ABC managing director Hugh Marks has used his National Press Club address to argue the national broadcaster remains an essential piece of Australia’s civic machinery, warning that “any discussion about Australia’s long-term success must include the ABC.”
Marks didn’t sugar-coat the pressures facing Australian media, outlining the fragmentation, political heat, and the shifting expectations of audiences who now graze news across dozens of platforms.
But he pushed back against any sense the broadcaster is losing its footing.
“There are issues we still need to fix,” he said, “but the ABC stands out as a precious national asset of a kind you won’t find in many other countries.”
“We are not beholden to political patronage or commercial investment or touchy advertisers. but We are a gathering place. A town square. A home for stories that help Australians understand who we are.”
Rejecting narratives of decline
Marks challenged critics claims the broadcaster was drifting into irrelevance, saying: “Some people like to run this narrative that the ABC is in decline. They’re wrong.”
He pointed to strong digital engagement – from news to children’s content to podcasts – and to dramas like Fisk, which continue to attract multimillion-viewing long tails long after broadcast.
In a multi-platform world, he said, overnight ratings capture only a fraction of the real picture.
His message: the ABC remains one of the few institutions capable of binding Australians across geography, culture and politics. Public broadcasting, he argued, is still national infrastructure.
A timely backdrop: scrutiny abroad and questions at home
While the bulk of Marks’ speech focused on the ABC’s future, it landed during a week when global scrutiny of public broadcasters was in overdrive.
The BBC had just endured the resignations of director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness over a Panorama episode that stitched together two separate Donald Trump remarks delivered nearly an hour apart – an edit widely condemned as misleading.
The fallout triggered fresh attention on a 2021 ABC Four Corners episode, Downfall – the Last Days of President Trump, which critics say omitted lines urging “patriotic” behaviour.
Marks addressed the comparison swiftly and firmly.
“Comparing the BBC’s Panorama program to the ABC’s Four Corners program is opportunistic and false,” he said. He noted Panorama “spliced together two separate grabs… about 54 minutes apart,” whereas the Four Corners excerpt “was used accurately… did not change the meaning… and did not mislead the audience. The program was consistent with the ABC’s high standards of factual, accurate and impartial storytelling.”
Marks closed on a note addressing the broadcaster’s recent issues, yet remained defiant: “Things will go wrong sometimes – that’s the reality of a large, fast-moving organisation – but we own our mistakes and keep moving.”
Read his speech in full below
ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks
National Press Club, Canberra
‘A World of Opportunity for Australia’s ABC’
It’s great to be at the National Press Club, speaking here for the first time as Managing Director of our ABC.
Our Purpose
As Australians we still look out for each other. We prize opportunity. We value fairness. We seek societal cohesion. And while no doubt there remain issues that we have not resolved, at the end of the day, overall, we know we’re privileged to live here.
This is something to celebrate. I reckon you lot in this room might even agree with me, though you might not say it out loud.
We can debate what makes this country work so well. That spirit of fairness. Compulsory voting. Democratic elections with a peaceful transfer of power. Our universal health care system or quality education system. Our recognition of the importance of social services.
But one lesson we know from developments around the world is that we cannot take this Australia of ours for granted.
We must continue investing in our Australian stories, in our Australian voices, in Australian creativity, to build on our shared understanding, our shared knowledge; themes that bring us together and make us who we are, that prepare us for the challenges that may come our way.
And any discussion of what makes Australia succeed over the long term must include Australia’s ABC. We have a big and important role to play.
It is true that Australia has a vibrant and generally responsible media market compared to many other places around the world. One that grows with new voices every day. That vibrancy of our media will, in my view, only become more important in what makes our country unique. In enabling our success as a free and cohesive nation.
It’s undoubtedly something to be proud of – it’s one reason why we have not descended into warring tribes, and instead broadly maintained our national unity.
But the ABC stands out as a precious national asset of a kind you won’t find in many other countries.
We are not beholden to political patronage or commercial investment or touchy advertisers.
We are free for everyone. We are available to anyone on all devices at any time. There are no paywalls that lock people out. We are funded by, and for, the public.
This contributes to Australian equity and fairness in information and knowledge. This contributes to our Australia.
The ABC is a place a lot of people come to every day, many others engage with regularly, some engage only when they really need it, and some when they have to …
But we are there, always on, always available. We are the nation’s town square, where everyone has a place and every Australian matters.
