 announced an exclusive broadcasting and promotional

agreement with Kerry Packer. However, during those two years, everything related to

cricket had changed, including for the ABC.

Chapter Four, focussing primarily on the 1980s and 1990s, describes the evolution of

ABC Television sport from a comprehensive to a complementary role, reinvented as

the broadcaster shifted to being a post-dominant provider. This reinvention extended

its complementary / innovation role with a strategic development role focussed on

women’s sports, access (Paralympics) and Indigenous sports. This involved a range of

strategies, including advocating broadcasting policy changes to secure access to events

of national importance fifteen years before anti-siphoning legislation was enacted,

exclusive rights to “top-tier” sports, shared access to events such as the 1982

Commonwealth Games and a new focus on local competitions and codes and sports

ignored by commercial broadcasters. Major public policy shifts to commercial

broadcasting and technological change with the introduction of satellite broadcasting

saw the effective introduction of commercial television networks. Throughout these

changes and public broadcasting policy reviews in 1988 and 1997, the ABC continued

to use its localised, distributed production system to deliver sports content to local and

national services. The PSB innovation role also included the deployment of digital

technologies to provide new services to audiences. Underpinning the approach was a

consistent application of PSB principles of access, nation building and R&D.

By the early 21st century, as the ABC initiated a departure from its local production

role, a number of sports previously broadcast by the ABC moved to commercial Free-

To-Air (FTA) and subscription services, including local football codes and women’s

sports including cricket, football and netball.

6 An organisation, consisting of State cricket associations has existed under various titles since 1905, initially as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket (usually called the “Board of Control”) (Harte, 1993, p. 222), renamed the Australian Cricket Board in 1973. It now operates as Cricket Australia.

11

The research addresses a gap in knowledge and understanding of the role played by

ABC Sport in the history of Australian television and in the redefinition of ABC TV

Sport following the WSC changes. An indicator of the major gap in our knowledge is

that there is almost no ABC Television perspective on the WSC revolution in ABC

narratives, or indeed in Australian sports history in general. The most significant

history, This is The ABC (Inglis, 1983), devotes no more than a few sentences to record

the change and impact of the “loss” of cricket broadcast rights across a couple of pages

in a substantial work. This serious gap in the history of ABC Television parallels the

Dix Report which, while devoting eleven pages to ABC sports, provides no insight

into the significance of sports broadcasting in meeting PSB objectives. The Dix Report

in fact took the view that there was too much sport on ABC Television and, like

subsequent ABC reviews in 1988 and 1997, failed to recognise the centrality of sports

broadcasting to the ABC’s nation building role.

Accounts of WSC and ABC are invariably narratives of loss and / or cultural

“revolution” that present forces at work that deliver more fit for purpose / adaptable

outcomes (WSC) to replace the aging, lacking public service. That is, the received

view is that sport broadcasting was revolutionised by the shift from public

broadcasting to commercial television. This is a contestable, but not widely challenged

view. The current research provides evidence of public broadcasters’ development of

sport as a televisual form through innovative production and audience development

practices, including the construction of sport as a media entity and ultimately a highly

marketable, commercial “brand”.

12

Chapter Two

1956–1977: The ABC as a “Dominant Supplier” Sports Broadcaster

This chapter outlines ABC Television’s work, beginning in 1956, in developing

innovative approaches to delivering sports content to audiences during the period in

which the ABC was the leading broadcaster of international, national and local sport

in Australia.

Focussing on ABC test cricket broadcasts, the chapter provides a history of the

transmission, distribution and production processes, programming and audience

development strategies and organisational structure developed to deliver sports and

regional content. This work was part of a national and regionally based broadcasting

capability that contributed to a “continuing expression of Australian identity …

serve[ing] community needs and [providing] room … for experiment and innovation”

(Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1975/76, p. 11). This

innovation outlined below included organisational structure, output and strategic

arrangements developed by the ABC for television sport, broadcast technologies and

personnel. Of equal significance to the structural and technical innovation was the

development of a cricket television rights market and audiences across Australia for

cricket on television.

The ABC recognised and embraced its strategic innovation role, stating in its 1957/58

Annual Report that the second year of television, “… has been one of further

experiment and some adventure into new techniques and programme values.”

(Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1957/58, p. 8). The

Commission report provided a detailed analysis of the ABC’s comprehensive and

complementary role. In a core formulation that demonstrates the ABC’s determination

to be both “comprehensive” and “complementary”, the Commission set out a

television programming policy that ensured a “distinctive role”, with both “… a

programming alternative to those of our commercial colleagues … but which is

indistinguishable in character” (Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report,

1957/58, p. 8), in terms of the range of genres broadcast. In doing so the Commission

extended to the new media environment, television, the strategic policy approach that

it had articulated in the radio environment. The Commission’s statements built on its

previous assessment of its role, with comments focussing on technical, staffing and

13

logistical agreements, noting “that the new medium is so important an innovation”, it

required a focus on an efficient operation and the “development of our own Australian-

initiated” content to make the “television service as truly national in character as its

resources will permit” (ABC, 1955/56, pp. 6–7). This policy formulation had been

extensively developed in the year before television in the Commission’s statement that

public broadcasting was to be both “comprehensive” and “complementary”

(Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1954/55, pp. 4–5). It noted that

“… the basic issue of Commission policy is the degree to which the national radio

output should be complementary [emphasis added] to that of the commercial system

or should overlap into programme material common to both.” (Australian

Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1954/55, pp. 4–5). The ABC was equally

keen to develop an understanding of the technical potential for the new medium of

television to demonstrate and underpin a comprehensive programming policy

(Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Reports, 1956/57, pp 5-6; 1957/58, p.

8).

Stating its commitment to what was and continues to be a contestable public policy

position and strategy, the Commission noted that while the “… ideal of conducting a

service which is both comprehensive [emphasis added] and specialised is easily stated,

its resolution into practical broadcasting is a continuing problem” (Australian

Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1954/55, p. 5). ABC content strategy

embraced this defining PSB strategic position – comprehensiveness and

complementarity. Annual Reports from the first years of television provide insight into

comprehensive programming, which included drama, sport, talks and factual as well

as variety and light entertainment. By the third year of television the Annual Report

was noting comprehensive (light entertainment) programming such as Six O’Clock

Rock and Alabama Jubilee were the most popular programs on any channel according

to “… newspaper polls which sought viewers’ opinions” (Australian Broadcasting

Commission Annual Report, 1958/59, p. 10).

In addition, the commitment to complementary programming included genres such as

religious, rural, education and music, with a R&D role noted in relation to classical

music, for example, to “provide a powerful agency in fostering an appreciation of

opera, ballet and the more spectacular of musical presentations” (Australian

Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1958/59, p. 6). In the first three years of

14

television broadcasts, 65 percent of ABC television broadcasts consisted of drama,

light entertainment, sport and talks programming, while complementary genres such

as religion, rural, education and classical music accounted for 8 percent of broadcast

time (Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Reports, 1956/57, 1957/58,

1958/59, Appendices 2 and 3).

Organisational innovation

Sports broadcasting, like other forms of broadcasting, consists of sets of organisational

structures, arrangements, histories and systems that establish a framework for its

production practices (Whannel, 1992, p. 25). The ABC’s decision to integrate the

operations of the national television service “as closely as possible with the national

sound system [radio]” (Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1955/56,

p. 5), meant ABC Sport was a distributed department, providing both radio and

television content from facilities in state and territories, with television production in

capital cities. In addition to utilising and building on content programming and

audience development techniques honed in radio broadcasts (see below) this meant

that television sport was able to draw on technical and organisational arrangements for

the delivery of its services.

In the first stage of ABC Television organisational development, with the Sports

Department a cross-media content provider for both radio and television (Australian

Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1955/56, p. 5), the base of a regional /

national structure was established that was to underpin and deliver content for over

fifty years. This “cross-media” approach was to continue until the mid-1980s, when

genre production units, such as sport, split into separate television and radio

departments (Moran, 1993, p. 506). The structural approach of regional content

production and distribution centres was driven by the public policy that the ABC was

to be a national network, on PSB principles, and the technical scope of production and

distribution capability.

The dual face of Australian television was envisaged in policy terms with the ABC,

the “national television service”, rolling out from 1956 an increasing national network

and commercial television, limited by the legislative “two station rule”, providing local

services. This public policy and legislative approach meant that it was only the ABC

that undertook the organisational development of a national network, coupled with the

15

staged rollout of television services around Australia, and that this enabled a range of

production beginning with the Melbourne Olympics, and including test cricket, tennis,

golf, football codes and other sports, to be delivered to Australians from around the

country, utilising local talent and facilities.

Infrastructure and personnel investment underpinned the development of processes,

arrangements and an organisational structure that evolved over time, as an ABC local

capability was developed within a network structure. While commercial television was

structured as “a series of individual stations” based on “the policy of the Government

to encourage local ownership, control and operation of broadcasting and television”

(Ministerial Statement to Parliament quoted in Herd, 2012, p. 54), each of the ABC’s

broadcast centres was a major element of ABC Television’s national capability and

output. ABC television infrastructure in each capital city, delivering general and sports

production, and cricket in particular, enabled it to build both a state-based audience

for local matches, beginning with interstate Sheffield Shield matches and local club

cricket finals before developing audiences for international test matches played in each

city7.

From 1956 the ABC used its position as a radio sports broadcaster to become the

dominant television sports broadcaster. ABC Television cricket built on an established

base and relationship with audiences and communities around Australia; creating both

a local presence and eventually a national network that was critical to success.

Television also established a national cricket audience that would “be the catalyst for

the game’s commercial and cultural transformation” (Stewart, 1996, p. 523).

This, despite the fact that “unlike radio, … television was slow to embrace the game

fully” (Stewart, 1996, p. 524) as the development of television coverage of cricket was

technically more complex and costly than radio. The extent, location and nature of

cricket broadcasts were determined by the technical capability of both production and

transmission facilities. “The impact of television on cricket was … limited by

restricted coverage” (Stewart, 1996, p. 524), as initially television could only provide

service in the local broadcast area, “often no more than 100 kilometres”, and “viewers

in other capital cities would have to wait more than 24 hours” to see highlights from

7 Australia’s first international cricket television broadcasts were of women’s test cricket when ABC Television broadcast two international women’s cricket matches during the English team’s 1957/58 tour – an Australia v England test match and the touring team’s match against NSW (Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1957/58, p. 27).

16

an event in other cities either filmed or “tele-recorded”8 (Stewart, 1996, p. 524). For

example, in 1958 “Sydney viewers saw the Davis Cup challenge round only about 30

hours after it was played in Melbourne” (Australian Broadcasting Commission,

Annual Report, 1957/58, p. 27).

In 1932/33, a national audience had received ABC radio’s first test cricket broadcast

on twelve services across Australia that formed a national network. In 1936/37, at the

time of the next series, the ABC had a broadcast network of 20 medium wave radio

services, stretching from the southwest of Western Australia to Tasmania and to north

Queensland (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1936/37, pp. 3–4).

In contrast, at the time of the 1958/59 tests the ABC only had television services in

Sydney and Melbourne. Two years later in 1960/61 at the time of the West Indies

series, television had expanded, but was still limited to six capital cities – Sydney,

Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart – with live broadcasts possible only

in the four cities that held test matches at that time. Radio’s continued dominance can

be seen in the fact that there were 59 ABC radio services operating in 1960/61,

including 47 outside the six state capitals: from Cairns in the north-east to Albany in

the south-west to Queenstown in Tasmania and Darwin in the north (Australian

Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1960/61, Appendix 2, pp. 26–27). In

establishing and developing an audience for cricket the ABC undertook a range of

innovative strategies and actions, including as illustrated below, in the technical fields

of transmission, distribution, production and post-production, content programming

and audience development, program form and format development, and content

development including presentation and commentary arrangements.

Television in Australia was established as a series of standalone production and

broadcast centres that, as noted above, could deliver to local areas of approximately

100 kilometre radius from a broadcast tower. Any content to be viewed had to be

transmitted live from a studio, received from linked, external / “outside broadcast”

facilities or pre-recorded and then transmitted. The 1956 Olympic Games were

streamed live from Olympic venues by outside microwave links (Grant, 2008, p. 48)

back to the ABC’s Rippon Lea studios in Melbourne, where the signal was relayed for

broadcast in Melbourne and “tele-cined” (recorded to film and edited) for air

8 Tele-recording is recording a television program on film directly through a lens focused on a television monitor.

17

transportation to Sydney for broadcast. The same process of recording images and

audio at the ground and then linking to the Toowong studio for recording to film and

editing before being sent to Sydney and Melbourne, was used for the first cricket test

match coverage in November 1958.

Consequently, the ABC’s initial television programming strategy for cricket was to

broadcast the final two hours of play in the city in which the match was played,

beginning with the four days of the interstate Sheffield Shield competition match

played from 22 December 1956 in Melbourne (Stewart, 1996, p. 523). Televised

broadcasts of men’s test cricket began with the first match of the 1958/59 Ashes series,

played in Brisbane from 5 December 1958 (Cashman, 1984, p. 117; Harte, 1993, p.

460; Maxwell, 2001, p. 99). In fact, the first televised broadcasts consisted entirely of

highlights programs, filmed or tele-recorded as noted above and broadcast nightly in

Sydney and Melbourne. These were from the first test match in Brisbane, which did

not yet have television. However, even then the ABC committed itself to reducing the

time taken to view material from other sites.

Live broadcasts of Test cricket began with the Sydney and Melbourne test matches in

1958/59. These two-hour program slots of the final session of play each day were

dictated by the rights negotiated with the controlling authority for cricket, the

Australian Cricket Board’s “Interstate Cricket Conference”9. That is, based on the

Cricket Board’s concern that television would detract from attendance at matches,

broadcasts were limited to the last session of play each day (usually 4 pm – 6 pm).

Inter-state broadcasts of Test cricket began in January 1959, “when the final two hours

of play in the Third Test between Australia and England in Sydney was relayed to

Melbourne by the ABC and the commercial station, GTV 9” (Stewart, 1996, p. 524).

The significance of sport in general and cricket in particular in broadcasting’s

development is demonstrated by the plan to have the first interstate, live broadcasts to

be of a test cricket match on the afternoon of 9 January 1959. Due to technical

difficulties, the plan was not implemented and the first interstate, live broadcast

occurred that evening, in Graham Kennedy’s In Melbourne Tonight program.

9 The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) formed itself into a committee of all its members, the Interstate Cricket Conference, for the purpose of rights negotiations (Harte, 1993, p. 438).

18

Nonetheless, next day, with technical issues addressed, test cricket from Sydney was

transmitted live to Melbourne.

The first interstate, live broadcasts began with the fifth test match of the 1960/61 series,

in February 1961, relayed by coaxial cable to Sydney (Cashman 1984, p. 120; Stewart,

1996, p. 524); the telecast of a full day’s play was undertaken for the fifth test match,

using “ground base relay stations between Melbourne and Sydney” (Stewart, 1996, p.

524). Earlier in the series, in December 1960, the ABC had provided Sydney viewers

with a relayed broadcast of the last two hours of play in the second test from

Melbourne. Following a Channel Nine undertaking to use “conventional, outside

broadcast, microwave-link equipment strategically located on mountain tops between

Sydney and Melbourne” (Grant, 2008, p. 106), the ABC had undertaken a similar

technical experiment, extending it for an eleven-day period to include broadcasts of

test cricket and other programs including Davis Cup tennis, a Sydney church service

and Melbourne’s New Year’s Eve event, from late 1960 to early 1961 (Grant, 2008,

p. 106).

“By the 1962/63 season a further development in transmission technology allowed for

the simultaneous telecast of the Fourth Test against England in both Adelaide and

Melbourne” (Stewart, 1996, p. 525). The ABC tested and tried a range of transmission

mechanisms, including transmitting a signal from the Adelaide Oval to “a specially

fitted aircraft circling the border of Victoria” (Stewart, 1996, p. 525) and then to land-

based transmission facilities. For the final test match of the series in February 1963 a

complex interplay between microwave and coaxial cable technologies enabled viewers

in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra to watch the match (Cashman 1984, p. 120;

Stewart, 1996, p. 525).

With the construction and testing of a coaxial cable between Melbourne and Sydney a

reliable mechanism was in place by 1963 to enable the “away” city to view the 1963/64

series against South Africa. This on-going link, rather than ad hoc arrangements for

specific events, established between Melbourne and Sydney, was initially used over

Christmas-New Year 1963/64 for Davis Cup tennis broadcasts (Grant, 2008, p. 108).

By the 1965-66 Ashes Test series the ABC had 34 television services and two

television repeaters services. Utilising a mix of microwave and coaxial cable

technology, by February 1966 the ABC delivered to viewers across the eastern

19

mainland states and South Australia the entire five days of the Melbourne Test match

(Stewart, 1996, p. 525). In early 1966, the ABC decided to “push the limits” (Grant,

2008, p. 109) in extending live broadcasts of three of the five Ashes test cricket

matches (the matches in Sydney and Melbourne) to as much of eastern Australia as

the combination of Post-Master General’s Department (PMG) microwave links and

coaxial cable networks and ABC television broadcast sites could achieve. The

interstate, live coverage of the final two hours of each day’s play, included broadcasts

to Adelaide and Brisbane as well as Sydney and Melbourne (Cashman, 1984, p. 120).

The network still depended on some short-term transmission service “in fills”. For

example, to deliver test cricket to southern Queensland, a temporary mobile

microwave link was set up at Springbrook in the Lamington National Park (Grant,

2008, p. 109). The network was also used in late January 1966 to carry the press

conference in which Sir Robert Menzies announced his retirement as Prime Minister.

A major challenge in 1966 was to link the eastern state broadcasts to Adelaide. With

little high ground in western Victoria, ABC engineers devised a system to “beam the

signal between two wheat silos and two water towers before aiming it to the high

ground trig point and then to a mountain top” (ABC Radio Active technical staff

newsletter, 1966, quoted in Grant, 2008, p. 110) to enable it to reach Adelaide.

In July 1970, the final link was completed in the east-west broadcast chain when Perth

was connected by permanent telephony and television carriage systems. This enabled

the ABC to bring the entire 1970/71 test cricket series to Australians in every state and

the ACT.

In addition to the deployment of improved transmission and distribution technologies,

advances were made in the production and post-production fields, including “the

replacement of tele-recording … in 1963, which further improved the quality of the

televised cricket (Stewart, 1996, p. 524). This enabled a high-quality play back of

content and removed time consuming film processing. It also paved the way for “slow

motion replays”, which later came to dominate cricket telecasts. First developed at this

time the technology was introduced to cricket in the 1970/71 series.

While the ABC was not alone in testing, developing and introducing new distribution,

production and post-production techniques it was the most consistent and

comprehensive in applying this R&D, especially in the area of cricket broadcasts,

20

through the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Achievements such as those summarised in Table 2.1,

including the broadcast of matches from around Australia and the first nationally

broadcast series, were essential elements of a policy commitment articulated by the

Commission prior to the introduction of television, to build a television service that

“was truly national in character” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual

Report, 1955/56, p.6). Equally important in meeting that policy commitment was the

deployment in each state and territory of the technical facilities and personnel to

deliver and maintain that national capability. This inter-linked, state and territory

organisational and operational infrastructure that built a national system distinguished

the ABC from the commercial television broadcasters.

Table 2.1: Indicative list of ABC Cricket innovations (“milestones”)

ABC Television Sport – Cricket Broadcasting Year Live cricket broadcasts 1956 First Australian women’s cricket broadcast 1958 Edited highlights packages of cricket matches 1958 First interstate live broadcasts of multiple matches in a series* 1966 On screen graphics 1970 First, national live cricket broadcast 1970 First One Day International (ODI) match broadcast in Australia and the world

1971

Extended use of “action replays” of live events 1971 First satellite broadcast of test cricket match live to Australia 1972 Slow motion replays of events 1973 Extended, colour sports broadcasts 1974 Increased multi-camera set ups –with “roving”, mobile cameras, close ups / cameras square of the wicket

1974

First colour broadcasts of ODI cricket in Australia 1975 First satellite broadcast of test cricket series live to Australia 1975

Sources: ABC Annual Reports; Cashman (1984); Grant (2008) Note: *All states except Western Australia

ABC Television sports output

The introduction and expansion of cricket broadcasts were part of an increasing range

of sports broadcasting undertaken by the ABC. For example, in the first year of

television the ABC provided live telecasts and / or edited highlights of 59 different

events featuring 12 different sports, including potentially anticipated sports such as the

Olympics Games, tennis, rugby union, AFL and cricket as well as others such as surf

lifesaving and motor cycling.

21

The ABC did not provide a separate breakdown of television and radio broadcasts after

1956/57. However, it is clear from ABC Annual Report lists of combined radio and

television sports broadcasts that televised sport continued to expand. For example, in

its second year of television, the ABC broadcast on radio and television a total of 23

different sports, comprising 44 different events (excluding local AFL and rugby club

competitions), including, as noted above, televised broadcast of the English Women’s

cricket test matches against Australia, and the Australian Women’s Golf

Championship.

In fact, sport was a key element of ABC programming, content and technology strategy

(Goldsmith, 2015, p. 71). “Programming” is used here in its broadcast sense, the

organisation of genres and specific program types and forms to build a broadcast

schedule. Programming is distinct from scheduling in that it involves creative decision

making, including in many broadcast structures the ability to approve and / or order

different programs, while scheduling is the work of organising and administering a

broadcast schedule once created by a programmer.

As part of this mix of 12 comprehensive and complementary genres, sports

programming was designed to deliver programs of wide interest, constituting a

significant proportion of ABC Television broadcast output10 (see Figure 2.1 below).

The significance of ABC sport broadcasts in the ABC Television schedule is

demonstrated in Australian content figures published annually from 1961/62.

