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Australia Network deal “A slap in the face for Sky News”

Headlines rage over the Government giving ABC the Australia Network tender, but nobody is praising their methodology.

So was the government right to hand ABC the Australia Network deal?

It depends who you’re reading.

Here are a batch of headlines responding to the news of last night.

“Murdoch barred on overseas TV plan‎” -The Age
“SKY calls for compo as ABC retains Network‎” – Sydney Morning Herald

“SKY’s the limit, as ABC handed overseas TV contract without end‎” -The Australian
“Communications Minister Stephen Conroy gives free reign over Asia to ABC” -Daily Telegraph
“ABC clinches Federal Government overseas TV network deal” – Herald Sun

“Australia says ABC to run international TV service‎” -West Australian
“ABC wins Australia Network contract – common sense prevails‎” – Crikey

“SKY News wants compo over Australia Network tender‎”- ABC
and
“Australia Network tender scrapped‎” -SKY News

There’s little doubt that it was poorly handled by the Gillard Government, which having set up a tender process gave every appearance of being unhappy with the recommendations. Delays, changing portfolios, calling in the Australian Federal Police ….it reeks of mismanagement, even if the outcome may be acceptable to many.

The government has made no secret of its displeasure with some sections of News Limited’s reporting. The media company is inextricably linked to SKY News, although many confuse its interests in BSkyB as being a one-third owner in SKY. It isn’t -BSkyB is, but News Corporation owns a third of that. Seven and Nine are part owners in SKY, and they will probably join the wave of criticism against the Government too.

SKY now says it expects to be “fully compensated” for applying for the tender, but so far it isn’t clear what that means.

Angelos Frangopoulos, chief executive of Australian News Channel said, ”I find this an extraordinary decision considering there are two investigations currently under way into the Australia Network tender.”

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull joined in the criticism, saying an important tender “has been poisoned by the deep personal and factional hatreds within this dysfunctional Labor Government”.

“The complete failure of the Australia Network tender reveals in full light the chronic infighting and incompetence of the Gillard Government,” he said.

“Consumed by the worsening antagonism between the Prime Minister and her Foreign Minister, the Government has done a complete backflip and given the Australia Network contract in perpetuity to the ABC – a slap in the face for SKY News, its principal shareholder News Corporation and its principal proponent within the Government, Kevin Rudd.”

There are also reports the decision was been made while Rudd was out of the country and absent from Cabinet.

Turnbull added, “If the ABC is, as the Government now claims, the obvious and only choice to operate the Australia Network – why was there a tender at all? How can so many months and so many millions be wasted on a tender process that now, so we are told, was quite unnecessary and inappropriate in the first place.”

On that point, regardless of the outcome, it’s hard not to agree.

Source: ABC, The Age, Herald Sun

14 Responses

  1. Tendering was Kevin Rudd’s doing. Stephen Conroy did the right thing. What other country “tenders” out their international radio/TV service to commercial/private enterprise? “Australia according to Sky News?”. OMG No.

  2. Two things…
    1 – It is not something that should ever be in private hands. The last thing we need is private corporate agendas being broadcast to the world.
    2 – It is not something that should ever in any remote fashion be related to the Murdoch group, given their track record in matters of fairness and privacy.

  3. It was poorly handled, it should never have been tendered out. Where else in the world is the overseas service tendered out? No where! It is not ITV World it is BBC World and SVT World etc.

  4. Handing over the Australia Network to Sky would have been a national disgrace. At least somebody in the government has finally seen sense. But they only have themselves to blame for looking so stupid along the way, and the cost will be whatever it takes to compensate Sky. But it will be worth it, just to know that the evil empire isn’t allowed anywhere near a channel that is both a national showcase and a mouthpiece.

  5. I think you’ll find that Dept of Foreign Affairs finances the Australia Network and the tender process had more to do with one foreign affairs minister trying to curry favour with News Limited.
    Does anyone here know of another country that farms out it’s overseas networks to private companies? BBC, Voice of America?

  6. Clearly mismanaged, politically corrupted tender process. Obviously the govt wanted the recommendation to be ABC, but instead got SKY.
    Golden rule of politics: only set up an inquiry when you are sure that it will give the answer you want.
    A total joke, and I expect it to be revisited if a coalition govt gets voted in.

  7. I was happy that the ABC won the tender to operate Australia Network but I was surprised to hear that it got to keep AN “permanently”. The decision means the ABC can start drawing up the channel’s long-term programming plan.
    Had Sky News won the contract, Australia Network would have been just another channel under the umbrella of Fox International Channels (FIC), the News Corp-owned channels operating mainly in Asia-Pacific region. One wonders how the channel would have been promoted among other channels e.g. Star World?

  8. This should never have been put to tender in the first place. What a mess.

    It’s a pan regional government service and New Corp already own the Star, Fox International Channels and Nat Geo channels in the region, so why the hell would the government explore this? I think Conroy put it to tender? If so, he should go (clearly has no idea on so many media issues)!

  9. Let’s remember most of the leaks were to the Age and the SMH, particularly in the beginning. The leaks occurred because the first panel selected Sky but the government didn’t like the outcome. Who would have thought a commercial organisation could outdo the government’s precious ABC.

    In the end the unions stick together. Conroy from the left is no fan of News Ltd.

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