Looking to a Digital Future

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is in the midst of significantchange as a result of budgetary pressures from the government and thechallenge of the oncoming digital age. Lack of funding and dwindlingresources have forced the ABC to shut down many of its regional servicesand to outsource many of its formerly in-house productions. However, theredo appear some ways in which the ABC might meet, as the rhetoric goes, "thechallenge of the digital era".Traditionally, the role of the ABC has included the provision ofcomprehensive coverage of, and service for, the whole of Australia,including regions that would be economically unfeasible for commercialoperations to penetrate. Recently, however, budgetary cuts have eroded thisrole substantially, with the axing of state based current affairs and thecessation of Radio Triple J's planned expansion into regional Australia.The Internet has provided a potential, if problematic, stop-gap solution,through the launch of the ABC's online news service.Internet based news solutions have few of the production-end overheads ofthe television service. There are no expensive studio set ups, nopresenters, no cameras, just text that can be quickly keyed into the systemand formatted for instantaneous, non-linear delivery. I should note at thispoint that currently, this "delivery" is in the passive sense of the word:users must search out the content and download it onto their machines. InInternet jargon, this is called "pull" technology. New technologies beingdeveloped promise to "push" the content automatically and directly to auser's computer.The ABC's implementation, taking advantage of all these benefits, istext-based, comprehensive, updated constantly, and easy to use. Currently,however, delivery of Internet-based content is tied to the existing phonenetwork, and with most Internet service providers based in state capitals,regional Internet access is hindered by the cost of long-distance calls.The potential exists, nonetheless, for the ABC to achieve truly nationalcoverage by methods that bypass existing structures.The planned shift by Australian TV networks to digital transmission has thepotential to enable new possibilities for public broadcasting. A digitalinfrastructure could allow information and programming to be cheaplyproduced at the local level, then recompiled centrally and redistributedacross the country. The convergence of computer and television will enablea greater variety of content to be sent to the home -- and, possibly, sentback out again in an altered form.Such a transformation of the way we experience television may well alterthe concept of public broadcasting beyond recognition, if not render itobsolete. However, these possibilities, although reasonable given projectedadvances in technology, so far largely remain fantasy due to the debateover regulation between the Federal government and the commercial networks.It remains to be seen whether the ABC will be able to take advantage ofthe new opportunities.Citation reference for this articleMLA style:Nick Caldwell. "Looking to a Digital Future: Thoughts on the New ABC." M/C Journal 1.1 (1998).[your date of access] .Chicago style:Nick Caldwell, "Looking to a Digital Future: Thoughts on the New ABC," M/C Journal 1, no. 1 (1998), ([your date of access]).APA style:Nick Caldwell. (1998) Looking to a digital future: thoughts on the new ABC. M/C Journal 1(1). ([your date of access]).