Australian sport hours broadcast increased from 269 hours in 1961/62 (the first year

that ABC Annual Reports provide a breakdown of Australian and overseas hours

broadcast) to 613 hours in 1976/77. Cricket was a major component of the total sports

hours, as can be seen from the years when no test cricket series were played in

Australia, resulting in overall declines in hours broadcast. For example, in 1964/65,

when no tests were played in Australia, national sports hours declined to 232 from 329

hours the season before when the South African team toured Australia. A similar

phenomenon can be seen in both 1966/67 and 1969/70, when sports hours broadcast

again dropped when no test cricket was played in Australia.

10 Figure 2.1 contains Australian hours published in ABC Annual Reports from 1961.

22

Figure 2.1: ABC Television: annual hours broadcast by genre (Australian): 1961–1977 (Sport hours noted) Source: ABC Annual Reports, 1961/62–1976/77

Figure 2.2 shows the average annual Australian hours of each genre broadcast on ABC

Television in this first period of ABC Sport (1961–77). Its significance can be gauged

from the fact that Sport, averaging 398 hours annually, was the second highest genre

in terms of Australian hours broadcast by the ABC between 1961 and 1977 (Figure

2.2). Sport was only exceeded by education programs and by the mid-1970s, sport was

the most broadcast genre on ABC Television, averaging over 500 hours nationally

annually. In addition to the national sports output presented in Figure 2.1, locally

produced sports programming in each state and territory increased as television

services rolled out across Australia. When state-based broadcast breakout transmission

of local sports, such as Sheffield cricket matches and local football, are added, the

ABC was broadcasting over 1,000 hours of sport annually.

269 299 329232 320 251 328 393 316 383 392 462 526 640 613 613

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Education Sport Talks NewsVariety/Ent. Drama Children's ReligiousDocumentary Rural Music Arts

Testseries NoTests

23

Figure 2.2: Average annual hours broadcast by genre (Australian): 1961–1977

Source: ABC Annual Reports, 1961/62–1976/77

Over approximately the same period (1960s–1970s) commercial television was also

broadcasting sports content, as shown in Figure 2.3 below. ABC sports broadcasts

significantly exceeded those of the commercial sector. Figure 2.3 compares the annual

hours of sports programs broadcast by the ABC and the average of each commercial

broadcaster between 1965 and 1974. Over this period the ABC broadcast an annual

average of 401 hours, while each commercial station broadcast an annual average of

271 hours. In each year ABC broadcasts exceeded the output of each commercial

station and by 1974 the ABC was broadcasting more than double the output of each

commercial service. Further, as noted previously, the ABC hours in Figure 2.3 are

national output and do not include the hours broadcast by each state and territory

service. The ABC level of sports broadcasting was to be criticised in the 1981 Dix

Review (see Chapter Four) for having “devoted too much time in the past to sport at

the expense of other programs” (Dix, 1981, 11.129), the Review failing to recognise

the importance of sport as part of the ABC’s nation building role.

448398 383

269

187

107 8762 48

200

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

24

Figure 2.3: Annual Australian Sports hours broadcast by the ABC and Commercial Television by each station: 1965–1974’

Source: ABC Annual Reports, Australian Broadcasting Control Board Annual Reports quoted in Herd (2012, p. 125)

The extent and range of ABC Television cricket from all states was a major reason for

its dominance of television sports broadcasting. As noted in Chapter One, cricket was

the main sport broadcast by the ABC, because of its acknowledged, unique, cultural

and historical space in Australia. As such it accounted for a major proportion of the

increase in national sports broadcasts during the 1970s (Cashman, 1984, p. 132). In

addition to test match broadcasts, matches in the national competition, the Sheffield

Shield, were broadcast by the ABC in each state, as well as matches against visiting

international teams. For example, by 1970/71 each state (except Tasmania) broadcast

an international match and at least four first class matches involving the state team, for

a total of 70 hours of broadcast output. This was in addition to over 150 hours of test

matches annually, played in state capitals around Australia (except Tasmania).

The ABC establishes a sports rights market

The payment of a fee to broadcast sport, establishing sport as a commodity with a

market and a price, emerged slowly. Broadcasters were disinclined to pay a fee for

several reasons, principally because they viewed the broadcast as a promotion for the

sport (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report 1936/37). Initially,

181 170

272 273 281254

315 306

363

294320

251

328

393

316

383 392

462

526

640

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974

CommercialTV ABCTV

ABCaverage401hours

Commercialaverage 271hours

25

cricket authorities devolved rights negotiations to state associations, allowing radio

organisations to negotiate directly with the state organisation (Stewart, 2005, p. 43)

for the rights they wanted for their local broadcast. The ABC negotiated across the

country with each state association to gather an aggregated rights package.

Although the ABC from the 1930s occasionally paid for exclusive rights (Australian

Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1936/37, p. 38), in Australia the norm had

been for not just smaller rights payments, but non-exclusive deals (see Table 2.2

below). That is, rights were shared between broadcasters, with each sharing the right

to broadcast in the area (territory) where rights had been purchased.

Shared rights had evolved where the ABC was concerned that exclusive rights deals

could not be enforced, allowing other parties to broadcast events for which the ABC

had already paid an exclusive fee (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual

report, 1936/37, p. 38). Shared sports rights deals occurred from the beginning of

television sports broadcasts – the 1956 Olympics – as broadcasters sought to share

costs and limited resources, such as technical staff and facilities, to enable maximum

coverage of events.

Before the start of television in late 1956, the ABC and commercial services jointly

approached the cricket authorities with a proposal to broadcast the interstate Sheffield

Shield competition matches between the state team (NSW or Victoria) playing against

a visiting team (Stewart, 1996, p. 523). The NSWCA and VCA agreed to a fee payment

of $50 each. These arrangements continued through the next cricket season.

26

Table 2.2: ABC & commercial television Test cricket rights fees 1958–76 (all

shared)

Year Rights purchaser Test series Rights Fee $ 1958-59 ABC & GTV 9 England (5 tests) 33,000 1960-61 ABC & some commercial West Indies (5 tests) 20,000 1962-63 ABC, Channel 7 & 9 England (5 tests) 20,000 1963-64 ABC & some commercial South Africa (5 tests) 30,000 1965-66 ABC & some commercial England (5 tests) 34,000 1967-68 ABC India (5 tests) 23,000 1968-69 ABC West Indies (5 tests) 35,000 1970-71 ABC & some commercial England (7 tests) 70,000 1971-72 ABC and Channel 7 World XI (5 tests) 90,000 1972-73 ABC Pakistan (3 tests) 40,000 1973-74 ABC New Zealand (3 tests) 36,000 1974-75 ABC & Channel 7 England (6 tests) 130,000 1975-76 ABC & Channel 10 West Indies (6 tests) 170,000

Sources: Stewart (1996, p. 524); Stewart (2005, p. 50) Note: There are small differences between historians on the rights amounts paid in particular years.

The first substantial television rights negotiations began with the first test cricket series

played after the introduction of television, the 1958/59 Ashes series between Australia

and England. The ACB through their state association rights negotiating committee,

the Interstate Cricket Conference, sought $64,000 for Test and first class match

television rights for live broadcast of the last two hours of each day’s play and

highlights programs from the SCG and MCG. This was six times the radio rights fee

(Stewart, 1996, pp. 523-524) and when “the ABC and the two commercial television

stations offered $32,800, a third of which was to be paid by each station” the Interstate

Conference “meekly accepted” (Stewart, 1996, p. 524). Taking into account the size

of the two television markets (Australia and UK) this fee is similar to UK test cricket

rights fees of approximately 25,000 to 50,000 pounds for a five test series at the end

of the 1950s and in the early 1960s (Whannel, 2009, p. 211).

In 1961, for the next series played in Australia, the Interstate Conference sought a fee

of $55,000 for five tests against the West Indies and related first class matches. In the

first of what was to become a recurring feature of televised cricket rights negotiations,

the commercial broadcasters told the cricket authorities that they were not interested

in broadcasting the series. Their reasons were television establishment costs and a

perceived decline in interest in cricket. The ABC alone committed to broadcast the

series and secured television rights for $15,000. However, this series attracted

enormous community interest, with the first test match still generally regarded as the

27

greatest test ever played. There was a significant growth in community interest,

culminating in over 90,000 people attending the first day of the Melbourne test. As a

consequence, “GTV 9 in Melbourne and TCN 9 in Sydney sought permission to

televise the Fifth test, and with the ABC, arranged a direct telecast of the entire test for

relay from Melbourne to Sydney” (Stewart, 1996, p. 524).

While much is made of the ACB’s lack of commercial nous (see Chapter Three), the

commercial broadcasters’ on-going ambivalence to broadcasting cricket over the next

15 years often came at a significant financial cost to them. For example, after the

enormous success of the first four tests in 1960/61, including the tied test at the Gabba,

TCN 9 and GTV 9 paid the Board of Control $10,000 or $2,000 per day for the rights

to broadcast the five days of the 5th test, having rejected the Board’s fee of $20,000

($55,000 with presumably a third each) for the entire season (Stewart, 1996, p. 524).

That is, Channel Nine could have secured rights for five test matches and eight first

class games, approximately 65 days of cricket at the beginning of the season, for less

than $300 per day.

A complex rights fee system was developed for the 1962/63 season series rights.

Again, the commercial broadcasters declined and the ABC was the only broadcaster

to commit up-front to the series. The Board secured only $20,000 initially, less than

the 1958/59 Australia v England series fee. However, as in 1960/61, despite the

1962/63 series having none of the West Indies series excitement, the commercials

(GTV and TCN) again sought permission to broadcast during the series and paid

$15,000 for the rights for the fifth test, when late afternoon viewers in Sydney could

watch from “4–6pm … live coverage … [on] all three channel [7, 9, ABC]” (Cashman,

1984, p. 110).

“For the remainder of the decade the television fee for first-class cricket oscillated

between $20,000 and $25,000, depending on the popularity of the touring team”

(Stewart, 1996, p. 524) and for much of that period the ABC was the only test cricket

broadcaster as the commercials had no interest in the four match series against India

in 1967 or the series against the West Indies the following year (Cashman, 1984, p.

112). The “ABC contracted to televise all Test matches for every cricket season in

which an international fixture had been scheduled, [while] the commercial stations,

like their radio equivalents, would seek telecast rights only when high ratings were

expected” (Stewart, 1996, p. 524). The commercials appeared primarily interested in

28

matches played in Sydney and Melbourne, where there were both larger audiences and

presumably more local interest in the match played in their city.

Thus, prior to the 1970s and early 1980s, cricket television rights were invariably

shared rights in an environment where there was so little competitiveness that in most

seasons the commercials did not even seek rights and consequently they were of less

economic value.

A further rationale for shared rights was the need to share resourcing, especially for

more expensive television production. The ABC preferred a shared rights model to

defray costs, as well as having the competitive advantage of not having to broadcast

advertising. For the Australian Cricket Board, the shared rights approach was

acceptable given the ad hoc nature of commercial broadcaster interest in cricket

broadcasts (Cashman, 1984, p. 111).

At the beginning of 1976 the ABC had a history of eighteen years of televised cricket,

having broadcast 73 international matches, including two international one day games

and 72 tests in 16 series to an increasing audience. No other broadcaster had delivered

a single series, and few had broadcast more than one or two tests in a series (see Table

2.3 below). Table 2.3 shows that while the ABC consistently broadcast all matches in

each test series from 1958/59, commercial broadcasters broadcast only some matches

and in many cases only some hours of those matches.

29

Table 2.3: International cricket matches broadcast on Australian television:

1958–1976

Date Series Broadcasters ABC matches

Commer- cial matches

1958-59 Australia v England ABC and 9 5 2 1960-61 Australia v West Indies ABC, 9 and 7 5 1 1962-63 Australia V England ABC, 9 and 7 5 2 1963-64 Australia v South Africa ABC, 9 and 7 5 3 1965-66 Australia v England ABC, 9 and 7 5 0 1967-68 Australia v India ABC 5 0 1968-69 Australia v West Indies ABC 5 0 1970-71 Australia v England* ABC, 9 and 7 7 2 1971-72 Australia v Rest of the World ABC, 9 and 7 5 NA 1972 England v Australia ABC 1 0 1972-73 Australia v Pakistan ABC 3 1 1973-74 Australia v New Zealand ABC 3 0 1974-75 Australia v England* ABC, 7 7 NA 1975 England v Australia* ABC 5 0 1975-76 Australia v West Indies* ABC, 7 7 6 Total test matches broadcast 73 17

Sources: ABC Annual Reports; Cashman (1984, p. 110, p. 132); Harte (1993, p. 472); Haigh (2007, p. 33); Stewart (1996, pp. 523–525); Stewart (2005, p. 50) Notes: NA = not available; *Includes One Day International matches Table based on available research regarding broadcast information.

The inconsistent approach by commercial television concerned the Australian Cricket

Board. No commercial broadcaster had a network to build interest around the country

as they were limited by legislation and policy. The “two station rule”, designed to

ensure that commercial services focussed on localism, meant there was no commercial

network to build audience engagement around the country, with each service

dependent on other services in maintaining interest in a sporting contest (test cricket

series) that moved from one state capital to another over a period of several months.

As commercial services did not control each other’s schedules, or have the ability to

coordinate technical facilities and resources to deploy for national sports coverage,

there were no coordinated programming or production arrangements. The logistics of

the situation for the commercials is illustrated in data that shows that even by the early

1980s, 35 of 50 commercial television services in Australia were independently

programmed, and only 14 networked (Herd, 2012, p. 197). When WSC started in 1977,

the Packer organisation established a single production team and facilities that

travelled around Australia to each match to deliver the broadcast to local and interstate

30

services. WSC did not use local, commercial production facilities (Haigh, 2007, pp.

135–136; Morelli, n.d.11). That is, WSC addressed an apparent lack of local

commercial broadcast teams by building a network production team that travelled with

the competition. While an WSC innovation, it highlights the lack of commercial

production staff expertise and facilities at the local level.

While the ABC proceeded from the 1950s to the 1970s on a strategic path that

encompassed broadcast and production technologies, programming and scheduling

strategies to build and expand its cricket services, commercial broadcast interest and

coverage of cricket was sporadic. Their interest waned, especially during the 1960s,

as public support (match attendance) seemed to drop. Although some commercial

services in capital cities broadcast some test matches, the ABC cricket broadcast

dominance was built on its ability to build a presence and a brand for the

comprehensiveness of it coverage. Further, while there was a coordinated commercial

and public broadcaster group to negotiate rights, only the ABC had the national

organisation, infrastructure and network to organise and negotiate with cricket

authorities to deliver sport across the country. Notwithstanding “continual dispute over

what constituted an appropriate rights fee, and a lack of commitment by the

commercial stations to the first class game, … television had created an additional,

‘live’ audience for cricket, and consequently a new and lucrative income stream”

(Stewart, 1996, p. 524). Led by the ABC’s market development, television created the

potential for the ACB to seek greater direct sponsorship, including signage

opportunities around the perimeter of grounds at matches (although not a feature until

the 1970s).

The acquisition of exclusive broadcast rights for test cricket, rather than a continuation

of the shared rights business model, was at the core of the events that led to the

establishment of WSC. There is strong evidence that Kerry Packer’s objective was test

cricket broadcast rights rather than the establishment of a rival cricket tournament

(Beecher, 1978; Bonney, 1981; Cashman; 2011; Haigh, 2007; Harte, 1993; Herd,

2012; Lee, 2012). However, following the rejection of his bid in 1976 and the ABC’s

regaining of a further period of non-exclusive rights, WSC was the next step.

11 “website … created by Brian C. Morelli who was one of the foundation members of the production crew who joined Channel 9 in August 1956”.

31

Packer is lauded for confronting the shared broadcast rights arrangements that

characterised cricket, as for many other sports. In WSC revolutionary narratives such

as The Cricket Revolution (Beecher, 1978) and A Pitch in Both Camps (Lee, 1979) and

more recently the Channel Nine drama mini-series “Howzat” (2013), Packer is

represented as showing strong business acumen, élan and dash in overwhelming sports

administrators (first the UK Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) and then the

ACB) with his take it or leave it, “… there’s a little bit of the whore in all of us” offers.

The ABC is characterised as naïve, old fashioned, and having a less than astute

approach by wanting to maintain a shared rights model. This appears even more the

case from the perspective of the post-1970s period, when exclusive, commercial,

expensive rights deals are not just the norm, but a defining characteristic of modern

sport. However, this received version of pre-WSC history does not withstand analysis.

The lack of on-going, commercial broadcast interest in cricket meant that the shared

rights model underpinned televised cricket, with the public broadcaster sustaining,

nurturing and developing the service, ensuring its delivery to Australian communities

around the country.

Figure 2.4 shows the rights fees paid (blue column) for each series and then adjusted

to 1975/76 dollars (red line). When the fees paid by the ABC and commercials for

non-exclusive rights over the period from 1958/59 are compared to the 1975/76 fee

paid for the West Indies series, it is clear that there was a developing rights market.

For example, the first test series broadcast (1958/59 Australia v England) saw

broadcasters pay the equivalent of $63,030 (1975/76 dollars). The shared-rights fee

paid in 1975/76 was almost six times the price paid for the first televised series, and

300 percent higher than the first series’ price when adjusted for inflation.

32

Figure 2.4: Cricket test series rights payments 1958–1976, in real and actual $* Source: Stewart (2005, p. 50), * adjusted for CPI changes

Equally compelling evidence shown in Figure 2.4 is the increase in Australia v West

Indies series rights payments, which grew in real terms by 196% between 1968/69 and

1976/77. This data supports the case of a developing rights market that was providing

an increasing and reliable revenue source for cricket’s authorities. Shared rights had

not inhibited the development of the price for television rights. The 1976 Packer bid

was made in that historical context and the ACB perspective of having to consider

whether an exclusive deal with the Nine Network could jeopardise the long-term future

of cricket broadcasts. With hindsight it is a straightforward deal. At the time, however,

consideration had to be given to the possibility that Nine could drop the cricket after

the three-year term, and the ABC might not come back to cricket after that absence.

The ACB conceivably could have worked in 1976 to negotiate a set of arrangements

between the Packer bid and the extant arrangements with the ABC. The decision not

to explore an alternative approach incorporating Packer’s bid, while seeking to

maintain ABC broadcasts, especially noting Nine’s lack of national coverage, led

directly to the subsequent crisis.

The Australian sports rights experience was not unique. The 1970s was a period of

major increases globally, in the volume, range and expenditure on sports rights and

broadcast delivery costs. Even US Olympic rights payments were small in the 1960s,

with CBS paying just USD 390,000 for the exclusive rights to the Rome summer

3300020000 20000

34000 35000

70000

130000

170000

63030

3634036…

58854 57470

109200

145080170000

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

180000

1958/59 1960/61 1962/63 1965/66 1968/69 1970/71 1974/75 1975/76 Testcricketrightspaid(allbroadcasters) Adjustedto1976/77$s

33

games in 1960, compared to the amounts paid by broadcast networks by the early

1980s (Whannel, 1992, p. 171). NBC paid USD 87 million for the Moscow games and

ABC US paid USD 225 million for the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Similar increases

occurred in US football rights (Whannel, 1992, p. 168), tennis and baseball rights

payments (Whannel, 1992, p. 171).

Shared sports rights have remained an important part of media organisations’

programming and content strategies with, for example, SBS and the Seven Network

sharing television broadcasting rights for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and the Nine

Network and Foxtel sharing the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics

rights (Goldsmith, 2015, p. 76). This built on the shared arrangements that had existed

during the earlier periods of Australian television, for example, the ABC, Channels

Nine and Seven shared broadcast of the Olympics game from 1956 through to and

including sharing live broadcasts in 1976.

The shift of broadcast rights from the public sector to the commercial sphere was part

of a broader commodification of sport, an economic reordering that could not have

occurred without the public sector risk taking and audience development in Australia

and other countries (Miller et al., 2003, p. 430). The ABC created the conditions for

the 1970s commercialisation of cricket rights, having developed a sports rights market

that could be exploited, albeit a shared rather than an exclusive rights market.

Notwithstanding the loss of sports broadcast rights, the ABC work in developing a

sports rights market is consistent with its “R&D lab” role for the media ecosystem.

Changes in the 1970s to broadcast economics led to the end of ABC dominance of

international and national sports broadcasts. However, that economic reordering could

not have occurred without public sector risk taking and audience development in

Australia and other countries. The movement of content rights from the public sector

to the commercial sphere form part of a broader commodification of sport.

Development of a television audience for cricket and the decline of match

attendance

I have established that the first component of the ABC’s innovation role was in its

organisational arrangements and deployment of resources and infrastructure and that

the second component was the development of a television sports program rights

market, especially in relation to international cricket played in Australia. The third

34

component of ABC sport’s innovation role was the range of R&D undertaken in

developing an audience for televised test cricket. A major tension in the development

of broadcast rights and building an audience, was the concern among sporting

organisations that they might lose attendances at matches to televised coverage. This

concern presented a brake on television’s ability to build a national audience, causing

a problematic relationship between broadcasters, including the ABC, and sports rights

owners, especially the ACB. While Stewart notes an enthusiasm “about radio’s

involvement in cricket”, organisations were “initially wary of [the potential for] live

broadcasts” to reduce the numbers of people attending matches (Stewart, 2002, p. 54).

Consequently, cricket authorities were concerned about the possibility that television

could detract from match attendances (Cashman, 1984; Stewart, 2005). Due to this

concern the ACB limited initial cricket broadcasts to the final session of play

(Cashman, 1984, p. 119). The sports administrators’ concern that television would

have an impact on attendances at matches continued through the period up to WSC,

with broadcasts in the city holding the match limited to the final two hours of play

each day. As Cashman (1984, p. 132) has noted, the real concern of cricket officials

was not just the decline in attendances, but that it was occurring as attendance level

would have been expected to increase, due to Australia’s significantly increasing

population.