Which is why, as a nation, we must never fail to believe in, and invest in, the ABC.
We know there is a lot of competition for attention today. Almost unlimited content from established and emerging sources. Plus almost limitless options for ‘influencing’ or selling to citizens. So where does the ABC sit in this evolving mix of voices and options?
We exist to provide the public with the stories through which we can understand ourselves better as a people and a nation.
We exist to inform, entertain and educate for the public good.
Ultimately, we are here to preserve and promote Australian knowledge and protect and promote our national identity.
I have been in this role for eight months and I can tell you this home of Australian information, ideas and creativity is looking ahead with confidence and ambition.
Next year we will have a range of new programs. We announce the slate tomorrow, with 60 prime time premium television series, up from 43 in 2025, a new slate of podcasts and on-demand audio to further complement our radio services, and new and of-the-moment news formats that will contribute even further to this goal of shared knowledge and shared stories … And we are excited to be able to present it. We are increasing our content and services for the benefit of Australians.
Are we less or more relevant today?
Now, everyone has their opinion about how well the ABC is performing. Fair enough. Some are running a narrative of decline and irrelevance. They could not be more wrong.
News
Let’s look at the data, starting with news. In the early 2000s, the 7pm news had 1.1 million metro viewers, while today the number is more like 550,000. Sounds like decline. But it is not representative of how audiences consume news today.
Take 550,000 metro viewers at 7pm. Add another 10% on News Channel at 7pm. And another 10% for iview. Then add 2 million daily users of ABC News Digital and 1.3 million people tuning into ABC News Channel daily. Add 8.1 million minutes viewed on YouTube per day, and 400,000 daily engagements with ABC News via social media.
The facts are that consumption of ABC News is growing. It’s just different. And it’s not just consumed by older Australians. It’s there for everyone.
Kids
Consider our programming for children: it’s the same pattern. Digital engagement with kids and family content is booming. Each week we reach 3.7 million Australians across broadcast and live streaming for our kids and family content. Add the 400,000 viewers who access that content on iview and 250,000 who find us via the ABC Kids app. Our channels on YouTube attract around 6 million views each week. BTN and BTN High are programs specifically designed for primary and high school students which are unique contributors in our landscape. Now, we all know that Bluey has taken Australia by storm. It’s taken the world by storm. But where would we be if the ABC didn’t serve Australian children?
Radio
Live radio, that so-called dying medium, is where ABC broadcasters connect with nearly 5.5 million listeners across the metro and major regional markets and more than 2.1 million regional listeners every week. We are by far the number one streaming network across the five major city markets with nearly 1.4 million metro listeners consuming ABC Radio via streaming each week. And for those that say Radio National’s audience isn’t big enough, remember that the radio audience is but one part. The network contributes significantly to our on-demand audio offering with many programs gaining more audience on-demand than they do on radio.
Podcasts
And now we have podcasts. Put your hands up in the room if you host a podcast. Three of Australia’s top ten podcasts are made by the ABC, and 50 of the top 300. Reaching more than 2.8 million listeners in September alone.
Adult Drama
Australian drama contributes to our ability to understand our society, the challenges we face, and a sense of each other and how we coalesce. And here is where the shift in audience behaviour is the greatest. Yes, Australian dramas regularly achieved audiences in the millions on the ABC of old. But let’s not forget that Fisk, starring the wonderfully talented Kitty Flanagan, has attracted, as of today, an average audience of more than 3 million viewers per episode, sustained over three seasons. Over time it will likely end up over 4 million. A number equivalent to the respective football grand finals.
Overnight ratings matter, but they are absolutely not even close to the correct measure of performance for the ABC today. Performance must be measured on total audience engagement across all platforms. Over time.
And here’s the thing. Parts of old media are indeed challenged. You can’t expect to monetise a daytime movie of the sort that I personally used to watch growing up, instead of doing my HSC study.
But premium storytelling, in all its forms, is growing in its engagement. It’s more relevant today than it’s ever been. It can be more impactful in informing national discussions than ever before. Our programs do better than any major streamer. Under-investing in it is at the nation’s peril. We risk losing our sense of self as Australians and would fail to invest in national cohesion.
