I want to speak briefly about the latest initiative of the ABC Board to establish a third party website called Countdown.com.au. Media Watch reported last Monday that the website took advertising. In a letter to the program, our new managing director Mark Scott said the Countdown website was a wholly-owned ABC site set up by ABC Enterprises to develop new business revenue streams through product and content sales, merchandising, downloading … and advertising.

Mr Scott seemed to imply that an ABC website taking advertising was not unprecedented as ABC-published magazines like ABC Cricket or Delicious or Gardening Australia had all taken advertising.

There is a difference, I believe. In the digital revolution broadcasting is morphing into cybercasting. I note on the ABC’s Countdown website there’s video streaming, blooper video clips, rare behind the scenes video footage that a Countdown Club member can click per view.

I think it is time for the ABC Board to table the legal advice on which it relies for its approval of cybercast advertising. My obvious fear is that the ABC Board is only one small step away from making a disastrous decision to allow advertising on the mainstream ABC website – one of the most trusted and most used in the country. The ABC Act Section 31 (1) says: “The Corporation shall not broadcast or televise advertisements”.

That is the black letter spirit and intent of the ABC Act. I know it was written before the internet was invented but the Act and the Charter sets out quite clearly the ABC’s public purpose. Countdown.com is the thin edge of the wedge for ABC broadband/cybercast advertising. It trades off the one piece of integrity we have … the ABC’s perceived non-commercial character.

It involves a substantial commitment of resources and financial risk and a large amount of public angst … and for what? Pin money.

The financial returns will never and can never be realised because the stated desire of government is to lessen the drain of the ABC on the public purse. Hence any profits gained will be matched over time by a lessening of the operational base funding appropriation. It’s a zero sum game. A no brainer.

As well it will unnecessarily aggravate all commercial players trying to establish their own products and advertising revenues on broadband websites. A taxpayer-subsidised outfit like the ABC has an unfair competitive advantage.

If the central public purpose of the ABC does not hold, if the centre continues to be hollowed out, the ABC will fly apart. That is what the ABC is risking under the McDonald Board.