There is strong evidence that ABC television cricket broadcasts built an audience for

cricket. What is less clear is whether this occurred at the expense of live match

attendances. In describing the process of building a television audience for cricket, my

research has assessed the extent to which television test cricket broadcasting

contributed, if at all, to any initial decline in match attendances, before contributing to

the significant resurgence of cricket in Australia in the 1970s. It is important to address

this issue regarding broadcasting’s audience development role because the thesis

argues that ABC Television developed an audience for test cricket at a time of

declining overall support for cricket (1950s–1970s).

Figure 2.5 demonstrates the decline in attendance at test cricket matches that occurred

after WWII, especially in the late 1950s and during the 1960s (see black arrow on

Figure 2.5), before showing an increase in the 1970s. Match attendances in three of

the first four post-War series were below 20,000 per day. In the 1960s, after the

1962/63, no series even achieved attendances of 20,000 per day.

35

Figure 2.5: Average daily attendance at test series played in Australia: 1928–197912 Sources: Cashman (1984, pp. 101, 104, 105, 110, 112, 121, 131, 158); ESPN website http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html; Frindall (2010); Harte (1993, pp. 473, 475, 476, 489, 491, 504, 512, 516, 517, 516, 535)

12 Ashes series shown in dark green, West Indies in Maroon, Indian in orange, Pakistan in light green, and South African in light blue.

25,988

29,276

36,481

32,575

14,046

31,535

19,790

15,680

30,76128,361

29,97630,669

14,700

8,267

19,583

6,407

18,65020,540

17,38514,540

10,975

25,91128,512

21,644

10,27813,402

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

36

With data such as that in Figure 2.5, it might be assumed that as radio cricket coverage

increased after WWII and with the introduction of television in the late 1950s that

there is a causal relationship increased broadcasts and reduced match attendance.

However, when the data is examined more closely, there does not appear to be a direct

relationship between match attendance and broadcasts.

ABC national radio broadcasts, beginning in 1932, did not have a negative impact on

the Ashes test series in 1932/33 and 1936/37. The increase in 1932/33 attendances

compared to 1928/29 occurred as the first nationally broadcast radio descriptions were

introduced by the ABC (Inglis, 1983, p. 36). Both the 1932/33 and 1936/37 series saw

attendances exceed the series that preceded national broadcasts (1928/29). In fact,

when considered on a daily basis, the series that followed the introduction of national

coverage had much higher daily match attendances13. Cricket historians and analysts

have linked the audiences in the late 1940s to the Bradman phenomenon. On the same

basis, the decline in audiences after the 1940s is in part linked to the retirement of

Bradman (Cashman, 1984, pp. 91–92; Haigh, 1997, p. 57).

The first televised test cricket broadcasts in 1958 occurred as match attendance

increased compared to the two previous test series. Further, the 1960/61 and 1962/63

attendance figures remained at high levels despite the television coverage. The

subsequent decline for the next eight years has been attributed to a range of factors,

including competition for community interest from other leisure and sports activities

and a crisis within the game of cricket due to reduced number of overs bowled in a day

and slow scoring. Over the period from 1958 to the 1970s there was a steady increase

in the television audience for broadcast cricket. The subsequent improvement in daily

match attendance in the 1970s, reversing the trend of the 1950s and 1960s (see

attendance figure increases in Figure 2.5 above) was due to the development by

television of a new audience for test cricket. The first national television coverage in

1970-71 saw an increase in match attendance compared to the previous test series to

616,196 spectators, an average of 20,000 people a day, while an average audience of

one million viewers watched each day of the tests on ABC Television (Cashman, 2011,

p. 101). This was followed by a further increase in match attendances in 1974/75 and

1976/77. In fact, the attendances at the 1974/75 test series were the highest since the

13 The 1928/29 series was played over 33 days, including some of the historically longest matches in Australia v England cricket, compared to 26 playing days in each of the subsequent three series.

37

1946/47 series. The Australian and West Indies test series achieved a further

improvement in average match attendance, reaching 28,000 people per day, while the

average television audience, almost exclusively for the ABC, had increased to 1.5

million daily (Stewart, 2005, p. 51). Even tours by countries which were not given to

drawing large match attendances saw significant increases in the 1970s compared to

previous tours. For example, the Pakistan tour in 1976/77, with an average daily

attendance of over 21,000, was double its 1972/73 series average and almost three

times the 1964/65 figure. While cricket match attendance grew in the 1970s, it did not

match the enormous audience watching cricket on television.

The evidence shown in Figure 2.5 demonstrates that electronic coverage (radio and

television) does not appear to have been a contributor to declines in match attendance,

with a range of other factors affecting sports attendance. The improvement by the early

1970s, with a substantial increase in test cricket attendances, occurred while there was

a major increase in television viewing, putting into further doubt the possibility of a

decline in live match attendance due to electronic media coverage.

Audience innovation: cricket programming strategies and technology

developments

The fourth component of the ABC’s television cricket R&D was the combination of

program strategies and presentation forms with the deployment of onscreen

technologies to enhance the televisual experience. The current research highlights the

important role played by the ABC in providing an increasingly technically

sophisticated and widening distribution of Test cricket broadcasts, culminating in the

achievement of a national television audience of over one million per day in 1970/71.

The technical developments that enabled national delivery of matches to each state by

1970 had come about as a result of more than a decade of work to expand the national

broadcasting service (Cashman, 1984, p. 117). However, this technical innovation,

while critical, was only one element of the process that built a television audience for

test cricket. Programming and scheduling strategies that placed sport within a broad

generic offering were also essential.

In investigating how the ABC developed a television audience for local, national and

international sports the thesis describes the range and type of approaches, including

the programming and scheduling strategies, content forms and formats. Television

38

cricket broadcasts drew on the forms of radio, including a mix of live match

descriptions as events unfolded, match summaries presented in news bulletins and

specifically prepared programs. The form of the programs, first for radio and then

television, established in the first radio broadcasts included “a describer, a staff

commentator … and an expert at the end of each over, a former Australian player”

(Maxwell, 1996, p. 37). Essentially, this format endures in audio (radio and streamed

audio) and television broadcasts to this day.

“Cricket also continued to attract to its commentary team some of the most articulate

and highly placed personalities in the ABC” (Cashman, 1984, p. 111), with, as

explained in the first edition of the ABC’s annual Cricket Book in 1934, “former

leading players” and other famous cricket authorities to “describe the games from

England” (Maxwell, 1994, p. 20). From the 1930s on the ABC developed cricket

commentary as an articulate, informed entertainment that contrasted with the “Rickety

Kate”14 style humour of commercial radio such as 2UW’s “... cricket broadcasts as

entertaining vaudeville” (Wireless Weekly, 1934, quoted in Andrewes, 2000, p. 102).

Although there was an elitism about this approach, being “spiced … with quotations

from the Bible and Shakespeare”, its success with audiences helped in “expanding

public interest in the game” (Cashman, 1984, p. 111). Cricket broadcasts, beginning

with ABC Radio’s broadcasts of the 1932/33 Ashes series, were central to the ABC’s

nation building role and were recognised “as the moment when the nation was brought

together for the first time as a listening public” (Andrewes, 2000, pp. 94–95).

Television cricket broadcasts extended from an initial output of 30-minute daily

highlights to two-hour live coverage of daily sessions before finally extending to live

coverage of full days, comprising between five and six hours. While cricket broadcasts

consisted principally of live match descriptions (cricket’s “ball-by-ball” coverage) and

summary reports (Williams, 2011, p. 56) there was a range of program formats

including “Sports Page” in Melbourne on Tuesday evenings and “Sports Cavalcade”

in Sydney on Monday evenings; “… weekly half-hour sporting programmes …

presented from the ABC Television studio … [with] interviews with sporting

personalities, demonstrations of how to play various sports, films of overseas sporting

14 Commercial radio 2UW/3DB cricket broadcasts included “a golliwog doll, ‘Rickety Kate’ … at the fall of a wicket the doll’s eyes would light up, prompting the theme song ‘Rickety Kate’, and involving the studio audience in the chorus” (Griffin-Foley, 2009, p. 286).

39

events, etc.” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1957/58, p. 29),

and from 1958/59, nightly 30-minute programs consisting of edited “highlights” of the

completed day’s play, with a scripted narration and voice over by Michael Charleton

(Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1958/59, p. 15, Cricket in the

Fifties, ABC documentary, 2004). The popularity of television sports programs meant

the ABC had to begin to train and develop commentators “to meet the demand for

telecasts of major sports” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report,

1958/59, p. 15).

The ABC presented the first structured, albeit “live”, cricket content packaged for

delivery between 4 pm and 6 pm providing the opportunity, especially on Saturdays

and Sundays, for “… the working man [to] … now sit at home and watch the final

hour or so in the comfort of an armchair” (Neil Harvey, Australian test cricketer,

quoted in Stewart, 1996, p. 524). The combination of technological innovation and

commitment to coverage developed an audience for cricket, with, for example, the

ABC’s first interstate, live transmission of each day’s play in the fifth test in 1960/61

so successful “that ‘probably no programme – certainly no daytime television

programme – has attracted so many viewers in New South Wales’” (Australian

Broadcasting Commission Annual Report quoted in Cashman, 1984, p. 120). In

addition, the ABC’s ability to provide interstate broadcasts of sessions initially on

delay and then live of play from other states developed an increasingly national

audience for the sport. The size and reach of local (each city) audiences increased

during the 1960s and 1970s. This culminated in full national, live coverage of the six

test matches in 1970–71, as “one person in four in the country watched the ABC’s test

cricket telecasts at one time or another during the series” (Cashman, 1984, p. 121).

Television match commentary provided by the ABC was a key component of its

establishment of cricket as a televisual form. Drawing on a long history of developing

audience interest through a combination of styles (serious, analytical and humorous)

within a format of descriptions of actuality and “bookending” programs with match

summaries, the ABC evolved a new form of television content. While this also drew

consciously on program forms and styles from overseas, especially BBC cricket

coverage (Whannel, 1992, pp. 32–37), an Australian style emerged. The UK style has

been characterised as elitist and upper class, with a predominance of commentators

from privileged backgrounds (Williams, 2011, pp. 61–62). WSC cricket commentary

40

was to be characterised as more populist and accessible to ordinary people than the

ABC style. However, ABC commentators came from a mix of social backgrounds,

and as indicated below, many who worked on ABC cricket broadcasts went on to work

for WSC. Moreover, as part of its nation building strategy, the ABC ensured that its

television commentary teams consisted of both national (Norman May) and local

broadcasters, including former international cricketers, such as Peter Meares, Jack

McLaughlin, Ken Mackay and Tom Vievers in Queensland.

From its beginning, televised cricket’s audience impact drew on both audio and its

visual impact. The two photos (Figures 2.6 and 2.7 below) of England captain Peter

May and Australian captain Richie Benaud are from the first television broadcasts of

test cricket in Australia in 1958, taken from ABC filmed highlights and providing an

insight into the initial visual impact of cricket on television. ABC Sydney and

Melbourne viewers were seeing these close-up images as part of the television

highlights packages filmed, developed and flown interstate to be viewed the same or

next evening after the day’s play. While the highlights were similar in format to cinema

newsreels they contained an immediacy that newsreels could not match. For the first

time15, viewers in Melbourne and Sydney could receive timely, visual information

about a match in progress in another part of Australia (something almost unique to

long form sports such as five day test cricket and golf and tennis tournaments). Further,

the highlights contained a high level of detailed information about the match, being up

to 30 minutes in duration, thus being a major improvement on the shorter radio and

newsreel summaries.

15 As noted above, earlier in 1958 Davis Cup tennis highlights were available 30 hours after the matches.

41

Figure 2.6: ABC Film Highlights First Test 1958: Peter May, MCC captain

Source: ABC film highlights package, recorded in Brisbane, broadcast in Sydney and Melbourne December 1958

Figure 2.7: ABC Film Highlights First Test 1958: Richie Benaud, Australian captain

Source. Still from ABC film highlights package, Brisbane December 1958

The images also provide an indication of the immediate, potential impact of television;

the first a close-up of the England captain as he faces the Australian bowling and the

second a medium close-up of a spectacular catch. While these types of image were to

become familiar to television viewers, these were the first examples in Australia of

television’s ability to bring viewers closer to the personalities and action than had been

previously experienced through either direct attendance or radio broadcast. Close-ups

not only gave viewers a much greater sense of engagement with the game, but a sense

of intimacy and closeness to the individuals, leading to the players’ enhanced positions

as media stars and personalities (Whannel, 2009, p. 207).

The ABC was an incubator of talent, a proving ground, a market developer – all of

which benefitted the media system and specifically commercial media. As noted above

42

for radio broadcast, this approach was especially the case in relation to the

development of commentary teams with the introduction of televised coverage from

1958 (test cricket), using a combination of broadcasters and experienced cricketers.

For the first nationally televised series in 1970/71 former Test captain and experienced

broadcaster Richie Benaud hosted the broadcasts, including highlights. Benaud, an

experienced journalist, who was a product of the BBC from 1964 (Williams, 2011)

and ABC, led a team of commentators that included former test cricketer Frank Tyson.

Benaud and Tyson, like a number of other ABC commentators, including Bill Lawry,

Keith Stackpole and Max Walker, went in 1977 to the Nine Network for WSC. In

addition, a number of other public broadcast trained and experienced staff joined

WSC, including former English test player and BBC commentator Fred Trueman, and

BBC cricket match scorer Irving Rosenwater. Equally significant was the employment

of ABC Executive Producer David Hill and the commissioning of a technical report

by BBC producer David Kenning (Haigh, 2007, p. 103). Hill’s work on the ABC

television program Sportsnight had been highly applauded and he was sought out to

develop broadcast ideas and approaches for WSC based on his ABC experience

(Haigh, 2007, p. 103).

The ABC was able to build on its longstanding radio cricket knowledge and expertise

(Cashman, 1984, p. 111) to bring televised cricket to audiences, an approach that had

the effect of “… provid[ing] the ABC with a popular image” and cementing its position

as the “the long term and trusted media patron of cricket” (Cashman, 1984, p. 111).

This meant that audiences came to regard the ABC as the most reliable source of

cricket, invariably being the only broadcaster to deliver ball-by-ball descriptions and

commentary on all major games, especially test matches.

Conclusion

From 1956 the ABC, working with the PMG and other broadcasters, undertook

considerable R&D work, continually experimenting and trialling mechanisms to build

and extend a national television service. In its first years, television lacked the ability

to capture, transmit and receive sports in a manner that provided the audience with a

sense of the game that was superior to actually being there or as compelling an

experience as radio. Consequently, technical innovations around image capture,

transmission and reception equipment were important in developing the television

43

relationship between sport and its increasing audience (Whannel, 2009, p. 209). New

production and transmission technology was deployed by the ABC to local distribution

points with extensive training in new technologies provided across Australia, to ensure

all states and territories had the capability to contribute to local output and the

expanding national television service. This resolution to build a national network was

based on the Commission’s statements of principles and strategy made during the

years of television planning and development. They reflected the ABC’s nation

building mission, of which sport was a key component, as both a content service for

audiences and an inspiration for continued experimentation in transmission and

distribution.

The broadcasting schedule was a mix of programs of broad appeal and specialist

content as the ABC met its remit of being both a comprehensive and a complementary

public service broadcaster. At different times similar content genres moved from being

of limited appeal to being part of a more comprehensive brief. A key element of this

transition was the public broadcaster’s R&D / innovation brief, with cricket

broadcasting providing an example of the range and aspects of innovative approaches.

These included transmission, distribution, production and post-production

developments that combined with content and program development worked to build

a cricket television audience.

The ABC has provided an “R&D” role for the system, contributing to the overall

development and sustainability of the media system. Understanding this PSB

innovation role, it is possible to chart the shift of test cricket from a public service

television form in the 1950s and 1960s to a comprehensive part of the broadcasting

schedule in the 1970s, to being a commercially attractive product by the late 1970s, in

terms other than public sector decline in the face of private sector entrepreneurialism.

In fact, that characterisation is a failure to understand the broadcasting ecosystem,

where programming and content approaches, technical changes in production and

transmission and even production and front of house staff moved between the

commercial and public sectors.

This chapter has provided evidence of innovative production and audience

development practices, including the construction of sport as a media entity through

the development of a range of content production, programming, promotional and

distribution strategies and practices. Of particular significance was the technical

44

broadcast innovation undertaken by the ABC from 1956, which had delivered a

national network of live, colour, multi-camera test cricket coverage with features such

as on-screen graphics and “instant” replays. Television sport’s evolution included

technological, aesthetic and “an economic transformation … [that] brought a new

source of revenue in rights payments … making television sport attractive to sponsors

and advertisers” (Whannel, 2009, p. 211). As a consequence of development work

undertaken over a twenty-year period (1956–1977), the commercial media was able to

move to achieve a dominance of sports broadcasting. The WSC revolution was not a

revolution against the ABC. By the middle of the 1970s a set of factors was in place,

including this developed and developing sports market, to provide a fundamental

change in the Australian media environment in relation to sports broadcasting. These

are described in Chapter Three.

45

Chapter Three

The WSC moment, 1977–1981

“Cricket is going to get revolutionized whether (the establishment) like it or not …” Kerry Packer, August 1977 (Beecher, 1978, p. 102)

This chapter considers the emergence of WSC from an ABC perspective, revising the

received wisdom of the so-called WSC revolution. While WSC was a significant

Australian example of television’s increasingly commercialised relationship with sport

to that time, it was also part of an international shift in the relationship between sport

and television. Key components of the WSC changes had precedents in ABC

programming, production and audience development strategies and practices that had

helped established the ABC as the “home of cricket”. Nonetheless, having spent

almost twenty years establishing ABC Television in that role, the ABC was to

experience a major change to its television sports role.

Viewed through the lens of television history, WSC is an important evolutionary

moment. While some components of WSC were genuinely innovative, much of what

was characterised as a “great storm” (Harte, 1993, p. 579), “a staggering coup”

(Kennedy quoted in Cashman, 2011, p. 100), a “bold foray” that stunned the cricket

world (Quick, 1991, p. 61), and a game-changing replacement of a staid, public

broadcasting model, had in fact been in place and developed over many years. The

view of a disruptive revolution, perpetuated by many, including Kerry Packer himself,

masks the significant media production and related strategies and practices undertaken

by the ABC in Australia (and, for example, the BBC in the UK). While often described,

especially contemporaneously, as a revolution, WSC was in fact not a single

phenomenon, but a range of changes and forces operating to deliver a new television

sports service. These, considered in this chapter, included broadcast production and

delivery changes, and significant revision of rights and revenue deals. However, most

prominent were the changes to cricket match formats and rules, the administration,

promotion and marketing of cricket and most significantly of all, a “workers

revolution”.

There was a “volatile combination of factors” (Haigh, 1996, p. 605) that drove the

WSC changes, including increasingly large television audiences for cricket that had

been developed principally by ABC Television during the 1960s and the 1970s (see

46

Chapter Two). The introduction of colour television in Australia in 1975 provided an

impetus for increased audience interest for television sports content – as it had done in

other countries. Other television technology innovations noted by Whannel, such as

increased close-ups enabled by zoom lens technology, multiple camera set-ups, slow

motion replays and on-screen graphics, also enhanced viewing and increased audience

engagement (Whannel, 2009, p. 209).

Declining Australian commercial television audiences in the early 1970s (Haigh, 2007,

p. 32), increased Australian content requirements for Australian commercial

television, and the impact on revenues of a ban on tobacco advertising on television to

be introduced in September 1976 (Haigh, 2007, p. 33), contributed to the changed

commercial television interest in sports broadcasting.

Finally, there was significant player dissatisfaction with employment conditions,

including payments, tour arrangements and the level of commitment required to play

international cricket that combined to lead to a group of players willing to consider

alternatives to established cricket arrangements. As demonstrated below in this

chapter, this last point constitutes a genuinely revolutionary aspect to the so-called

Packer revolution; a “workers revolution” that saw the rights, remuneration and

opportunities for players undergoing remarkably rapid change.

Notwithstanding that 1976 was the beginning of a turbulent period for the ABC that

would see it transformed in less than a decade into a new public corporation, ABC

Television sport was focused on a major cricket test series and the imminent renewal

of a three-year rights contract with the Australian Cricket Board. In 1975 the ABC had

broadcast the first international cricket matches via satellite, including the World Cup

final between Australia and the West Indies. At the beginning of 1976 the ABC had

an unbroken history of eighteen years of televised cricket, with 74 international

matches, including 73 test and One Day International matches in 15 series delivered

to an increasing audience and from 1970 a live, national sports broadcast service. Prior

to the 1970/71 test cricket series, the ABC’s technical reach had increasingly joined

eastern, mainland states into live broadcasts. From 1970/71, all Australian states and

the ACT were joined to the live broadcast16 (Inglis, 1983, p. 287).

16 In 1974 Darwin was added to the ABC national television service, with satellite from the late 1970s providing infills to remote Australia.

47

Only once had another broadcaster delivered a single series17, let alone 15 and few had

broadcast more than one or two tests in a series. The ABC and commercial

broadcasters, Seven and Ten, had shared test cricket broadcasts in 1975/76 and

1976/77 (Cashman, 1984, p. 132), while no commercial broadcaster covered the

1973/74 New Zealand series. The ABC met with the cricket board in the early months

of 1976 to re-negotiate another three-year non-exclusive agreement. This deal,

consistent with previous agreements, left the ACB with the flexibility to negotiate

commercial television rights. In some years, usually when an English or West Indian

test team was touring, the ACB had been able to successfully negotiate with

commercial broadcasters for the commercial television rights (see Chapter Two). As

noted in Chapter Two, commercial television had shown a sporadic interest in test

cricket broadcasts during the late 1950s and 1960s.

