ABC: The NBN will degrade commercial media around Australia

[David Bird]

The ABC’s managing director, Mark Scott, has told a Sydney event the rise of the National Broadband Network will accelerate the decline in commercial media.

Speaking at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) event, Scott claimed the rise of the Internet was a major cause of commercial media organisations reducing services around Australia.

“Digitalisation has meant that it is harder for you to extract a premium or a price for the content you are creating because so much is available free of charge,” he said. “In radio you see a retreat from services in rural and regional areas and more syndication of content created elsewhere.”

Scott said when he began his tenure at the ABC, applications were scaled back to suit the dial-up Internet speeds of rural and regional Australia.

ARN Net