The ABC adds value and makes an impact as the national broadcaster when:
• We craft narratives that inform Australians about their society, our institutions and the issues that matter.
• We inform and therefore equip Australians to deal with the circumstances of their daily lives and the events facing them and their communities.
• We hold the powerful to account through news, current affairs and incredible investigative journalism.
• We offer captivating stories that interest Australians, entertain, provide comfort and enlighten their minds.
• We invest in science, arts and religion and ethics content like no other broadcaster.
The ABC does things that no other media can or would do. We have the privilege of being able to do so.
During natural emergencies, Australians turn to the ABC because the ABC saves lives. The ABC is there for its communities.
More extreme weather events make our role even more important. In 2024–25 the ABC responded to 316 fire events and 242 severe weather events. With Cyclone Alfred, communication disruptions left many relying on battery-powered radios for those vital updates from ABC Radio.
We bring the outback and rural Australia to the broader and mainly urban Australia with loved programs like Muster Dogs, Backroads and Landline. No other media company does this at scale.
The ABC joins Australians in celebration. Last year’s ABC New Year’s Eve broadcast reached 5 million viewers – Australians sharing the celebrations via the ABC.
The ABC challenges our preconceptions through ground-breaking social programs. Like You Can’t Ask That, which hosts frank conversations with people who are too often stigmatised or excluded. This program has now delivered 7 seasons across 12 countries in 9 languages.
Or The Assembly, which has provided many of my favourite interviews this year as high-profile Australians are forced to deal with a different kind of interviewer.
We champion Indigenous storytelling, including groundbreaking programs like Deep Time, and the recent Endgame with Tony Armstrong tackling racism in sport.
Our impact can be felt through the companionship and enrichment of ABC radio. ABC radio is where guests and listeners talk to us and get to hear each other too. It’s home to some of the most thoughtful, delightful and valuable conversations you’ll find anywhere on earth. It’s a unique treasure.
Our support of Australian music is vital. More than 50% of the content on triple j, ABC Classic and ABC Jazz is Australian, compared to an industry standard which is at best in the mere teens.
Our impact doesn’t stop at home. In our neighbourhood the ABC is the most trusted international media in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. ABC journalists are now mentoring and training journalists across the Indo-Pacific too. This benefits democratic discourse in our region, which benefits all of us. The ABC was in the unique position to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of independence in PNG recently with two major programs – again uniquely.
In journalism, impact means breaking stories. We inform Australians every day and everywhere about the local, state and national stories of the day, about the choices we face as a people in a changing world, about the things that impact them, particularly in regional markets, where the economic realities of the audience shift to digital consumption makes our role more important than ever to those communities.
The ABC takes no editorial stand other than our Charter-directed commitments to the rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, parliamentary democracy and non-discrimination.
When we talk about journalistic impartiality we aren’t talking about passivity. Impartiality isn’t seeking false balance where every idea, no matter how weak, is presented as equal.
The journalistic task and skill are to select the stories that matter and present the facts and relevant perspectives that equip people to make up their own minds.
Take a recent and classic example of our journalistic value to the nation.
Since late 2024 journalist Adele Ferguson and producer Chris Gillett in the ABC’s Investigative Reporting Team have been digging into Australia’s $20 billion childcare sector, which is heavily subsidised by the Federal Government, managed by the States and increasingly dominated by for-profit providers.
The shocking scale of abuse and neglect of children and babies they and other ABC News reporters uncovered has laid bare a sector in crisis.
The ABC’s sustained and intense scrutiny of the sector has now resulted in State and Federal Governments and providers enacting immediate reforms, several inquiries, resignations of key childcare sector figures and renewed calls for a Royal Commission and other changes aimed at keeping children safe.
ABC investigative journalism revealing major issues in a key industry the public relies on is the ABC at its best.
What does all this mean for what we do?
What all this means is that Australians interact with us in many ways. What hasn’t changed is that audiences want stories of importance and relevance and pertinence. And it is more important than ever that we fulfil that mission with excellence, with dedication, and with the responsibility that is inherent in our publicly funded model.
Our mission is to produce more of this great content and use the different platforms we have at our disposal to bring those stories to more Australians. Things are changing fast so we will need to be nimble, to find solutions, to meet our different audiences on the platforms they prefer. We must continue to change.