ABC and the WSC ‘evolution’

It was in the context of the history of televised cricket outlined above that Kerry Packer

asked to meet the Australian Cricket Board in early 197618 to make an offer for the

test cricket television rights which would become available for three seasons from

1976/77 to 1978/79. Much has been written about the so-called Packer revolution and

its genesis in February 1976, and much of that, especially contemporaneous accounts

such as Eric Beecher’s “The Cricket Revolution”, adopted the revolutionary metaphor.

Although some later accounts (Cashman, 2011; Haigh, 2007) reassess components of

the “revolutionary” narrative, the dominant metaphor of WSC in Australian sports

history and popular reconstructions such as the Channel Nine drama mini-series,

Howzat, is of revolutionary transformation (Stewart, 2012).

The ACB did not meet with Packer until June, when he offered $1.5 million for 3

years’ exclusive television rights (Cashman, 2011, p. 103; Haigh, 2007, pp. 33–34).

The ACB advised Packer they had accepted an ABC offer of $210,000 for three years

for non-exclusive broadcast rights (Cashman, 2011, p. 103; Harte, 1993, p. 572)19.

When the ACB advised that only commercial television rights were available, Packer,

17 Channel 7 in 1975/76 18 Beecher, 1978, p. 2, states that Packer sought the meeting in “late 1975”. Cricket journalist, Henry Blofeld also suggests a meeting was sought by Nine in 1975 (Blofeld, 1978). 19 Harte (1993, p. 572), quotes the Packer offer at $0.5 million per year for 5 years and Harte (1993, p. 572) and Bonney (1981, p. 12) quote a figure of $207,000 offered by the ABC.

48

“said he was only interested in exclusive rights” (Beecher, 1978, p. 4). After accepting

the ABC offer and rejecting Packer the ACB had been unable to sell commercial rights

to any other broadcaster (Harte, 1993, p. 587). As noted above, commercial

broadcasters had shown little interest in cricket tours by teams other than England and

the West Indies (in 1960/61 and 1975/76) (see Chapter Two) and the touring teams for

two of the prospective, three-year term were Pakistan and India. Nonetheless, there

had been an expectation that the 0-10 Network would again be interested in bidding

for commercial rights (Harte, 1993, p. 580).

With no prospect of being able to exclusively televise test cricket before the 1979/80

season; the next occasion when television rights would become available, “Packer

went away convinced that something should be done as sport was not only becoming

a television medium per se, but a highly lucrative advertising market” (Harte, 1993, p.

572). Having been approached by John Cornell20 and Austin Robertson, who had

established a sports player management business, to set up a series of private one day

and test matches, Packer is quoted as responding, “Why not do the thing properly?

Let’s get the world’s best to play Australia’s best.” (Beecher, 1978, p. 4; Haigh, 2007,

p. 36; Harte, 1993, p. 574). Packer authorised Cornell and Robertson to begin signing

up international cricketers in the same month (Haigh, 1996, p. 605). By December

1976, the company that was to become WSC had been formed with the major

shareholder, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, a subsidiary of Packer’s

Consolidated Press Holdings.

The election of a new government in late 1975 had delivered the ABC an effective

budget cut of over $6 million (Inglis, 1983, pp. 389–390). As the ABC made its cricket

television rights bid for $210,000 for the next three years, it was making significant

cuts in other areas of activity including Saturday afternoon sports programming, late

evening news bulletins, drama and entertainment programs as well as capital

expenditure cuts and closing overseas offices (Inglis, 1983, p. 390). The budget cuts

and resulting impact on ABC programs and services precipitated one of the most

contentious periods in ABC history (Inglis, 1983, pp. 389–441) with on-going

industrial action, contentious commission appointments and resignations, further

program cuts and confrontations between the government and commission,

20 John Cornell was better known for his on-screen television persona opposite Paul Hogan as “Strop”.

49

government and staff and commission and staff. In the context of budget cuts and

programming challenges the ABC retained a major focus on sports programming from

around Australia, including a major focus on international cricket.

The period of major changes in international cricket in Australia from 1977-81 was a

successful one for the ABC, at least in terms of its sports broadcasting. The audience

for ABC Television cricket had continued to increase, with the 1975/76 series watched

by an average of 1.5 million viewers daily (Stewart, 2005, p. 51) and the ABC’s

broadcast of the 1977 Centenary Test Match one of the most successful ever with

“independent ratings surveys … indicating the ABC captured 75 per cent to 85 per

cent of the audience, even though the match was also shown on a commercial

television network” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1976/77,

p. 31). This followed the previous year’s report of significant ratings for ABC

broadcasts of the 1975 international cricket matches in England, the final of which was

“probably the most popular telecast ever undertaken” and coverage of the subsequent

four test match series between England and Australia from the UK that “gained intense

viewer interest” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1975/76, p.

38). The 1975/76 series was one of the ABC’s most successful in terms of technical

achievements, with the transmission of over 170 hours of live, colour television

broadcasts to all states and territories, with increased use of multiple camera

perspectives and slow motion replays (Cashman, 1984, p. 131).

As Figure 3.1 shows, ABC Television sport broadcast output during this period

averaged 588 hours annually and was the second most broadcast genre on ABC

Television after children & education – a fact that was to concern the 1981 Dix Review

of the ABC (see Chapter Four). At 588 hours, the average annual output was higher

than at any other time in ABC Television history, with the exception of some years in

the early 1980s (see Figure 4.1).

50

Figure 3.1: Average hours of ABC Television Australian programs per genre, 1977–1981

As noted in Chapter Two, in addition to national broadcasts there were substantial

local sports broadcasts in each state and territory (Australian Broadcasting

Commission, Annual Reports 1976/77–1980/81, Appendices 4–7). Cricket was a

substantial contributor to both national and local output, making a quarter of overall

annual broadcast and “during the summer months more than half the ABC sporting

coverage was given over to cricket” (Cashman, 1984, p. 132). Figure 3.2 below

extends the time period shown in Figure 2.1 and demonstrates the extent of cricket’s

dominance of ABC sports broadcasts. In the 1960s and early 1970s the impact of extra

hours of international cricket in years such as 1965/66, 1968/69 and 1970/71 can be

seen in comparison to other years when no series were held in Australia. However, by

the mid-1970s, with tests now scheduled for each season, the volume of ABC national

sports broadcast increased considerably.

633588

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51

Figure 3.2: ABC Television Australian sport hours 1962–1982 Source: ABC Annual Reports

The WSC negotiations

The major technical and audience innovations of ABC televised broadcasts of

international cricket, building on the significant national audiences for the 1970/71 and

1974/75 Ashes series and the West Indies series, was creating an environment for a

more commercial approach to rights. As the 1976/77 Australian series against Pakistan

and Centenary Test broadcasts demonstrated the on-going national audience for

international cricket on television, the WSC preparations were underway.

Despite months of approaches to numerous international cricketers, including during

the Australian test series against Pakistan in late 1976 and Australia’s short tour of

New Zealand in early 1977 where the manager was subsequently made to look

“extremely foolish” (Harte, 1993, p. 575) at his lack of awareness of negotiations

occurring during the tour, there was no media awareness of the WSC negotiations.

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Similarly, when Australia and England played a one-off test match in Melbourne in

March 1977 to mark the centenary of test cricket, despite the attendance of over 200

former test cricketers and the participation of a number of players who had joined or

would go on to join WSC, there was no inkling of the emerging schism. Sixteen of the

24 players on the two teams, including eleven of the Australian 12, had already or

would soon join WSC. This, despite the presence of a WSC contract negotiator, Austin

Robertson, in the Australian team dressing room at the end of the match handing out

sign-on cheques, a presence that “intrigued [ACB Treasurer] Ray Steele …” (Haigh,

2007, p. 46).

Word of the negotiations with test players and a proposed privately run, international

series in Australia leaked to journalists and in May 1977, soon after the start of the

Australian cricket tour of England, media reports broke in Australia and the UK that

35 international cricketers had signed contracts to play an international cricket series

that was to become known as World Series Cricket (WSC) outside the authority of the

ACB and the International Cricket Council (ICC) (Haigh, 1996, p. 606; Haigh, 2007,

pp. 60–61).

In mid-1977 the ABC was more focused on continuing policy and budget

confrontations with Canberra, including the prospect of another real reduction in ABC

funding in the 1977/78 budget, and an instruction by the Government to close down a

service (Radio station, 3ZZ). With inflation running at over 10 percent the Fraser

Government’s proposed 1976/77 budget represented further real reductions in funding.

By 1977, ABC concern about the cost of content, including the escalating cost of sport

rights, was becoming an increasingly public pre-occupation, identifying the

commercial environment and the cost of exclusive television rights as a public policy

problem. Within weeks of the leaking of the WSC player contract negotiations and

series plans, the ABC Annual Report was noting that the “rising cost of rights” with

much stronger “competition from commercial television stations” (Australian

Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1976/77, p. 14), placed the ABC’s ability

to cover major sports at risk. The Annual Report expressed concern about the

increasingly competitive environment for sports rights and about “the ability of the

ABC to televise nationally major sporting events” (Australian Broadcasting

Commission, Annual Report, 1976/77, p. 11). Examples cited were “Wimbledon

Tennis, the Australian Open Tennis Championships, and the Australian Open Golf

53

Tournament” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1976/77, p. 11).

The ABC’s concern was that non-exclusive arrangements had underpinned a

continuity of service over time through series, matches and around the country, and

exclusivity could not work in principle because it could not ensure the delivery of the

range of services (tours and matches) to all Australians. The ABC’s concern,

especially for viewers in remote and regional communities, was to be proved correct,

within a year, with the 1977 Ashes series broadcasts.

The ABC’s inability to secure the 1977 Ashes test cricket series from England caused

it the most concern. The 1977 Ashes tour was the first opportunity for live broadcasts

of a five test series from the UK and the ABC sought to obtain the BBC relay broadcast

rights for Australia from the TCCB. To assist their bid, the ABC sought support from

the ACB in January 1977. The TCCB told the ABC and ACB that it was seeking a bid

in the region of $120,000, which was considered excessive, the ABC having bid

$35,000. Packer doubled his bid when he became aware of the ACB role.

Despite attempts by the ABC to secure the rights, they were purchased by Channel

Nine for $236,000 (₤150,000) (Haigh, 2007, p. 41; Harte, 1997, pp. 579–580). When

the TCCB agreed to the Packer bid, the ACB advised the TCCB that in future, it, the

Australian Board, would handle all rights negotiations for matches involving Australia

(Harte, 1993, pp. 579–580). This was considered by Packer to be the final straw and

is often cited as the ultimate catalyst for a WSC-style competition. However,

negotiations with players and the establishment of WSC as a corporate entity were

well in train by this time. For example, PBL had registered the business, World Series

Cricket Pty. Ltd., in August 1976 (Haigh, 2007, p. 37).

The problem for the Nine Network, despite its claims to be a “national broadcaster”,

was that its broadcast signal did not reach half the Australian continent, but only 43

percent of the Australian audience (Harding, 1978, p. 149). Over twenty years, the

ABC commitment to test cricket broadcasting had been established on building a

shared national experience for the national game. Key innovations, for example, the

first national satellite test cricket from England in 1972 and the first complete match

in 1975 were broadcast nationally. The Nine Network solution to the problem was that

the ABC should broadcast the test cricket to these areas at a cost of 40 percent of the

rights fee (₤60,000), more than the increasingly cash-strapped organisation’s bid of

₤53,000 for all Australian rights (Haigh, 2007, p. 41).

54

While the Commission expressed the view that it “would not undertake ‘to bridge the

gap’ … in the future” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1976/77,

p. 11), it recognised the need to provide coverage to those areas that would not receive

the commercial broadcast signal. While it made little financial sense to meet the cost

of broadcasting the 1977 series, especially in the context of the budget reductions

noted above, there was a major public policy imperative at stake for the ABC. The

ABC’s “national television service”, first articulated prior to the start of television

(Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1955/56) that ensured the

nation shared in the television experience of events of national significance, remained

a major policy focus for the Commission. Thus, in ensuring simultaneous broadcasts

of test cricket to areas of Australia the Nine Network could not reach, including

Western Australia, the Northern Territory, ACT, Tasmania and regional areas of other

states, the ABC continued its role as a nation building sports broadcaster. This

resilience in its commitment to nation building, while transitioning to a

complementary sports broadcasting role, meant that the ABC continued to provide test

and other international cricket broadcasts for a number of years.

The relationship between established cricket and WSC continued to unravel, despite

an initial attempt at compromise between Packer and cricket authorities (ICC) in June

1977 (Haigh, 1996, p. 606). The TCCB and ICC banned WSC signatories from first

class and test cricket on 27-July 1977 (Haigh, 1996, p. 606). However, this ban was

overturned by the UK High Court in November 1977 (Haigh, 1996, p. 606; Haigh,

2007, p. 120; Scott, 1989, p. 105). This was one of a number of legal cases, some

enacted by the cricket establishment, some by Packer, that ensued in the UK and

Australia over the next three years. Beginning with the UK High Court case initiated

by Kerry Packer against the English TCCB and the ICC in August 1977, litigation

continued as the Australian Federal Court upheld an ACB Trade Practices Act (S 52)

case restricting WSC use of terms such as “Australia” and the Australian team”, but

permitting use of terms such as Super Tests” (September 1977) (Cashman, 2011, p.

103; Haigh, 1996, p. 606).

In July 1977 NSW Premier Neville Wran passed legislation establishing a new Sydney

Cricket Ground Trust, dismissed all existing Trustees, and appointed a new set of

trustees. Within weeks, Kerry Packer had secured a $250,000 deal for use of the SCG.

55

Subsequently, the NSW Government was to pay for the construction of lighting towers

for the introduction of day / night cricket matches.

On 7 September 1977 the ACB made a comprehensive statement in response to the

WSC initiative, addressing a number of issues that had been cited by Kerry Packer and

others as reasons for the emergence of WSC. The ACB statement contended that

“payments to Australian players” were the most it could afford and stated that

television rights had not been withheld from Packer (Beecher, p. 61). The statement in

relation to player payment affordability appears disingenuous in the context of

significantly increasing match attendance receipts, sponsorships and broadcasts rights

payments during the 1970s. As Dabscheck has noted, player match payments barely

increased during the period up to the start of WSC, from 2.95 percent of ACB match

and sponsorship revenue in 1970/71 to 5.55 percent in 1976/77 (Dabscheck, 1991, p.

9). Further, Dabscheck compares the ACB players’ income (1976/77 estimate was

$10,000 to $16,000) with the WSC average, three year contact of $25,000 per annum

(Dabscheck, 1991, p. 10). This change in player payments and conditions was the real

WSC revolution.

The ACB statement went on to note that in his March 1976 telephone approach to the

Board regarding television rights, Packer had not “made any mention of total

exclusivity” (Beecher, 1978, p. 62). Thus the Board asserted that it had been

conducting rights negotiations with the parties, Nine and ABC, on the usual terms, i.e.

non-exclusivity. The ACB said Packer had not been barred from future television

rights, only that he had sought to have them exclusively given to him, without having

to bid in the market when they next became available. Notwithstanding the history of

non-exclusive broadcast rights deals, the ACB explanation of its failure to meet for

several months with a prospective, broadcasting partner is indicative of the Board’s

lack of business acumen, appreciation of the changing media / sports environment or

recognition of the economic and cultural value of their major asset, Australian cricket.

On 2 December 1977 the ABC began broadcasts from Brisbane of the first test match

of the Australia – India series, for which it had paid a then record rights fee for a

domestic test series. On the same morning the first WSC Supertest in Melbourne was

broadcast on the Nine Network (Haigh, G, 1996, p. 607). The first television audience

ratings indicated that the audience was split between WSC and official test cricket on

the ABC, with Channel Nine higher on 2 December at 4.6% to the ABC’s 3.2% share,

56

while the ABC did better on the second day rating 5.6% to Nine’s 5.3%. However,

both were out-rated by the Davis Cup Tennis on Channel 7 (10.5% and 19.1%)

(Beecher, 1978, p. 80).

After the initial results, the established regime of Test Cricket dominated in the first

WSC year (Cashman, 1984, p. 158). The public imagination was captured by the return

of Bob Simpson to the Australian team after an absence of ten years and the drama of

a closely fought series against India, won eventually by Australia. WSC struggled to

gain an audience and support as the WSC Australians lost to the WSC World and WSC

West Indians.

However, establishment cricket struggled in the second season of WSC, as the official

Australian team was soundly beaten (5 Test Matches to 1) by the touring England side

in one of the worst defeats ever experienced by an Australian Test team.

Simultaneously, the WSC competition increased in popularity as the WSC Australians

were more successful and WSC developed one-day cricket and day / night cricket

which proved a huge success (Harte, 1993, p. 598). The first day / night One Day

International (ODI) in Sydney was attended by 50,000 people, and 60,000 people

attended the first day / night WSC Supertest in Melbourne (8 – 11 December 1978)

(Haigh, 1996, p. 607). Day / night matches enabled cricket to be broadcast in television

prime time slots between 6 pm and 10.30 pm at night (Haigh, 1996, p. 607), meeting

both Australian content regulatory requirements and reaching a prime time audience.

The WSC media technology ‘revolution’

Perhaps the most significant technological change to occur in the context of televised

sport was the introduction of colour television in March 1975, with trial broadcasts,

limited by the Australian Broadcasting Control Board (ABCB) to sporting events,

beginning in October 1974. Within three months of the launch of colour television in

Australia, the ABC broadcast the first international cricket in colour, the Australia v

West Indies World Cup Final, in June 1975, although test transmissions had also

occurred during 1974/75. ABC’s technical achievement of converting the transmission

system to colour occurred while “maintaining an unrestricted national service to the

Australian audience” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report 1975/76,

p. 8). The ABC believed there was “a demand for colour television probably

unparalleled anywhere in the world”, with colour television sets in 31 percent of

57

Australian homes by July 1976 (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report

1975/76, p. 8). As Herd has indicated, the introduction of colour reinvigorated a

stagnating television market, where television households had reached saturation a

decade earlier (Herd, 2012, pp. 87, 217). The combination of increased audiences and

the enhanced viewer’s position delivered by new technologies such as colour provided

a major impetus for the commercialisation of television sports (Whannel, 2009, p.

211).

While WSC was responsible for a range of technical and related innovations, in many

cases these innovations drew on the twenty years of cricket broadcasts undertaken by

the ABC. These included multiple camera angles and placements, mobile camera

positions for side-on shots of the crowd and players, on-screen graphics and slow

motion replays.

The decision to introduce cameras at each end of the ground, usually attributed to

Kerry Packer, meant that play was broadcast from the batsman’s perspective at all

times. The use of cameras from each end of a cricket ground had been pioneered by

the ABC as long back as 1971 (Inglis, 1983, p. 287), although it was rarely used. There

was also a significant increase in the use of on-screen graphics, increased use of close-

ups and replays. The innovation was not so much in the use of techniques and

technologies that had been introduced previously, but in the manner of their use, for

example, the introduction of an animated duck figure with audio to accompany a

batsman dismissed without scoring.

During the same series (1970/71) the ABC had introduced real-time replays and in

1973/74 began broadcasting the first slow motion replays for national broadcasts21

(Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1973/74, p. 44). The 1974/75

Ashes series had witnessed the first use of slow motion replays (Cashman, 2011, p.

101), close-up shots of players and cameras square of the wicket (i.e., at a 90 degree

angle of the main shot of play, down the ground from behind the bowler or batsman)

The ABC had also introduced multi-camera sports broadcasts. These and other

innovations, which are invariably attributed to WSC, were introduced, technically

tested and proven, adapted and modified by the ABC over many years, before WSC.

21 See ABC Late Night Legends (ABC2) with future WSC commentators Richie Benaud and Bill Lawry doing ABC commentary and slow motion replay examples at 11:14, 14:05, 14:50, 16:28, 19:30, 22:30), on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HmgHwNWAng

58

The sports administration shake up: WSC and the relationship between

cricket’s administration and broadcasters

The real revolution, of which little was elaborated publicly, was in the administration

of Australian cricket, including the organisation of, promotion and “industrial

relations” with players. From 1979, PBL (Packer) effectively took control, either by

contracted agreement with promotional and marketing authority, or by virtue of default

broadcast rights. The three most fundamental changes that WSC delivered related to

the administration of cricket in Australia, the players’ move from part-time amateurs

to full-time professionals and the shift in marketing and promotion. This combination

established genuinely fundamental changes that transformed both Australian and

international cricket (Cashman, 2011, p. 112; Haigh, 2007, p. 328). By comparison,

changes in televised cricket that built on ABC innovation in multiple and moving

camera positions, replays and on-screen graphics, while important, were evolutionary.

Perhaps the most significant of these was in the sphere that had been controlled by the

game’s administrators, the structure and form of cricket itself. The relationship

between the sport’s governing agency, the Australian Cricket Board, and the media

outlet / broadcaster, principally the ABC from 1932 to 1979 and then Channel 9 from

1979, was completely changed as a result of WSC. The ACB and ABC relationship

has been characterised as cosy self-interest (Haigh, 2007, p. 34). The most compelling

evidence presented for this is the ACB manner of rejecting Packer’s initial rights offer.

Kerry Packer’s June 1976, $1.5 million offer to the ACB, rejected in favour of a deal

with the ABC, is noted by Gideon Haigh as confirming “his [Packer’s] prejudgement

of the ACB and ABC as club mates” (Haigh, 2007, p. 34). However, this analysis

ignores the ACB’s legitimate (if short sighted) interest in maintaining the shared rights

status quo that had been successfully implemented for over twenty years. A shift to

exclusive rights with a single television broadcaster was untried territory, and

presented potential risks especially for a conservative, risk averse organisation such as

the Australian Cricket Board.

As elaborated in Chapter Four, the ABC articulated these risks and such risk would be

echoed twenty years later in the anti-siphoning push by FTA television with the arrival

of subscription television in Australia. That is, certain rights deals (e.g. commercial

FTA exclusive rights in the 1970s or pay TV exclusivity in the 1990s and beyond) had

59

the potential to limit the availability of events of national significance (for example,

sport).

Moreover, the historical relationship between the ABC and ACB up to 1977 is not as

clear cut as Haigh’s analysis suggests. There was a clear differentiation in roles. The

ACB ran and organised the game of cricket, being responsible for setting the dates,

times and locations of matches (and whole tours), the playing conditions and even

access to players (Harte, 1993).

The role of the ABC and other broadcasters, who chose occasionally to share radio

and television rights, was to record the actuality and present it live, recorded, or as

news content. There was no place for an engagement on other aspects of the games,

including, for example, dates and timing of matches, the introduction of one day

matches or day / night matches22.

While one-day international cricket had been played since 1971 and the 1975 World

Cup had been an enormous success, the introduction of day / night, one-day cricket,

combining many elements of change, including most obviously but significantly night

time games, white ball, fielding placement restrictions, coloured clothing, was WSC’s

most visible, transformative impact. The ACB had control over all such aspects of the

game of cricket, including, for example, playing one day matches. One-day cricket had

been introduced in England in 1963 as a means of encouraging greater community

support and engagement with the sport, utilising television coverage. The first one-day

international match played between Australia and England in 1971 occurred as a result

of a washed out test match. Over 40,000 people attended the match (Harte, 1993, p.

528) which was broadcast live across Australia by the ABC. However, despite the

Marlyebone Cricket Club’s (MCC) encouragement to play more one day internationals

over the coming years, the ACB largely ignored the success of the 1971 match and

only three more one day internationals were played in Australia in the six years before

the WSC changes. This was a decision entirely in the hands of the administrators, with

no role for the broadcasters to influence the decision.

The ACB’s authority included decisions about what if any broadcast coverage could

be permitted, so that blanket restrictions existed for many years on live broadcast of

22 In 1966 the South African Cricket Board asked if a day night match could be held during the Australian tour. The ACB responded that under no circumstances was such a match to be played (Harte, 1993).

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test matches in the city in which the match was held (regardless of whether the match

was sold out and tickets were even available). With sold out match days in the 1974-

75 and 1975-76 test series, for example, this meant there were days of play that could

neither be watched live at the ground or on television in the city in which the match

was played.

Paradoxically, by initially rejecting Packer in 1976 and paving the way for WSC, the

ACB created the circumstances where the delineation between the role of broadcaster

and sports administrator was no longer clear if even relevant. WSC was a cricket series

owned, operated and controlled by Kerry Packer, on the field adhering to the laws of

cricket but in every other way played according to Kerry Packer’s rules. For example,

in an often quoted story of WSC, when Ian Chappell demurred at Packer’s view of

him as captain of WSC Australians, noting that his brother Greg was now the official

Australian captain, Packer is said to have stated, “You think this is a fucking

democracy, do you?” (Haigh, 2007, p. 37).

For traditional cricket supporters, the most obvious change that symbolised WSC’s

control of the game was the introduction of six ball overs to replace Australia’s

traditional eight ball over. The six ball over, adopted by WSC in 1977/78, was the first

time it had been used in Australia since the introduction of the eight ball over in 1924

(Frindall, 2010, p. 160; Webster, 1996, p. 402)23. For over fifty years, despite the

opposition of the MCC, Australia was the only country to utilise the eight ball over;

requiring touring teams (England, South Africa, India, West Indies and others) to play

by this rule when in Australia. WSC made the change ostensibly to ensure a greater

turnaround of play. It enabled more overs, although no more deliveries, to be bowled

each hour and day. It also provided an increased number of advertising breaks each

hour (Bonney, 1981). By providing approximately 16 advertising breaks per hour

compared to just 12 with eight ball overs there were 120 extra 30 second advertisement

spots per five day test match and 20 per one day match. Over the course of a season

this single change provided the potential for major increases in revenue. Utilising

1970s and 1980s spot advertising revenue data in Herd’s analysis of commercial

television (Herd, 2012, p. 225), this reduction in the number of deliveries per over

23 Australia moved to 8 ball overs for domestic first class cricket from 1918/19 to 1978/79. All test matches with the exception of matches involving the touring English teams of 1928/29 and 1932/33, when matches reverted to the 6 ball over, were played using the 8 ball over until 1981.

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provided an estimated extra revenue of $1-2 million annually. Most significantly, the

change was maintained and became a part of official cricket in the post-WSC

reconciliation, as the WSC “view prevailed” (Webster, 1996, p. 402).

Following the “reconciliation” agreement that assigned international television and

marketing rights to PBL, “the timing and nature of cricket in Australia no longer

revolved around the game’s administrators but around the needs of television, the

sponsors and players” (Herd, 2012, p. 239).

A workers revolution

There was a revolution in the change to employment conditions of leading cricketers

as a result of WSC. WSC’s changes were an important example of a global

commercialisation of sport in the 1970s (Miller et al., 2003, pp. 429–430). While the

1970s cricket changes did not lead to the end of national teams, there was an

“emergence in the 1970s of global cricket contests that transcended nationally selected

teams” (Miller et al., 2003, pp. 429–430). During the 1970s commercially sponsored

sporting events, including cricket series such as the Guinness company sponsored

“Rest of The World” series in England in 1970, organised after a scheduled South

African tour was cancelled, began to appear and are a “turning point” (Miller et al.,

2003, p. 429), a critical juncture in the relationship between sport as national identifier,

the commodification of sport and its place within a global economic sports order.

Significantly, in this context the players became employees of a corporate entity, in

WSC’s case PBL, rather than just their country’s sporting representatives. A key

component of that phenomenon was the professionalisation of players, with on-going

contracts of employment that included full-time commitments to not just play the sport

but to participate in media appearances, advertising and sponsorship promotions. This

professionalisation led to the call by players for increases in player payment levels and

security through contracts that guaranteed payment terms, a duration of employment

and an indication of future “superannuation” style arrangements. The immediate and

future security aspects were at least as important as the salary level increase.

1970s player antipathy towards Australian cricket administration, especially the low

rates of payment and the increasing time commitments required, had been developing

since the late 1960s. The major narratives of WSC (Beecher, 1978, p. 1; Cashman,

2011, p. 102; Haigh, 2007, p. 16) begin with a sense of the players’ disenchantment

62

with their situation and the administrators’ disdain for the players, elaborated in the

following comment: “These are not professionals … they were invited to play and if

they don’t like their conditions there are 500,000 cricketers in Australia who would

love to take their place” (Alan Barnes, Secretary, Australian Cricket Board, quoted in

Beecher, 1978, p. 1).

Nonetheless, while WSC histories note the significance and ease with which

international players signed up for WSC and their improved financial positions, the

“workers’ revolution” does not receive the same attention from WSC historians.

However, this, allied to the changes in cricket playing structures (e.g. the increasing

dominance of the limited over, short form game) was the most transformational for the

sport. It shifted cricket from a game played by amateur, part-time international players,

to full-time professionals.

While payment rates were a major issue, player concerns were also driven by the

significant increase in the amount of international cricket that steadily occurred after

World War II and which by the 1970s was having a major impact on the lives of “part-

time amateur sportsman” – Australian test cricketers (Dabscheck, 1991, p. 1). For

example, in the seven years immediately prior to WSC (1970-77), there had been 15

test series, including seven overseas tours, a total of 63 matches. This compared to 10

series and 51 matches in the same period in the 1960s and 44 matches in eight series

in the 1950s (Frindall, 2010). In the 1930s in the same period (first seven years of the

decade), Australia had made just two overseas tours and played only 40 matches.

Figure 3.3 below shows the increase in international cricket matches in each decade

from the 1920s to the 1970s, such that, by the 1970s, Australian (and other

international) cricketers had become full-time sportspeople.

63

Figure 3.3: Australian and overseas’ international cricket matches (1920s–1970s)

By the 1970s a number of international cricketers had become recognisable sporting

“stars”. Their prominence and “recognition” was a direct result of the increasing

television coverage of test cricket, especially the national broadcast from 1970/71.

This recognition derived not simply from the coverage, but the constructed nature of

the television sports genre. This included the manner of the audience development,

programming, production techniques and methods, scheduling and editing and

narration of test cricket broadcasts.

The WSC marketing and promotion “revolution”

The styling of WSC as a “revolutionary” change was both an element and a component

of its marketing. Drawing on its considerable cross-platform marketing and

promotional experience and expertise as an owner and operator of magazines,

newspapers and television stations, the Packer media conglomerate, Consolidated

Press Holdings, and its constituent companies, undertook an extensive media

promotion and advertising campaign. It was the use of cross-platform promotions

through PBL outlets (such as newspapers and magazines), and other initiatives such

13 196

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1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s

Overseas'InternationalMatches MatchesinAustralia

64

as the utilisation of the WSC cricketers in television and print advertising with

broadcast sponsors, that a WSC theme, C’mon Aussie, C’Mon, became a top selling

Australian song, and the use of on-air program promotions that focused on the danger

and confrontational nature of the sporting engagement, that drew on and promoted a

demotic nationalism that was fundamentally different to the public service

broadcasting approach to promoting content. The WSC marketing and promotion

changes were key components of the commercialisation of Australian cricket, and with

player professionalism and increased payments, mark the moment of movement of

ABC sports broadcasting from comprehensive to complementary.

Notwithstanding the style and expertise of the commercial approach, this could only

have occurred in a media and rights market that had been developed by the ABC since

the late 1950s. Evidence of the evolution of those markets is outlined below. Beginning

in 1934, the ABC had published an annual cricket journal designed to provide a

marketing and promotional focus for the forthcoming season or tour by an Australian

team going overseas. While its style changed over the years the journal’s basic format

remained the same as that initially developed to assist listeners for the first broadcasts

of an overseas cricket tour; the Australian Ashes tour of England in 1934. In addition

to providing a summary of the key match dates, player summaries and stories relevant

to the forthcoming season or tour, it included information about the ABC radio and

then television arrangements. Prosaic and limited in comparison to the PBL WSC

promotional approach, the ABC focus was on the committed cricket / sports follower.

By the 1970s, although it had attempted to modernise its look and feel with glossier

paper and colour photographs, it was no match for an organisation such as PBL that

had been publishing magazines for decades and understood cross-platform promotion.

The impact of regulation – Australian content rule changes and tobacco

advertising prohibition

Various WSC histories have highlighted the broadcasting regulatory environment as a

component in the emergence of WSC. The two major changes in the early to middle

of 1970s were a series of continued revisions of the Australian Content Standard for

FTA commercial television and the introduction of legislation banning tobacco

advertising in broadcasting.

65

While the restrictions and then prohibition on tobacco advertising had a major impact

on broadcast revenues, it is not so clear that there was a major impact from changes to

content rules during the 1970s. In 1971 the overall Australian programs quota of 50

percent was amended from the 1965 rule of the 24-hour daily period to apply to the 6

am to midnight period. Further changes occurred in relation to the prime time quota

(1972) and introduction of points system and a first release drama quota (1973) which

was extended in 1974 and 1976. While the 6 am to midnight requirement could be seen

to influence a decision relating to sport, which was played for the most part during the

day, the other elements relating to drama and prime time do not seem to have been as

great a driver.

The WSC – ACB rapprochement

The ACB maintained a public distance to WSC, including a significant attack by Board

member and Australia’s most famous cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman, on cricket

“mercenaries” in 1978 (Maxwell, 1994, p. 166). However, at the same time as the

article was published Bradman and other members of the ACB were discussing and

then negotiating with these alleged “mercenaries”, the Packer organisation, to seek a

reconciliation between established cricket and WSC. ACB discussions had begun as

early as September 1978 on the need to consider exclusive television rights in future

deals. At an ACB meeting Bradman argued, “that we should remain with the

Australian Broadcasting Commission for only the next year but the time has now come

for discussion of the question of exclusive rights” (Harte, 1993, p. 587).

Establishment cricket had sought various avenues to resolve differences with Packer.

The International Cricket Conference (ICC), representing all cricket playing countries,

had begun to suspect discussions were taking place between ACB representatives and

the Packer organisation, despite ACB undertakings not to reach any agreement with

Packer (Harte, 1993, p. 595). In January 1979 the ICC Chairman and Secretary met

WSC representatives in Sydney (Haigh, 2007, p. 247). In April 1979 during a WSC

series in the West Indies Kerry Packer again met with ICC officials and threatened to

take WSC to the UK (Harte, 1993, p. 595)

The ABC’s broadcast rights agreement with the ACB expired in March 1979 (Harte,

p. 601). At its 23 and 24 April 1979 meeting “the ACB agreed to a deal with Channel

Nine” (Harte, 1993, p. 605). In May 1979 the ACB and Packer announced a negotiated

66

outcome to the WSC / establishment war, where the Nine Network was awarded

exclusive television rights for test and first class cricket and PBL the marketing rights

for cricket (Haigh, 1996, p. 607, Haigh 2007, pp. 289–290).

The ABC’s feelings are evident in the 1978/79 Annual Report comment that the

Australian Cricket Board’s three-year deal had been made “despite the fact that the

ABC had made a substantial bid and that the national service had provided an extensive

coverage on a national basis for many years past, through ‘good’ seasons and ‘bad’, of

both Sheffield Shield and test cricket” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual

Report, 1978/79, pp. 7–8). The ABC again noted its unwillingness to provide a

“second network to carry to selected parts of Australia a five test cricket series”

(Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1978/79, p. 8). It concluded

that it would continue to argue for non-exclusive rights for events of national

significance such as major sporting events, as occurred in the United Kingdom. The

ABC was to present and test this argument in its submission to the Dix Inquiry. The

ACB did not support the ABC in its positon on a UK style prohibition on exclusive

rights for events of national significance, arguing against it in a submission to the Dix

Inquiry.

Packer had achieved much more than he initially sought in 1976, obtaining both

exclusive television rights and marketing and promotion rights that gave him effective

control over key elements of the game. Nonetheless, with the exception of day / night,

one-day cricket, WSC could be considered a failure. Great individual performances

occurred and the quality of cricket played was of the highest level. However, the WSC

Supertests did not capture the enthusiasm and attention of Australians in the way that

test cricket had done, especially during the resurgence that occurred in the 1970s, led

predominantly by ABC Television broadcasts. In the two years of WSC, 11 Supertests

were watched by 281,000 people, less than half the number of people who attended

the official tests Australia played against India and England (626,000). This was

despite the fact that test series attendance for Australia against England (370,554) in

1978-79 was itself half the 1974-75 series level (Cashman, 2011, pp. 108–109). WSC

had effectively cannibalised the cricket audience. Packer needed the rapprochement

with the cricket establishment, as much as the ACB needed to find a way out of its

financial problems.

67

The fundamental challenge for WSC was that WSC Australian players, although

household names, were not playing for the “Australian” team. The three WSC teams,

Australia, West Indies and World XI, although containing the best players from

Australia and the world, did not represent their national teams and were not engaged

in test match cricket. Over a long period, even before broadcasting, but especially after

the introduction of national radio and television coverage, the notion of what

constituted test cricket had been firmly placed in the Australian consciousness. This

was a contest between recognisably national teams, a format established over more

than one hundred years that evoked issues of nationalism, country, empire and sites of

resistance. Test cricket also drew on a sense of regional identity and participation. The

fifth test at the Oval in 1972, for example, was (in)famous as the first test match in 95

years in which no NSW player was selected.

WSC could not have occurred in 1977 without the twenty-year history of ABC

Television cricket, from which WSC drew on-air presenters and production personnel,

production techniques and approaches. As the ABC rebuilt its presence as a sports

broadcaster after WSC, it maintained this commitment to nation building through a

significant sports output in both volume and range, evolving into a complementary

sports broadcaster role by changing the mix of sports coverage (Goldsmith, 2015, p.

74). This redevelopment of ABC Television sport is described in Chapter Four.

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Chapter Four

1981 – Present: The ABC’s Complementary Broadcasting Role in

the Post-dominant Phase of its Sports History

This chapter describes the ABC’s response to the changes that influenced the shift to

an increasingly exclusive television sports rights market in Australia. The development

of commercial sponsorship and advertising opportunities in sports, changes in

broadcast technology, especially the introduction of satellite, and legislative changes

that enabled much greater national networking, saw commercial broadcasters move

increasingly into sports broadcasting. These changes were not limited to Australia, but

were both similar to and part of global changes occurring to sports broadcasting

(Scherer & Rowe, 2014, pp. 8–9; Whannel, 1992, pp. 58–59). This chapter traces the

strategic shift from comprehensive / dominant to complementary roles for the national

broadcaster’s TV sport coverage, charting the ABC’s innovation trajectory as it

evolved from technology to cover cricket to support under- or un-represented and

marginal sports. Analysing the ABC’s engagement with a further set of public

broadcasting reviews from 1989 to 2011, the chapter also describes a refocusing on

localisation as the commercialisation of TV sport consolidated national sports markets.

The ABC’s television sports broadcasting reinvention

The ABC’s track record of innovation and nation building in sports broadcasting was

not eclipsed by the international cricket broadcast changes brought on by WSC and its

aftermath. Instead, I argue that they established a point of departure for a second era

of ABC televised sport, with a new focus on local (state and territory) competitions

and codes, and a range of sports that had been, and in some cases continue to be,

ignored by commercial broadcasters. The ABC drew on its long history of radio and

television sports broadcasts to establish a strategic focus complementary to that of

national, commercial markets and mainstream sports, often bringing sports to

broadcasting for the first time.

From the 1980s the ABC undertook a range of approaches to televised sport,

establishing a model that continues to the present time, with changes that included the

establishment of a standalone television sports department and the use of new formats

such as sports documentaries and increased promotion. This chapter therefore outlines

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how the ABC, while maintaining a high level of sports programming, managed the

shift from a comprehensive sports broadcaster to a complementary one. In so doing, a

range of innovative approaches were undertaken, identifying and providing broadcast

opportunities to sports that had not received significant (if any) television exposure to

Australian audiences. Specific attention is given to the ABC’s broadcasts of women’s

sports and the Paralympic Games from 1988.

The focus of this chapter is primarily the 1980s and 1990s, the period where the ABC

established a post-WSC sports broadcasting identity. This post-WSC sports

broadcasting presence continues, to the present, albeit in modified and at times reduced

levels of output. Nonetheless, the strategic policy approach adopted in the early 1980s

endures. The chapter describes the history of the ABC’s engagement with key public

broadcasting policy reviews, including the Dix Inquiry (1981) and the Review of

National Broadcasting (1988) that bookend the 1980s. Each review, as well as the

Mansfield Inquiry in 1997 and further inquiries in the 2010s presented policy debates

that provided the ABC the opportunity to reconfirm sport as part of the ABC’s Charter

mission.

The ABC’s post-WSC strategy included a new approach to television broadcasting of

major sports, seeking to maintain a shared rights environment while also bidding

where necessary for exclusive rights. Part of the new strategy was also to seek a

legislative solution where sports rights would be prioritised for significant events on a

shared basis for public and commercial broadcasters (Inglis 1983, p. 439; Harte 1993,

p. 617). The ABC adumbrated the policy setting of reserving events of national

significance, to be called “anti-siphoning” when applied to the relationship between

FTA and pay television. In 1994, amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act

preserved such events, all sporting competitions, for FTA television against the

potential threat of being siphoned off to pay television (Rowe, 2014, p. 171).

It is arguable that the ABCs consistent advocacy for shared rights had some influence

on the later anti-siphoning policy. The ABC’s rationale, rejected by the Dix Inquiry

(see below), that the importance of sport to national identity meant sporting events

should be widely available to television audiences, was accepted and secured in the

1990s for the FTA environment. The ABC’s move, to seek to maintain national access

to sports, was prescient given the 1995 legislative amendments for FTA television to

ensure “events of national significance” were freely available to all Australians. The

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ABC’s concern was that Australians living in areas not able to view commercial sports

broadcasts would be discriminated against compared to those able to watch in capital

cities. The ABC argued for a shared, national access to significant events.

The second major element of ABC sports strategy in securing national access to sports

content was to undertake legal challenges in relation to exclusive television rights

where the ABC felt that an event was not being made available to the whole Australian

community. As noted below, initially technical and legislative arrangements limited

the ability for many Australians, especially those living in regional communities, to

view major sports events. However, even when these limitations to access were

apparently addressed in legislative and technology changes, commercial media

decisions limited the availability of sports programming, as recently as 2005 for Ashes

test cricket and 2016 for coverage of the Paralympics.

The ABC was not always successful in its tactical gambits of court challenges, bidding

for exclusive or non-exclusive rights, or legislative reform. Nonetheless, and despite

its own sometimes self-pitying narratives in reports and submissions, the national

broadcaster demonstrated perseverance and resilience in continually adapting its

tactics to pursue opportunities for communities around Australia to participate as part

of a national sports audience.

The period from 1981 to 2011 can be divided into three parts:

• 1980s: the ABC continuing to seek to be a major sports broadcaster but diversifying its TV sports output;

• 1990s: the ABC sports broadcasting reaching a point where the television delivery of major sports was the exception rather than the rule; and

• 2000s: the ABC again revising its approach to sport.

ABC Television national sport broadcasts from the 1980s remained at about the same

level as in previous years, in fact, it was increasing compared to both the 1960s and

the 1970s (see Figure 4.1).

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Figure 4.1: ABC TV average annual, national sport hours broadcast by decade (1960s–2010s) Source: Australian Broadcasting Commission and Australian Broadcasting Corporation Annual Reports

During the 1980s TV Sport was the second largest genre broadcast by the ABC, after

Entertainment programs. While a decline did occur in the 1990s, national output still

exceeded the annual hours broadcast in the 1960s. The level, range and diversity of

national and international sports broadcasts continued into the early 2000s before

experiencing a small resurgence in the early 2010s. As outlined below the increase in

the early 2010s reflected the increase in women’s sports broadcast on ABC Television.

The 1980s

At an annual average of 558 hours (see Figure 4.1 above) ABC Television sport

broadcasts through the 1980s remained at about the same level as in previous decades,

even exceeding the average annual hours broadcast in the 1960s. Further, at least for

the 1980s, hours of sports broadcast continued to be the second highest of any genre.

Moreover, Sport maintained its position as a major genre, being the second most

broadcast genre after Entertainment (see Figure 4.2 below). In fact, in several years,

such as in 1982/83, 1984/85 and 1986/87, more sport was broadcast than any other

single genre.

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Figure 4.2: ABC Television average annual Australia hours broadcast by genre (1981/2–1990/91) Source: Australian Broadcasting Commission and Australian Broadcasting Corporation Annual Reports

Although the ABC embraced an expanding role in “second tier” sports (see “The ABC

Diversifies” below) it continued for a number of years to seek to broadcast

international sports such as rugby, cricket and the Olympics, including a 1988 bid for

the 1992 Olympic Games. This ABC secured 1982 World Cup broadcast rights and a

three-year agreement with the Australian Rugby Union for international matches

involving Australia. Perhaps the sports broadcasting pinnacle was the host

broadcasting role for the 1982 Commonwealth Games from Brisbane, when the ABC

was host broadcaster “for the biggest event in Australian broadcasting history” with

134 hours broadcast on ABC Television (Australian Broadcasting Commission,

Annual Report, 1982/83, p. 3).

The ABC’s first use of its legal challenge strategy was action relating to a post-WSC

exclusive television rights deal. In December 1979 the ABC took legal action in the

Federal Court of Australia against the ACB, “PBL Marketing, World Series Cricket

and other Packer owned companies” (Harte, 1993, p. 617) to stop the Nine Network

from “exclusively televising test cricket matches” (Variety, 30 January 1980, p. 66)

utilising the rights granted by the ACB in May 1979. The May agreement had given

PBL exclusive promotional rights for Australian cricket for ten years and broadcast

rights for three years. Further, the agreement gave PBL (not the ACB) the right, after

three years, to seek bids for future broadcast rights, including from its own related

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company, the Nine Network. In return the ACB received a payment of $1 million

annually, increasing over time. It also had an entitlement to net returns on sponsorship

revenues raised by PBL marketing. However, for the term of the agreement, the ACB

was required to pay PBL for gross gate receipts over $1.5 million per annum (not

indexed).

The ABC argued that the granting of exclusive television rights, as well as other issues

such as the granting of cricket merchandising and marketing rights, breached Section

45 of the Trade Practices Act. The Federal Court ruled in the ABC’s favour that

“giving exclusive rights to Kerry Packer was a breach of the Trade Practices Act”

(Inglis, 1983, p. 439). Justice Morling delivered the settlement terms on 27 March

1981, providing the ABC with test and first class (including Sheffield Shield) live and

replay television broadcast rights in regional areas on ABC regional services, ensuring

the 1981-82 test matches (three against Pakistan and three against the West Indies)

were broadcast on both the ABC and the Nine Network (Australian Broadcasting

Commission, Annual Report, 1980/81, p. 9). The ABC noted that, “the decision

provides all Australians with coverage of major cricket through the national television

network from the 1981-82 season … in particular restoring a televised service to

viewers in regional and outback areas” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual

Report, 1981/82, p. 9). However, it had won the most Pyrrhic of victories, since the

ABC had “to pay Channel Nine $600,000 per annum, indexed annually, for permission

to televise” (Harte, 1993, p. 618), while the PBL settlement with the ACB was for a

non-indexed, annual fee of $420,000 for the television rights to the largest broadcast

areas (metropolitan).

While it came at considerable financial cost, the ABC successfully achieved its stated

view that events of national significance, such as international and national sport,

should be available to all Australians regardless of where they lived. In 1982 “the ABC

resumed its coverage of these matches in the 1981-82 summer”, broadcasting all of

the Australian matches against the West Indies and Pakistan to regional Australia and

the “last two hours of play each day to capital city ABC stations” (Australian

Broadcasting Commission Annual Report, 1981/82, p. 60).

The loss of rights to broadcast test cricket and other sporting contests was “a matter of

national concern” (Inglis, 1983, p. 428; Inglis, 2006, p. 72) highlighted in the ABC

submission to the Dix Review (The ABC in Review: National Broadcasting in the

74

1980s). In addition to winning Test cricket rights, Channel Nine had outbid the ABC

to broadcast Wimbledon tennis and the Seven Network had won exclusive rights for

the 1980 Olympics, after decades of shared coverage with the ABC. Further, in 1977

the Ten Network had secured exclusive rights to the Melbourne Cup, with the ABC

broadcasting to regional areas. To address the issue, the ABC sought a legislative

response, similar to UK legislation dating from 1954 (Whannel, 1992, p. 52) and 1973

(Bonney 1980, p. 12), to prohibit exclusive rights to such events being sold to

commercial broadcasters (Inglis, 1983, p. 428). The 1954 Television Act had given

the UK Postmaster General the power to list events of national interest to ensure they

were not subject to broadcast competition (Smith, 2010, p. 320; Whannel, 1992, p. 52)

and the 1973 Independent Broadcasting Act ensured both BBC and ITV had access to

key sports (Bonney, 1980, p. 12). The ABC “proposed that Australia’s Broadcasting

and Television Act ‘be amended to introduce a provision similar to the IBA Act 1973

(UK) which denies exclusive television rights to any organisation for the broadcasting

of sporting or other events of national interest’” (Dix, 1981, para. 11.12024).

The ABC in Review: National Broadcasting in the 1980s

In May 1981, as the ACB and PBL announced their exclusive television and

promotional agreement for the broadcast of test and other international cricket in

Australia, the Dix Review released the report of its inquiry of the ABC. The Dix Report

noted that the increasing commerciality of sport made it a “very big business” (Dix,

1981, para. 11.124) “and the seller cannot be blamed for playing off the bidders against

each other to reach the highest possible price” (Dix, 1981, para. 11.39). Unlike other

genres, such as feature films, the ABC should not get involved in competitive sports

rights bidding (Dix, 1981, para. 11.39). Dix and others (Bonney, 1980) took the view

that the ABC was spending too much of its programming budget on sports rights and

too much of its schedule time on sport. The Dix Review noted that sports content was

the most broadcast television genre after education and children’s programs, having

increased from nine percent in 1966/67 to 17 percent of output in 1979/80 (Dix, 1981,

para. 11.116). 764 hours of sports programs were broadcast on ABC Television in

24 The Dix Report Vol. 2 does not contain page numbers, but chapter and paragraph numbers. Therefore, Chapter 11 on Programming and Policy addresses sport in paragraphs 111 to 143, numbered 11.111 to 11.143.

75

1979/80 (Australian Broadcasting Commission Annual Report quoted in Dix, 1981,

para. 11.117).

My research has identified a certain selectivity in the Dix Review’s sports data

comparison. As noted in Chapter Two, the hours of sports broadcast by the ABC in

the 1960s varied considerably, with the major variable the presence or otherwise of a

test cricket series being played in Australia (see Figure 2.1). In 1966/67 there was no

series played. However, if the Review had anchored its time series data comparison in

the previous year, 1965/66, it would have found a more moderate increase in ABC

sports output from 11% to 17%. More significantly, if the Review had looked at ABC

sports output over time, as the current thesis does, it would have noted, for example,

that in the five years to 1966/67, ABC sports broadcasts accounted for an average 12

percent of broadcast hours. By the time of the Review the five-year average to 1979/80

had shifted to 16 percent (time series data based on ABC Annual Reports).

In coming to the conclusion the ABC should reduce its national sports broadcasting,

the Review seems to have undertaken little analysis of the role of broadcasting sports

events in nation building and binding, especially the ABC’s unique role of

broadcasting local sports competitions in each state and territory and national and

international matches to the nation. The Review recommended the ABC undertake a

“review of its sporting output” to determine the amount of sport being broadcast and

to “reflect the range of sporting activity at a local and regional level” (Dix, 1981, Part

2, Summary of Recommendations). In recommending this approach Dix wanted the

ABC to move away from major, national sports and shift sports broadcasting coverage

to other sports (Dix, 1981, paras.11.131–11.134), based on community sports

participation rates. However, even here, the Review was at odds with its own analysis,

citing soccer as not broadcast by the ABC despite having a significant national playing

base. However, the Dix Review’s report noted that local soccer was being broadcast

by 0-28. The Review also wanted the ABC to move away from the “relatively

mechanical business of compiling and presenting results and other sports

newsgathering … [to] sporting features, documentaries and in-depth background

material (especially players or sports which are not suitable for conventional coverage”

(Dix, 1981, para. 11.139). There is evidence, as noted below, of the ABC undertaking

such an approach during the post-WSC period, such as in its initial programming

approach to the Paralympics which was to commission a documentary series.

76

However, the ABC did so as part of its wider sports broadcasting strategy, not as a

replacement for pre-existing (1981) activity.

Considering the Dix Review report’s recommendations and narrative as outlined

above, it is clear the Review did not comprehend the broad policy approach that the

ABC sought to continue to undertake, as both a comprehensive and a complementary

broadcaster. Nor did the Review provide any commentary about the way sports

broadcasting had brought specific events to national audiences, making them shared

national events (Whannel, 1992, p. 16). In fact, public broadcasters such as the ABC

played a major role in nation building by bringing such events to national audiences

through broadcasting technologies, thereby becoming “primary definer(s) of national

identity” (Whannel, 1992, p. 18). Enabling communities around the country to

participate in sporting events as viewers and as cultural citizens, i.e. providing “access

to live sport for all citizens was regarded as simply part of the ‘national estate’”

(Scherer & Rowe, 2015, p. 4).

Among the factors informing the Review’s view was a sense of how a future Australian

television environment would be influenced by the imminent arrival of satellite

capability in the 1980s. Specifically in relation to sport, Dix believed that

developments over the past two years [WSC and the ACB-–Packer

rapprochement] seem to suggest a willingness on the part of the owners of

exclusive rights to televised coverage of certain events to make a ‘clean

feed’ (that is without advertising interruption) available to the ABC free of

charge or at reduced rates, for transmission to the areas where no

commercial television is available. (Dix, 1981, para. 9.63)

In other regional areas, where commercially televised sport, e.g. Test cricket, was not

available because “the TV licencees … had decided not to purchase the coverage”

(Dix, 1981, para. 9.64), as far as the Review was concerned this was entirely a

commercial matter and “should have no implications for the ABC’s role” (Dix, 1981,

para. 9.64).

The context for the views expressed by the Dix Review was the changed economics

and power of major sport, where the emergence of a competitive sports rights market

made it “unrealistic of the ABC to look to the past, to claim … some consideration for

77

the fact that it has ‘… provided an extensive coverage on a national basis for many

years past through ‘good’ seasons and bad …’” (Dix, 1981, para. 11.124).

Although the Dix Review recognised its potential expense, the Review imagined, if

not envisaged, the existing ABC television network with regional (as well state and

territory capitals) studios delivering into the future satellite distributed service (Dix,

1981, para. 9.57). Although the Dix Review expressed concern that the satellite would

drive an enduring, centralised network with eventually all but some news and sports

programming being delivered from one or two sites (Dix, 1981, para. 9.56), its

solution, a “network of new regional television studios built to provide a local inject

capacity”, does not seem a practical suggestion in the absence of significant, extra

funding for the ABC. Further, it was not consistent with the Review’s failure to

endorse the ABC’s second television channel proposal, without which there was a lack

of program delivery capability. It was also inconsistent with the view that the ABC

should provide regional sports “infills” (areas where commercial broadcasters did not

have television coverage) for commercial broadcasters who held sports rights but not

regional broadcast capability. The Review did not address how a single channel could

meet the combined requirements of the ABC national network, state and any new

regional content needs and deliver other broadcasters’ sports programs.

This latter issue, providing commercial broadcasters’ sports content, arose because of

the Review’s comments on regional community access to televised sport. While the

Review held the view that there was generally too much sport on ABC Television, it

believed that regional areas were not receiving the sports programming they desired.

Rural communities, while understanding that there were complex commercial, legal

and financing problems associated with ABC access to major sporting events, felt that

the ABC should be doing more to work with commercials to bring “for example, first

class cricket to viewers in areas where the ABC provided the sole television program,

and especially where the ABC had been evidently offered low-cost or free rights to an

advertising-free (clean) feed” (Dix, 1981, para. 9.50). However, there is no evidence,

apart from the quoted comments by the Federation of Commercial Television Stations

(FACTS), the representative organisation of commercial television, and hearsay

evidence to the Review that the ABC was ever offered such rights for free (Dix, 1981,

paras. 9.51, 9.63, 9.64). In fact, all the evidence shows that the ABC was required to

pay large sums to gain rural and regional television broadcast rights. For example, in

78

1977 the fee paid by the ABC for regional viewing rights to the Nine Network / PBL

(who did not have regional broadcast distribution), for the Ashes series from the UK

exceeded the ABC’s bid for all Australian television rights for the series (see Chapter

Three). Further, as noted above, the outcome of the 1981 trade practices legal case

meant the ABC had to pay $600,000 annually for regional test cricket broadcast rights.

While it is possible the Dix Review had no insight into the financial details of the rights

environment, its proposed solution (free access for the ABC) was misguided and naïve.

The Dix Review rejected the ABC shared rights legislation proposal on the grounds

that “it is politically and economically unrealistic, given recent developments in sports

promotion and the ABC anyway should shift its emphasis away from major sports

events” (Dix, 1981, para. 11.122). There was no analysis by the Dix Review of the UK

environment and the public policy reasons for its 1973 legislation and whether such a

public policy rationale might or might not exist in Australia. Moreover, major sports

such as cricket, as represented by the ACB, quoted by the Dix Review as representative

of the majority, rejected any legislated non-exclusivity. The Dix Review’s summary

was that although some sports were of “national importance … international sporting

events are attractive to commercial television networks provided such events are

provided to them on an exclusive basis” (ACB submission quoted in Dix, 1981, para.

11.123). The opposition to the ABC proposal by a powerful combination of

commercial broadcasting (as exemplified by Kerry Packer’s bid for exclusive cricket

rights) expressed by FACTS and sporting associations such as the Australian Cricket

Board was compelling for the Review. The Dix Review saw sports broadcasting in

market terms, that is, once commercial broadcasters sought rights on an exclusive basis

the competitive environment should ensue. There does not seem to have been a

consideration of access for audiences across Australia unable to view the commercial

broadcasters’ output, except to the extent noted above in the Dix Review’s naïve

suggestion that commercials give rights away to the ABC. More significantly, the role

of sports content as part of public broadcasting’s nation building role. The ACB and

other sports took a different view little more than a decade later in 1994 when, at the

least, they acquiesced to the introduction of anti-siphoning legislation in relation to

“events of national significance / importance” being barred from exclusive purchase

by the then emerging pay television, notwithstanding that their position was still driven

by commercial imperatives.

79

The ABC’s post-WSC role in test cricket broadcasts

That the ABC was not vacating the international sports television environment was

clear from its celebration of the return of test cricket on ABC Television. While the

Nine Network had won Australian rights for the 1977 Ashes series from England, they

did not bid for the rights to the one-off, Lords Centenary Test in 1980 or the 1981 five

Test match series from England. In a repeat of commercial television’s ad hoc attitude

to cricket broadcasts in the 1960s, the ABC was the only broadcaster interested in

securing the television rights to broadcast the 1981 series (Australian Broadcasting

Commission, Annual Report 1980/81, p. 61). Test cricket from England began in the

middle of television prime time at 8 pm eastern Australian time and the commercial

broadcasters considered this too much of a disruption to the prime time schedule. In

subsequent years, to the early 1990s, the ABC continued to broadcast Test matches

played in Australia, live and in full to regional areas, with the final session of play

broadcast in metropolitan cities. The ABC regularly noted its role especially, for

example, that “Country viewers also received special consideration with live telecasts

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1983/84, p. 32) and

“International cricket coverage … to regional areas attracted large audiences”

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1986/87, p. 20) and “In cricket,

ABC-TV Sport continued its commitment to service regional areas with live coverage

of all Test Matches played in Australia” (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual

Report, 1987/88 p. 23).

The ABC also celebrated a return to international tennis broadcasts, having “obtained

television rights to the Mazda Support Challenge International Tennis” (Australian

Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1980/81, p. 9). In fact, the ABC asserted

that it intended “to maintain its place at the forefront of television sports presentation

in Australia” and was in the process of reviewing technical, content and style of sports

delivery (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1980/81, p. 61). This

also resulted in an organisational change that saw the Sports department split into

separate Radio and Television production departments (Australian Broadcasting

Commission, Annual Report, 1982/83, p. 11).

The changes established a point of departure for a second era of ABC televised sport,

with a new focus on local (state and territory) competitions and codes, and a range of

sports that had been ignored by commercial broadcasters.

80

The ABC diversifies

In addition to the post-WSC agreement for cricket broadcasts to regional areas and the

last session of play for capital cities, the ABC continued to use its localised, distributed

production system to deliver sports content to the local and national network. The ABC

worked with commercial broadcasters to deliver “events of national importance”

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1983/84, p. 32) to the widest

possible audience, especially regional and remote viewers. This included the Americas

Cup in 1986, the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, Melbourne Cup, VFL Grand

Final (see AFL), World Series one-day cricket final, and Channel 10’s coverage of the

1984 Olympics.

Notwithstanding its co-operation with the commercial sector, the ABC continued to

note that in addition to being part of a comprehensive sports broadcasting service it

also undertook a complementary role through the provision of “considerable air-time”

to sports “ignored by the commercial broadcasters” while continuing “to seek

television rights to mass appeal sports” in a highly competitive environment

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1983/84, p. 31). Examples of

the complementary sports included lawn bowling, netball and badminton and “In

women’s sport, in addition to netball, the ABC covered basketball, softball, hockey

and lawn bowls competitions” (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report,

1983/84, p. 32).

During the 1980s, up to forty different sports and 100 specific events from around

Australia were broadcast annually, with, for example, in 1983/84, 39 sports broadcast

“live or on relay” of 97 separate events (ABC, 1983/84 Supplementary information on

ABC Activities, pp. 78–80). Leading football codes including rugby in Queensland

and New South Wales, and Australian football in Victoria, South Australia, Western

Australia and Tasmania continued to be broadcast to large audiences with VFL

matches in Victoria and NSW watched by “… up to 600,000 people” (Australian

Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report 1986/87, p. 26). For some years, live, direct

coverage of Sydney rugby league was provided to Queensland, Northern Territory,

Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and NSW regionals, at the time “the biggest

regular live football replay yet undertaken in Australia” (Australian Broadcasting

Commission, Annual Report, 1980/81, p. 61). In addition, the ABC broadcast

magazine programs such as Sports Arena about sports issues and events. The breadth

81

of sports covered, the range of formats and the willingness to continue to explore

opportunities for major and new (to television) sports events as described above was

consistent with the ABC’s longstanding policy approach to the “concept of an

innovative output, …which contributes to a continuing sense of national identity”

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1983/84, p. 6).

Following the establishment of the new Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1983

there was a reassertion of the strategy “that the Corporation’s programs must address

fluid and changing minorities and majorities within the community” (Australian

Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1983/84, p. 6), with “technological

innovation a way of ensuring services to all Australians ‘wherever they may live”

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1983/84, p. 6). This was a

continuation of the previous Australian Broadcasting Commission’s stated policy and

strategic view. Further, the ABC’s production infrastructure of regionally located

outside broadcast facilities and state and territory based production personnel

continued to underpin its unique national broadcasting role.

In 1987/88 the ABC Board again highlighted the problems regional Australians were

experiencing in seeking to watch national and international sports, where rights had

been purchased by commercial broadcasters with major city broadcast coverage, but

no regional coverage. Changes in the commercial television sector were having an

impact where in a “new scramble for audience domination, live coverage of major

sporting events both within Australia and overseas is seen as a major weapon.

Consequently, the fierce competition for exclusivity forced rights fees to new heights”

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1987/88, p. 22). The ABC drew

attention to the problems these exclusive rights contracts had in denying many regional

viewers access to events. The English FA Cup matches (Channel 9), VFL matches

(Channel 7), and Olympic Game highlights (10 Network) were examples of sports that

regional Australia had limited access to by the inability of the ABC to secure access.

Positioned outside the commercial pressures of national advertising markets and

possessing a national broadcasting capability, the ABC was uniquely positioned to

continue to contribute to the process of nation building.

82

The impact of satellite distribution, commercial television ownership de-

regulation and the Review of National Broadcasting Policy

In the late 1980s a series of phenomena that worked to change Australian

broadcasting’s “secondary markets” had a major impact on the ABC, including its

television sports broadcast strategy. This significantly altered public and commercial

broadcasting arrangements in regional Australia, effectively constructing metropolitan

broadcasters and their regional affiliates as networks. These included the regulatory

changes that removed the “two television station” limit on commercial broadcasters,

permitting a 60 percent “reach” (O’Regan, 1993, p. 22), introduction of satellite for

television broadcast distribution and transmission25, reductions in ABC funding by the

Federal Government and a shift in public media policy that sought to limit the role and

activity of public broadcasting, especially the ABC. This last element was expressed

through a 1987–88 Review of National Broadcasting Policy undertaken by the

Department of Transport and Communication on behalf of the Australian Government.

Before turning to the Review, the impact of the satellite and regulatory changes to

regional commercial broadcasting should be noted. The national broadcaster, with a

networked technical infrastructure, primarily of coaxial cable and terrestrial

microwave and then satellite distribution (O’Regan, 1993, pp. 24–25), continued to

broadcast significant levels of local programming and “network breakouts”, especially

for local sports programming. However, “the launch of the domestic satellite …

reconfigure[d] ABC … television operations (O’Regan, 1993, p. 28). The combined

impact of budget cuts during the 1980s and requirements to make greater use of the

satellite saw continued reductions in ABC regional television (the “BAPH” states26)

operations (O’Regan, 1993, p. 28). These changes had a major impact, making it more

straightforward for networking programs for both the ABC and commercial

broadcasters (as major capital city / regional affiliates), while the local broadcast

presence was increasingly part of a national network (O’Regan, 1993, p. 30).

Notwithstanding broadcast changes, the ABC continued to maintain a mix of national

and local content production, distribution and transmission. While commercial

broadcasting services were invariably limited to local news the ABC recommitted to

25 Transmission refers to program delivery to audiences, distribution to the systems and processes for the movement of content within the broadcaster (e.g. from outside broadcasts and/or interstate / international sources for program preparation). 26 “BAPH” – Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart

83

high levels of national (including from around Australia), state and territory sports

programming as well as news, current affairs and coverage of local events such as the

annual ANZAC day marches in each capital city. ABC local sports broadcasts included

local rugby league, rugby union and Australian football codes as the commercial

broadcasters moved to broadcast new national football competitions (AFL, NRL and

rugby competitions) during the 1980s and 1990s. Moves by commercial media to

support the development of national sports competitions such as the Australian

Football League occurred in 1987 and the National Rugby League (NRL) in 1995. The

NRL was established after a media “war” between News Corporation’s “Super

League” and PBL / Optus support for the established Australian Rugby League27. In

both these instances, AFL and rugby league, as for cricket in the 1970s, the ABC and

in some instances, commercial broadcasters, had established and proven that a viable,

consistent audience was present to support the broadcast concept of a national

competition.

O’Regan points to the emergence of national sporting competitions such as the AFL,

National Basketball League and the then emerging expansion of rugby league as

examples of this emerging local presence in national competitions and as part of

broadcast networks (O’Regan, 1993, p. 30). As noted above in this chapter, the ABC

took its evolving, post-WSC sports strategy to the next stage in broadcasting a local

presence as part of the network output and national competitions. This included

increased coverage of local teams performing in local competitions, albeit

predominantly for state and territory capital city competitions.

Regulatory changes to commercial television ownership and the expanding usage of

satellite technology enabled commercial broadcasters to move from “local” to network

services, as they “moved in the same networking direction as had the SBS and ABC

(O’Regan, 1993, p. 29). As the commercial services came to be seen as national

networks, the role of the national broadcasters came under scrutiny. In August 1987,

the ABC was advised by the new Communications Minister, Gareth Evans, that “the

government was not going to finance an organisation indistinguishable from

commercial broadcasters” (Inglis, 2006, p. 154). In the same month the Minister

advised the ABC of his intention to have “a review of what was expected of the ABC

27 In this confrontation between establishment sport and the media to establish a new competition, Kerry Packer’s PBL was aligned with the established sports entity, ARL.

84

as a national broadcaster” (Inglis, 2006, p. 156), based on his concerns that ABC

Television and local radio services were becoming too commercial in their

programming and appeal to audiences.

1988 Review of National Broadcasting Policy

Released in February 1988 and conducted by the Department of Transport and

Communications (DOTAC), the Review of National Broadcasting Policy canvassed

three options for the future of public broadcasting, clearly favouring the third option,

distinctions between charter, non-charter and peripheral activities (Debrett, 2010, p.

92; Inglis, 2006, p. 161).

The Review constructed the PSB role as problematic, stating in the introduction that

“… the absence of agreement on the role of national broadcasting and of clear

legislative Charters for the ABC and the SBS combine to leave the future for both

uncertain” (DOTAC, 1988, p. 1) and “… there are critics (admittedly a minority) who

claim that the ABC’s output “duplicates that of the commercial broadcasters and as

such is a waste of taxpayers’ money” (DOTAC, 1988, p. 10).

Equally problematic was the Review’s construction that “the role of the ABC in

‘satisfying needs not met by other broadcasters’ requires a little further explanation.

The concept was essentially that the ABC should complement commercial services to

the extent necessary to ensure that comprehensive programming is available to all

Australians” (DOTAC, 1988, p. 17). The Review’s policy construction shifted the

ideas of public broadcasting comprehensiveness and complementarity to that of the

broadcast system. The system as a whole would be comprehensive, with the ABC

complementary to other offerings where the market failed to provide programming.

Further, the Review’s foregrounding of a concern about program quality set up an

outcome that attempted to position the ABC as a market failure broadcaster in the

emerging media environment (DOTAC, 1988, p. 2). To achieve this outcome, the

Review proposed the establishment of Charter and non-Charter “responsibilities [that]

can be applied directly to the issue of priority-setting”, with Charter responsibilities to

include “the categories of news, current affairs, drama, the arts, children, education,

information and political matter” (DOTAC, 1988, p. 22).

The Review specifically discussed the place of sports broadcasting in its proposed

Charter and non-Charter proposal, noting “…the coverage of minority sports might

85

well fall into the category of complementary programming … and thus be a Charter

activity” (DOTAC, 1988, p. 24). The Review rightly identified sport (and other genres)

capacity to be either comprehensive or complementary. However, it characterised the

difference not in terms of innovation, R&D of content and audience, but in commercial

market terms. Thus, the broadcast of “major sports in regional and remote areas where

there is presently non-existent, or very limited, commercial station access” (DOTAC,

1988, p. 24) was considered a Charter activity. While the Review proposed that

funding for Charter activity would “be privileged or entrenched (DOTAC, 1988, p.

27), funds for other (non-Charter and / or peripheral) activity would not, leaving it

open to determination by Government on a case by case basis. The context for such

decisions are also clear, given the Review’s view that national broadcasters need “to

rationalise their activities” (DOTAC, 1988, p. 31). The ABC explicitly rejected the

concepts of Charter and non-Charter activities (Debrett, 2010, p. 92; Inglis, 2006, p.

165) that would have driven the organisation into a complementary role without the

potential to work between the pillars of comprehensiveness and complementarity.

The 1988 Review threatened to marginalise the ABC into becoming a “market failure”

service. Sport was a key element of the ABC’s argument to be both comprehensive

and complementary, confronting the Review’s binary construction of “market / market

failure” for conceptualising the role of public service broadcasting. This construction

failed to grasp PSB’s significance as an innovator operating in both the comprehensive

and the complementary broadcasting modes and the evolutionary shift in content over

time from either comprehensive to complementary or the opposite path as

complementary content became part of a comprehensive mix. The ABC Board’s

rejection of the Review’s proposals, “reaffirming its commitment to comprehensive

broadcasting, rejecting the distinction between charter, non-charter and peripheral”

was provided to the Government in May 1989 and the Government did not pursue the

issue (Debrett, 2010, p. 92; Inglis, 2006, p .165). While the Government did not move

to implement the Review’s approach and the ABC was able to continue to maintain its

broad public policy, the issue was to continue to influence broadcasting public policy

debates into the next century.

86

1990s

From the beginning of the 1990s to the 2010s, ABC Television’s Australian sport

output remained generally stable. This was due to a decrease in nationally broadcast

sports broadcasting being offset by local sport broadcasts. Sport had decreased to an

average 425 hours annually (Figure 4.3), placing it sixth in terms of genre hours

broadcast by ABC Television. While national sports broadcast had decreased by

around 100 hours annually compared to the previous decade, this was significantly

above the 1960s average of 312 hours per year. Further, its level of output was similar

to factual and children’s programs, indicating its continued significance.

Figure 4.3: ABC Television average annual Australia hours broadcast by genre (1991/92–2000/01) Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation Annual Reports

ABC television sports in the 1990s began with coverage of the 1991 Rugby Union

World Cup. However, immediately following the event, the ABC which “had covered

the code from the time television broadcasts began in Australia” lost the rights to

commercial television (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1991/92,

p. 37). The ABC, while expressing regret, reaffirmed its post-WSC television sports

strategy to pursue international and national sports where possible, to “cover popular

sports which had limited television exposure” and to broadcast local sports including

football codes (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1991/92, p. 11).

The ABC’s role in supporting the development of sports became increasingly

1170

864

670

470 455 425

190 183 178

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

87

important through this period as football codes such as rugby league, rugby union and

Australian football established national competitions. The local state and territory

competitions were eventually to be broadcast by commercial, FTA and subscription

services in the 2010s, only after decades of broadcast and audience development by

the ABC.

The mix of sports changed as the ABC continued to increase the broadcasting of

women’s sport as part of a strategy to provide coverage of a “more diverse range of

sports” (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1993–94, p. 40); so that

by the mid-1990s the ABC consistently described itself as the “leading Australian

broadcaster of women’s sport” (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report,

1993–94, p. 40; ABC Annual Report, 1994–95, p. 25). During this period the ABC

broadcast national and international competitions in 17 different women’s sports28. In

addition to the range and volume of women’s sports broadcast the ABC undertook a

strategic approach to build audiences for women’s sport. This included “packaging”

sports content into programs consisting of edited match highlights, discussion panels

and interviews; such as the weekly program, “Goal Attack” launched in March 1991

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1990/91, p. 20).

The extent of the ABC’s regional sports coverage was highlighted in 1996, when it

reported that “over 750 hours of Australian sport were covered using ABC facilities in

all States” (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 1995/96, p. 36). The

programming mix included a continuation of broadcasts of international events such

as the World Swimming Championships (Perth 1990) and national and international

tennis such as the Hopman Cup. It also extended to new international events such as

World Netball Championships (1991) and the Netball international test series, the

Paralympics (Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996), Women’s World Basketball

Championships (1994), Women’s World Gymnastics (1993), Men’s World Cup

Hockey (1994), World Bowls Championships (Adelaide 1996) and World Junior Ice

Skating (Brisbane 1996). In delivering these sports the ABC continued its

complementary function of creating proof of concept markets. In most instances these

international events, involving the Australian team, had never been broadcast on

Australian television. Moreover, as the ABC maintained and used regionally located

28 Netball, basketball, golf, gymnastics, tennis, athletics, skiing, cricket, volleyball, squash, hockey, bowls, tennis, cycling, indoor bowls, beach volleyball and ice skating.

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staff and facilities for local sports competitions it was able to broadcast national and

international events from around Australia.

In the early 1990s the ABC was still delivering test cricket to regional Australians who

did not have access to commercial broadcasts, including the 1990/91 Ashes series in

Australia and the 1993 series from England. Soon after the 1993 series, however,

technology changes and the impact of the legislative changes that had ended the two

station rule enabled commercial broadcasters to begin delivering test cricket to

regional Australia. However, almost immediately the issue of access became an issue.

In 1997, the Ashes series rights holder, Channel Nine, refused to interrupt prime time

programming to broadcast cricket (Moylan, 1997, p. 16), exposing the limitations of

anti-siphoning arrangements (see discussion in Chapter Three). During the series, the

Nine Network assigned the live broadcast rights to the Second Test to the ABC. As

anti-siphoning amendment legislation subsequently introduced in 1998 to address the

issue noted, the

Nine Network held live broadcasting rights to both the Wimbledon tennis

championships and the Ashes cricket series … [and] made a commercial

decision not to broadcast live sessions of the Lords test, which coincided

with the live play at Wimbledon. (Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill,

1998).

The legislative changes mandated “assignment in similar circumstances, rather than

rely on industry goodwill” (Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill 1998). However,

the situation was far from resolved and by the 2005 Ashes series, the market was to

again limit Australians’ access to test cricket (see below), with the public broadcasters

seeking to take a role as commercial FTA television declined to provide the service.

Paralympics

The ABC’s association with the Paralympics had begun in 1980 when “ABC

Television Sport commissioned a special documentary on the 1980 Olympics for the

Disabled [as the Paralympics was termed at the time] … to mark International Year of

Disabled Persons” (Australian Broadcasting Commission, Annual Report, 1980/81, p.

61). The ABC first broadcast from the Paralympics in 1988 (ABC Submission, 2009,

p. 3) and in 1992 provided daily television highlights packages from Atlanta (Cashman

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& Darcy, 2008, p. 40). The ABC broadcast 30 minutes each evening from the 1996

Atlanta Paralympics which was “extremely well received by viewers” (Australian

Paralympic Federation, Annual Report, 1997, p. 25), as well as being made available

to commercial broadcasters.

In March 2000, the ABC was announced, with the Seven Network, as the Australian

domestic broadcaster for the Sydney Paralympics (Goggin & Newell, 2000, pp. 71–

83). As well as broadcasting the Opening and Closing ceremonies live, the ABC

broadcast two daily highlights programs plus live broadcasts of basketball finals and

other events (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 2000/01, p. 44). A

combined audience of almost 3.5 million viewers watched the Opening Ceremony,

comprising 2.3 million metropolitan (five capital cities) and 1.1 million regional

viewers (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 2000/01, pp. 59–60).

This was the most watched program ever broadcast on ABC Television. Just over three

million viewers watched the Closing Ceremony on ABC Television. In all, the ABC

broadcast 35 hours of the 2000 Paralympic Games over 12 days, watched by over eight

million metropolitan and almost four million regional viewers. ABC Television

broadcasts extended this coverage to the winter Paralympic Games in 2006 in Turin.

In 2009 the ABC stated in a submission to a Government Review of Sport on

Television that “the winter and summer Paralympics are major, international sporting

events … with national and international significance” (ABC Submission, 2009, pp.

2–3), noting that “an average metropolitan audience of over 1.5 million viewers

watched each day’s events on ABC 1 and ABC 2” (ABC Submission, 2009, p. 3). In

the ABC’s view, the broadcast of the Paralympics had helped to build growing

awareness and support for the games.

By 2012 the ABC Television broadcast of the Paralympics from London was a major

element of the ABC’s multi-platform (radio, television and online) sports coverage,

featuring prominently in the ABC’s 2012/13 Annual Report, which noted “extensive

coverage … with live evening coverage throughout the 11 days of competition”

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 2012/13, p. 48). The Annual

Report noted that ABC 2 had recorded almost 300,000 viewers per day and “achieved

its highest ever daily prime-time free-to-air share” (Australian Broadcasting

Corporation, Annual Report, 2013, p. 48). Writing in 2012 about the importance and

extent of the ABC’s broadcast of “over 100 hours of Games coverage”, exceeded only

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by “Channel 4 in the host country” (Scott, 2012), ABC Managing Director, Mark

Scott, took the opportunity to restate the ABC’s overall role. Confronting the idea that

the ABC was only a market failure broadcaster, Scott noted that the ABC was both “a

comprehensive broadcaster [that] … offer[ed] programming of wide appeal and

specialist interest” (Scott, 2012). He specifically invoked the ABC’s R&D role in

broadcasting the Paralympics when the commercial sector had declined because of

their “need [for] ratings for revenue, to deliver profits for their owners, they do not see

the Paralympics as a sound investment” (Scott, 2012. By 2016, the Seven Network

had incorporated the summer Paralympics into its coverage, following broadcast of

the 2016 Olympic Games. As Scott stated on another occasion, “When we innovate,

we create markets” (Scott, 2013).

1997 Mansfield Review: The challenge of a better ABC

The 1997 Mansfield Review provided the ABC with an opportunity to present its post-

Dix television sports broadcast policies. Its submission stated that “ABC Television

has pioneered coverage of some sports ignored by commercial stations”, noting that

having developed an audience for sports content, “commercial stations not

infrequently acquired the broadcast rights and took over coverage” (ABC Submission

Mansfield Review, 1996, p. 12). The ABC acknowledged its innovation, its R&D role

and explicitly its role to “provide regular coverage of so called lesser profile sports

such as lawn bowls, cycling and school age competition”) with specific identification

of broadcasts of women’s sport and the Paralympics (ABC Submission Mansfield

Review, 1997, pp. 121–123). Further, it placed this role within the context of sport “as

an important part of the social and cultural fabric of the nation” (ABC Submission

Mansfield Review, 1997, pp. 121–123). Although noting its innovation role, the ABC

did not acknowledge the changing nature of that role compared to previous periods.

While the ABC’s R&D role applied primarily to sports such as cricket in the early

years of television, by the 1990s as commercial networks broadcast these national

sports, the ABC had shifted gear to develop audiences for other sports.

While the Mansfield Report ostensibly “resisted assigning the ABC a market failure

narrowcasting role” (Debrett, 2010, p. 95), like the 1988 Review it believed the ABC

Charter was too broad. The ABC needed to be refocussed, with a revised Charter

making specific provision for four content priorities: news, current affairs and

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information, localism, children’s, and youth (Mansfield, 1997, p. 22). Mansfield did

not specifically recommend the removal of other content areas as “non-core” activities

(except for international broadcasting). It did note, however, that the ABC was

required “to take account of the … reduced levels of funding announced by the

Government in the 1995-96 budget” (Mansfield, 1997, p. 5) to ensure it operated

within new, reduced funding parameters.

The Report proposed a legislative change to the ABC Charter, removing the term and

the policy of “comprehensive”, to establish “areas that the ABC be specifically obliged

to provide, namely, news, current affairs, information, children’s, and youth” (Brown,

2001, p. 110). Like the 1988 Review, this proposal to remove the ABC’s PSB

comprehensive / complementary remit did not eventuate, given the lack of a

parliamentary majority to amend the ABC legislation. Nonetheless, the Mansfield

recommendations into outsourcing “non-news and current affairs” television content

(Mansfield, 1997, p. 6) was to have an impact on the ABC’s regional sports

production, when implemented over a decade later.

National and regional sports broadcast after 2000

The ABC maintained the mix of local competitions and national sports, including a

focus on women’s sports including basketball, netball, hockey and netball. While

nationally broadcast sports declined after 2000, from 425 hours annually in the 1990s

to 356 hours in the 2000s (Figure 4.4 below), sport broadcast in each state and territory

continued at an average of 400 hours annually, giving a combined national and local

output of over 700 hours annually. While less than the 1,000 hours per annum of the

early 1980s, it was still a substantial commitment.

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Figure 4.4: ABC Television average annual Australia hours broadcast by genre (2001/2–2010/11)

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation Annual Reports Note: The hours in Figure 4.4 includes ABC 2 first release hours 2006–11.

In 2005, as commercial broadcasters again failed to broadcast test cricket, declining to

bid for the Ashes test series from England, the ABC proposed a new solution. As it

appeared likely the series would only be available on pay television, both the ABC and

SBS began negotiations with the rights holder. The ABC proposal, to broadcast the

series on ABC 2, required Ministerial approval, as anti-siphoning listed events could

not be broadcast on FTA multi-channels. The Federal Government declined to give

approval and funded SBS to pay for the rights to broadcast the series on its main

channel. As with the ABC’s 1981 attempts to secure legislative certainty for television

broadcast of events of national significance, the unsuccessful 2005 bid paved the way

for a future amendment to anti-siphoning legislation. In July 2017 the Australian

Government introduced legislation to amend the anti-siphoning provisions to permit

broadcasts on multi-channels (Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill, July 2017).

By 2006 the ABC was also drawing on its sports broadcasting archive, including test

cricket and AFL to broadcast “Late Night Legends”, past sports matches broadcast in

full on late night television. The ABC later experimented further in its archival use of

sports content, broadcasting test cricket content from the 1980s on its online, on-

demand “catch-up” service, iView.

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Women’s sport

The ABC had broadcast women’s sport from the beginning of television in the 1950s.

In fact, in the first year of ABC Television two international women’s cricket matches

were broadcast during the English team’s 1957/58 tour, an Australia v England test

match and the touring team’s match against NSW (Australian Broadcasting

Commission Annual Report, 1957/58, p. 27). That is, Australia’s first international

cricket television broadcasts were of women’s test cricket, a year before the first men’s

test matches in 1958/59. The next international women’s cricket played in Australia

was in 1968/69. There is no record of an ABC broadcast of that series, perhaps because

two of the three matches coincided with the men’s series (Australia v West Indies)

played that year. The following women’s series played in Australia in 1984/85

however did receive ABC television coverage.

In the reworking of its sports strategy post-WSC, the ABC built on its previous record

of women’s sport broadcast as part of its complementary function to develop audiences

for “niche” sport. By 2006, the ABC Television sports broadcasting strategy was based

on a commitment

to the broadcast of sporting codes, events and activities that have a

particular local or regional significance or characteristic, in particular state

and territory-based competitions of major codes and / or have substantial

levels of community participation but are not broadcast by other media

organisations. (ABC Submission, 2006, p. 329)

This was in fact a rearticulation of the statements made by the new Australian

Broadcasting Corporation’s Board (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual

Report, 1983/84, p. 6) and the former Australian Broadcasting Commission’s

statements regarding the role of television programming (see Chapter Two). As such

the 2006 statement represents a recommitment to the linkages the ABC made

regarding its nation building and complementary broadcasting role.

29 “About Time: Women in Sport and Recreation in Australia”, Report of the Australian Senate Inquiry into Women in Sport and Recreation in Australia, Environment, Communications, information Technology and the Arts References Committee, September 2006, http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Completed_inquiries/2004-07/womeninsport/report/index

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The statement is important in the context of 21st century public service broadcasting

principles. The ABC’s early (1950s–1970s) nation building work had been as much

about both the physical construction of transmission, distribution, production and post-

production capacity (see Chapter Two) to link disparate communities into a national

network as about local and national content that could be delivered to those

communities. In the ABC’s initial articulation, technical infrastructure and advances

in production and post-production were as important as content and programming

innovation. By the early 21st century broadcast technology, in the transition from an

analogue to a digital system, was being redeveloped to build a national digital

television infrastructure.

The shift to satellite delivery in the 1980s and 1990s and legislative changes in the

1990s enabled commercial broadcasters to build national networks. However, even

with the substantial improvements in technology and the enabling network

arrangements there remained major gaps in sports broadcasting. The 1970s WSC

changes had been followed by increasing commercial involvement in mainstream

sports, especially in the mid-1990s with a WSC style confrontation relating to rugby

league. However, this commercial sports expansion did not encompass a diversity of

sports, especially women’s, Indigenous and disability sports competitions. In its 2006

statement the ABC provided insight into the on-going failure of commercial

broadcasters (FTA and subscription) to provide a diverse range of sport to

communities around Australia.

The ABC went further in its strategic statement, arguing the public broadcaster’s role

included “a commitment to the development of women’s sport” (ABC 2006, p. 3).

Further, the ABC drew attention to a wider role in contributing to the media ecology

through “the development and promotion of women as sports broadcasters” (ABC,

2006, pp. 7–8) in key roles including hosting, expert commentary and as directors and

producers. It stated that,

The ABC believes that continuing developments in broadcasting,

particularly in the digital arena, will open up further opportunities for the

national broadcaster to cover women’s sport. For instance, there may be

some capacity within the digital radio roll-out in capital cities to provide

for further coverage of women’s sport. (ABC 2006, p. 3)

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The significance of the ABC commitment can be gauged from the finding of the 2006

Senate Inquiry that, “Despite many great achievements, women’s sport gets little

media coverage” (Parliament of Australia, Australian Senate Environment &

Communications Committee Report, 2006, p. 98). In 2006, women’s sport accounted

for just two percent of sport on Australian television, having barely increased from

1992 when it had been 1.4% (Australian Senate Environment & Communications

Committee Report, 2006, p. 99). The Committee noted, however, that women’s sports

constituted a major proportion of sport broadcast on ABC Television (Australian

Senate Environment & Communications Committee Report, 2006, p. 99). As Table

4.5 (reprinted from ABC Submission (p. 3) and Inquiry Report (p. 99)) below shows,

women’s sport accounted for over one third of ABC television sports broadcast.

Table 4.1: ABC Television annual hours – women’s sport broadcast (2001/2–

2005/06)

Women’s Sport

Year National Competitions (hours)

Of National Sport*** (%)

2001-02 82 31 2002-03 80 38 2003-04 98 33 2004-05 107 38 2005-06* 131** 44 * projected figures to end Financial Year, ** includes 34 hours broadcast on ABC2 *** Women’s sport as a percentage of total National sport broadcast Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation Submission, Senate Inquiry into Women in Sport and Recreation in Australia (2006, p. 3) and Inquiry Report (2006, p. 99)

The situation had not significantly altered by 2009 when a Senate inquiry into sports

reporting in digital media quoted submissions acknowledging that while the ABC

broadcast

Women’s National Basketball League, the W League (and done a great job

too) and Bowling (male and female) and some special women’s events ...

commercial TV companies have been very slow to use their digital

channels and are well behind the ABC here. (Parliament of Australia,

Senate, 2009, p. 56)

The ABC continued to stress both the ubiquity of its services and platforms and its

commitment to supporting the development of a range of sports. Across its television,

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radio and increasingly through online services, sports content was available to

Australians around the country. In a submission to a 2009 Senate Inquiry, focussing

on its continued commitment to the continued role of PSBs to nation building, the

ABC stated that, “there is no doubt that sport is an integral part of Australian culture

and plays a significant role in shaping the Australian national identity”.

Notwithstanding previous public reviews that questioned the role of sports

broadcasting, the ABC reaffirmed its policy view that “the broadcasting of sport and

reporting on sport is an important role for the national public broadcaster” (ABC, 2009,

p. 1). Sports broadcasting was central to the ABC’s strategic role “to present a range

of views and perspectives�on Australian life – on television, radio, through its popular

Internet site and most recently, on mobile platforms” (ABC, 2009, p. 1), in particular

“through its unrivalled presence in regional Australia” (ABC, 2009, p. 1). The

submission also reaffirmed the importance of the ABC’s national production and

broadcasting presence in enabling the broadcast not just national and international

competitions, but also to connect local communities through the coverage of local

sports” (ABC, 2009, p. 3).

During this period there was also an increased use of digital technology to enable

cross-media experiences such as “use of the Live Web Publishing computer

application which published game statistics alongside an embedded video player

displaying a video stream of the television coverage” (Australian Broadcasting

Corporation, Annual Report, 2001/02, p. 96). The ABC also continued to use its multi-

channel ABC 2 for the live broadcast of sports such as netball and women’s basketball,

and the “Women’s Football Asian Cup, the Men’s Wheelchair Basketball and the Asia

Oceania Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Championships”, taking the opportunity to

broadcast such sports in prime time (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual

Report, 2005/06, p. 77; ABC Annual Report, 2009/10, p. 49). These initiatives, sports

content available online, use of multi-channel broadcasts and early (in the

development of online technology) “cross-media” experiences, were new examples of

the ABC’s innovation role. The role had shifted from the rollout of television services,

increasingly sophisticated picture editing, on-screen graphics and replays to new R&D

activity, including the use of new digital technologies to provide new services to

Australian audiences. Underpinning the approach was a consistent application of PSB

principles of access – nation building – and R&D.

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Indigenous sport on ABC Television

While there was some Indigenous sports programming broadcast on ABC Television

during the period from the 1980s - 2010s, very little information is provided in ABC

Annual Reports or other histories. For example, Inglis’s history of the ABC from 1983

to 2006, Whose ABC (Inglis, 2006), while noting the “television documentary series,

Blackout, made by the Aboriginal programs unit” and Indigenous representation in the

documentary, Cop it Sweet (Inglis, 2006, p 252) makes no reference to Indigenous

sport content. Neither could any comment be found in ABC Annual Reports during

the period; notwithstanding references to Indigenous content and programs in other

genres.

However, in a submission to a Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the

Arts review of Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Sector (ABC, 2010), the ABC

noted that, “ABC Television also broadcasts the Tiwi Island Grand Final live

nationally and in 2010 is working with the AFL to provide live national coverage of

the annual Indigenous All Stars match” (ABC, 2010, p. 4). The submission also

alluded to “the possibility of an Indigenous sporting show that would provide coverage

with humour and a range of high-profile and entertaining guests” (ABC, 2010, p. 4).

This appears to be a reference to The Marngrook Footy Show, an Indigenous AFL

panel discussion program that had originated on National Indigenous Television

(NITV) and commissioned by ABC multi-channel, ABC2 (Australian Broadcasting

Corporation, 2012, p 50).

2011 – Present: Further revision of the ABC’s complementary role as a multi-

platform provider

In concluding this ABC Television sport history, it is important to assess the most

recent changes that appeared to effectively end the ABC’s television sports broadcasts.

Television-based production has declined as a significant platform for ABC sports, in

comparison to its previous position. Accompanying the change was a revised view of

the centrality of sport within the ABC’s comprehensive / complementary broadcasting

role. Further, the strategic decision to reduce internal production capacity outside

Sydney and Melbourne (in the “BAPH” states ), with a new preference for independent

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production, resulted in a removal of the infrastructure to deliver local sports content.

However, while there was a reduction in ABC Television’s regional production and

broadcasting presence, the ABC sports broadcasting role has been maintained. This

reassertion of ABC innovation / risk taking / R&D in terms of regional and “second

tier” sports evolved from earlier periods, as national commercial networks now

delivered national sports packages. There was a strategic change in the attitude to

sports content as the ABC moved to multi-platform outputs.

Changes to ABC Television regional operations in 2011, with the removal of staff,

resources and programming, attracted public concern. The issue of “local” (i.e.

regional) content had played out previously in broadcasting debates. For example, the

Dix and Mansfield reviews both commented on the need for ABC regional production

and the Kennett Victorian Government established an inquiry in the 1980s into ABC

production in Victoria. In 2011, as decisions appeared to reduce internal production

capability in a number of Australian states and territories, two Senate Inquiries were

established: in 2011 “Recent ABC programming decisions” (Parliament of Australia,

Senate, 2011) and in 2013 “The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s commitment

to reflecting and representing regional diversity” (Parliament of Australia, Senate,

2013).

The Inquiries provide important insights and information about the ABC’s sports

broadcasting role. In response to a question posed during the 2011 Inquiry the ABC

provided information about sports programs produced in each state for either local or

national distribution (Parliament of Australia, Senate, 2011, Report on Recent ABC

programming decisions, p. 1). Figure 4.6 below, based on that answer, shows the

annual average output of sports programs by ABC Television between 2008/09 and

2010/11. Over the three years, an average of 479 hours of local sports programs were

produced across the states and territory. This was in addition to an annual average of

201 hours of national sports broadcasts. While the majority of national sports programs

were from Victoria and New South Wales, over 50 hours of national sports program

were produced annually in other states and territories.

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Figure 4.5: Regional and National Sports annual average hours broadcast on ABC TV: 2008/09–2010/11 Source: Answer to QON 40 Senate Inquiry 2011

My research, based on analysis of the ABC’s responses to the Inquiry regarding overall

production data (Senate Inquiry Questions On Notice 28 [QON28]) and sports

production data (Parliament of Australia, Senate Inquiry 2011, Questions On Notice

40) shows that the ABC’s sports output represented 15 percent of ABC Television’s

total production expenditure and more than a third (34 percent) of total hours produced

annually30. The data shows that sport continued to be a major component of ABC

Television’s production and programming strategy. Further, analysis shows how sport

was both an effective and an efficient content strategy. The ABC submission identified

an average spending of $18.8 million to produce an average of 680 hours of national

and local sports programs each year, at an average hourly cost of $27,665. The ABC

(at QON28) identifies total production spending in 2010/11 of $129 million to deliver

1,972 hours of output, at an hourly average of $65,700. Sports programs cost the ABC

less than half its average production cost to deliver over a third of its output.

Consistent with the data in Figure 4.6, Figure 4.7, based on ABC annual report data

for the period from 2011 to 2016, shows that an average 445 hours of sports programs

were broadcast on ABC Television. While that annual average is greater than in any

30 This analysis is based on the data provided in answer to the Senate Inquiry’s Question On Notice 40. The comparison with the ABC’s 2010/11 hours and spending data is based on an answer to the Senate Question On Notice 28, i.e. ABC responses to Questions on Notice to “Inquiry into Recent ABC Programming Decisions” 2011.

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decade since the 1970s, it must be noted that there was a significant increase in repeat

sports programming in some years (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual

Reports 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14, Appendix 6). Further, the level of local sports

broadcast by the ABC declined. However, as the ABC initiated a departure from local

production, commercial broadcasters took up the broadcasts of many of these sports

including football in Western Australia (WAFL), South Australia (SANFL),

Queensland (QRL) and New South Wales (Shute Shield) all now on the Seven

Network, and lawn bowls on SBS.

Figure 4.6: Average annual hours broadcast by genre (Australian): 2011–2016 Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation Annual Reports

My research shows that notwithstanding reductions in local production capability,

there remained high levels of sports output that have continued through to the present

day. Nonetheless, the level of local sports broadcast by the ABC has declined. As in

the WSC period, much of the commentary about the changing nature of ABC

television content production and broadcast was characterised as a loss of service and

a diminution of the role of the national broadcaster (Senate 2011 and 2013 Inquiry

reports). However, we can view these changes in the context of the ABC’s innovation

role, taking into account the changing nature of the television sector, with the

continued expansion of FTA multi-channel and subscription services providing a

range of sports content. For example, a number of the state football codes that had

been broadcast by ABC Television moved to local outputs of commercial FTA

services during the period from 2014 to the present.

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In 2015/16 ABC Television broadcast 76 hours of sports programs (Australian

Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report, 2015/16, Appendix 6), a significant

proportion of which was women’s sports, including the national women’s football

competition, the W League and the Australian women’s’ golf competitions. In a return

to shared broadcast rights arrangements, the ABC and subscription broadcaster, Fox

Sports, have developed deals to co-broadcast women’s soccer (W League, 2016).

Conclusion

The ABC adapted to a changing commercial and technological environment to provide

a new sports service that was accessible for all Australian communities. Over the

extended period from the early 1980s and the end of its comprehensive sports period,

the ABC set out again, as it had for a range of sports during its dominant /

comprehensive period up to the 1980s, to build audiences and approaches to broadcast

that enabled a range of sports to move to commercial FTA or subscription television.

The ABC national television network was underpinned by a distributed system that

included local personnel, studio and outside broadcast production facilities, post-

production and support capability. While essential in the development of television,

with its stand-alone transmission ability, this capability has become less important as

satellite and new digital technologies such as digital video networks provide greater

networking ability. The on-going tension to achieve the most efficient service placed

a greater reliance on centrally located and resourced production (in Australia, i.e. in

Sydney and Melbourne). Prioritisation of funding allocation has meant a revision of

the need to maintain whole sets of production services.

This chapter has described the evolution of ABC Television sports broadcasting as it

moved from a comprehensive to a complementary sports broadcaster. While key

components of that evolution were similar to the comprehensive, dominant sports

supplier period, the focus on “under-represented” sport marked a significant policy

and strategic shift. The most discernible aspect of these shifts was in the broadcast of

“minority” interest sports including women’s and disability sport.

While it can be stated that women’s sports broadcast have languished in the

background of Australian television for decades, as this chapter has described, there is

strong evidence to suggest that the ABC’s development work in programming and

broadcasting women’s sport since the early 1980s has helped develop an audience that

102

has enabled the current expansion of women’s sport on Australian television. Just as

sports such as local football have moved to commercial FTA television (as noted

above), other sports such as Netball (Channel Nine) have moved to commercial and

Pay television.

My research shows that over the almost forty years since WSC, far from disappearing,

ABC Television sports has continued to be broadcast from around Australia, with an

increasing range of sports, especially focussing on sports that had not received strong

media attention. Notwithstanding the impact of technological changes in the 1980s,

the increasingly networked operations of commercial television and reductions in

ABC local production capability during the period from 2010/11, the ABC has

continued to broadcast high levels of sports content. Especially significant during the

“post-WSC” period has been the ABC’s demonstration of the viability of broadcasting

sports that have not attracted commercial engagement, through a strategic process of

programming, audience development and consistent broadcast opportunities over a

long period. Many of these sports have now developed new broadcast outlets and

markets due to the ABC’s development work. This R&D role has also demonstrated

the continued significance of both regionally located sports such as local football

which have moved to commercial FTA services, and national sports broadcasts from

around Australia such as, most recently, the women’s national soccer competition (W

League), thus maintaining the ABC’s nation building role.

103

Chapter Five

Conclusion

Forty years after the impact of the commercialisation of Australian sports broadcasting

described in this thesis, sports media is again subject to fundamental change as it

evolves rapidly from a television medium to an increasingly multi-platform, online

environment. New media forms and approaches are enabling new players such as

Google, Netflix and Amazon to engage with sports organisations, who also are

developing their own media departments to curate and deliver sports content, to build

new relationships with “audiences / consumers”. This most recent evolutionary

moment in the near 100 year history of sport in the electronic media, draws once again

on the events and activity that preceded it, including the on-going role of public service

broadcasting in providing R&D for sports broadcasting.

The thesis has analysed ABC Television sports broadcasting across its history,

focussing on coverage of test cricket, particularly the pivotal shift that occurred in the

late 1970s. After this moment, the ABC did not abandon sports programming, but

moved from being a comprehensive television sports broadcaster to a complementary

role. Despite the commercialisation of sport, the ABC has continued its nation building

role, ensuring a universality of service and access to sports for all Australians. This

was in strong continuity with its commitment, from the beginning of television, to

build a technical and programming framework for the delivery of local and national

content, as part of a conscious public policy to build a national network freely available

to all Australians regardless of where they lived.

The WSC changes, that are the central focus of this research, provide an opportunity

to analyse how ABC televised cricket contributed to public broadcasting principles

through innovative production and audience development strategies. The thesis, thus,

challenges some of the received wisdom about the so-called World Series Cricket

revolution. Cricket’s unique cultural and historical space in Australia ensured that it

was located at the centre of this public broadcasting history. Up to the 1980s it was the

only truly national sport, with a long history of national and international competition

matches broadcast to a national audience by the ABC since 1932 (Stewart, 2002, p.

51). This revisionist history of the “WSC revolution” has reconstructed the ABC’s

innovative sports broadcasting to describe how ABC television cricket contributed to

104

public broadcasting objectives through innovative production and audience

development strategies. In revising this history, the research has confronted an

enduring popular representation of public broadcasting as sclerotic, which was

consistent with private sector rhetoric to challenge and replace public broadcasting

with the alleged discipline of the “free” market (Scherer & Rowe, 2014, pp. 6–7).

Popular narratives of WSC have celebrated as commercial initiatives elements of the

commercial broadcasting service that had been introduced and tested by the ABC,

omitting reference to PSB history. This approach has denied a space in television

history to the ABC’s critical innovation role.

Post-WSC, the ABC, while continuing to use sport in nation building, changed its

strategic tack to a new focus on local and “second tier” sports, developing an inclusive,

progressive strategy to support marginal sport, such as women’s sports, local football

competitions and the Paralympics. The fact that women sports and the Paralympics are

now mainstream is evidence of the ABCs continuing innovation role as an R&D

laboratory for the broadcasting system. This history describes how ABC television

sport was a critical component of local stories produced and consumed at a state and

territory level and shared, national experiences. Until legislative and technology

changes in the 1980s the ABC was the only broadcaster with the national capability

and strategic focus to deliver content to a sparsely populated, widely distributed nation.

Notwithstanding a reduction in its sports output ABC has continued, until recently, to

maintain its role in television broadcasting of so-called “second tier” sports, thus

perpetuating its on-going commitment as national broadcaster of sport. The ABC

persisted in its sports broadcasting role despite the impact of the global phenomenon

of increasing commercialisation of sport and persistent criticism within public reviews

such as Dix (1981), Department of Transport (1988) and Mansfield (1997) that failed

to recognise the important innovation and nation building role of sports broadcasting,

attempting to consign it a lesser or non-core categorisation.

As the research has demonstrated, this experimentation and development is available

to the wider media ecosystem, through personnel and technology transfer and the take-

up of programming for which an audience has been developed. Commercial FTA and

subscription broadcasting have benefited from this innovation work. ABC sports

broadcasting innovation introduced and tested new production and distribution

technologies and program formats, and developed creative skills for itself and the

105

wider media sector that can be framed within its invocation of PSB principles.

Research presented in the thesis demonstrates that the evolving nature of the

comprehensive and complementary role of PSBs enables genres and program forms to

move from comprehensive to complementary over time. Commercial broadcasters are

impelled to focus on revenues and advertisers’ requirements for short-term audience

maximisation with a resulting reliance on tried and tested approaches and formats.

Public broadcasters, relatively free of these imperatives, are able to experiment and

innovate in the development, commissioning and delivery of content, experimentation

and development that benefits the whole media ecosystem. ABC Television sport was

able to evolve in this manner, building large, commercially attractive audiences for

sports such as international cricket, before pivoting to develop new sports.

Research methodology

This history of ABC Television sport utilised primary sources and academic research

about public broadcasting and sports history. There are some gaps and limitation in

the research given the paucity of some data, especially in relation to television

audiences. Nonetheless, this research has drawn together, for the first time, extensive

historical data from public documents to build new, empirical research. For example,

in relation to ABC Television sports hours broadcast, only Goldsmith (2015) has

published a similar data set showing ABC and SBS sports output. Further,

international cricket match and attendance data and broadcast rights information has

been brought together from a range of historical sources to build a picture of the

development of a test cricket broadcasting market in Australia. Again, as for the ABC

data sets, to my best knowledge and based on research for this research, no such data

sets, analysis or comparison has previously been undertaken or presented.

Further research

There are significant opportunities for further research in relation to the historical

context and contemporary significance of the Australian public sector broadcasting

role within the wider Australian media sector, especially relating to the contribution

of public sector innovation to the sector. As noted in this thesis, there are few

references in ABC television histories to the broadcast of Indigenous engagement in

sport.

106

My research has provided new insight into the history of the ABC’s critical role in

developing a commercial rights market for Australian cricket. Further scope exists for

on-going investigation into the development of the sports rights market in Australian

television, especially focussing on the PSB role in market development. Given the

fundamental role of the cost, availability and negotiability of program rights in

television markets, further investigation would contribute to understanding how

broadcasters and second tier sports have engaged in developing and enhancing a

broadcast presence for women’s sport for example. A related area for further research

would be in collecting, analysing and building audience research data sets to

developing deeper understanding of audience behaviour.

In the course of collecting, analysing and building data sets based on primary sources

such as ABC Annual Reports, public inquiry submissions and inquiry reports, it is

evident there is considerable data on the public record that can be used to build time

series data models. This data analysed in the context of strategic and policy statements

on the public record provides the opportunity for further research in areas such as

regional news, documentary and live event content production. Such research could

investigate the ABC’s national television service delivery of programs and events of

national significance that enabled Australians to represent themselves to themselves,

to each other and to participate in a shared national experience. Research drawn on

such data collection and analysis needs to be tied to a strong sense of history to address

inaccuracies and inadequacies, such as the received wisdom about WSC, confronted

in this thesis and to more accurately represent the role of public broadcasting in the

media system. Drawing on such material and sources, there is an opportunity to add to

understanding and knowledge of the history, form and public policy shifts in

Australian public service broadcasting’s nation building role.

107

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