It is a challenge to get young Australians engaged with news content and so we will need to find ways to address that. One option is to look at more short-form video for news on social. We are ambitious about building tailored content approaches, not to social media in general, but to each platform in particular, reflecting the audience make-up and content style of each one. We will make announcements about this tomorrow.
Clearly audiences are also responding to long form audio-storytelling through podcasting – so we will be doing more of that. And now it’s vodcasting so more of that as well. It’s an exciting content format.
We must have a large digital publishing presence and expanded on-demand platforms for TV and audio.
But above all, it’s that story-making skill – the ability to craft narratives of insight and power, that matters. More than ever.
We’ve sent out that message to program-makers calling for ambition and boldness.
We want to make beautiful, powerful television, audio and news content.
We want great storytelling, whether that’s drama, true crime, documentaries, history or science. That demands talent and effort and time and design. All these things have to come together to captivate audiences. We must compete on excellence in the global market.
And the really good news is the investment/return equation is far better than it ever was. If you made great content in the past it went to air once and that was that. One view, done and dusted.
But if you make great content today you don’t just get one shot at an audience. You can make content that audiences will discover, love and watch or listen to tomorrow or in 20 years’ time. On many different platforms and devices. And great shows become part of our unique Australian culture. To be cherished and celebrated through time. Our successes aggregate over time.
These are the links and memories that forge deep social bonds, that bind Australians together through the decades of their lives. That unite different cultures. Different demographics. Different communities. That remind us of what’s important about being Australian. That invest in our unique culture of which we should be so proud.
Who do we collaborate with?
Looking ahead we operate in a complex technology, information and entertainment ecosystem that competes and collaborates.
What we aim to do is keep working with others for mutual benefit and ultimately for the benefit of audiences.
We have always collaborated with the Australian production sector, bringing forward great stories and programs for Australians.
Maintaining our bond with rural and regional Australia is core to our mission. So, we are giving local news outlets free access to ABC News digital content at times of significant events affecting local communities. That way we help sustain local news outlets that are an important part of regional and rural life.
We are also working on a project to help local media improve the breadth and quality of their own news coverage. A further contribution by us to quality journalism and equity of access to news that matters to those communities.
Just as we are working in collaboration with smaller local news outlets, we look to the big global tech companies to do the same with us.
Recent research has shown that ‘social media algorithms have steadily increased the relative amounts of political content and strong negative sentiment people encounter in their feeds, promoting cultural division and conflict’.*
I consider the global tech companies operating in Australia have an obligation to the Australian community where they do business and prosper.
And what I would hope and expect to see is that those companies recognise the value of their social licence in Australia. If you want to be here, be part of our society. It’s special.
They clearly have the power to tune their algorithms to turn off access to news. Look at Meta and Canada. They must manage their algorithms to promote responsible and non-divisive content, such as that provided by the ABC. And have a reasonable and mature discussion about what is the level of reasonable value exchange. We can contribute to their success. We can lend a hand to help them mitigate the pressing social issues their platforms generate. Personal harm. Misinformation. Polarisation.
I ask them to work with us and recognise that in so doing it mitigates these risks in a responsible way. Engage with us on the value exchange. Embrace the ABC for that full, accurate, impartial content that is a defence against the risk of rising social harm.
I look forward to more discussions with them on this.
Conclusion
The ABC has the privilege and deep responsibility of owning the role of national storyteller in the public interest.
We have long been an integral part of the nation-building infrastructure of Australia and that is not going to change, it will only become more important.
Realistically in a big and fast-moving organisation, with many parts, and thousands of decisions each day, things will go wrong from time to time. Not every decision will be perfect.
When that happens we must own it, make the appropriate correction and move forward. We learn from our mistakes and do better. We need trust but we must not cower. That is how we continue to earn trust.
But the key to everything is to start with great content. And that means investing in Australian creativity and Australian Intellectual Property.
What I see ahead is opportunity.
To connect and engage with more Australians.
To capitalise on the enormous journalistic and creative talent in this country. A real public good.
To be the number one source of facts and truth.
To tell stories that inform, delight, uplift today and resonate through time.
To collaborate with others to get the maximum exposure for our content and benefit for Australians.
To contribute to the success of Australia. To be the most important contributor to what binds us together, not what drives us apart. To be at the centre of those discussions.
Social infrastructure is as important as physical infrastructure. It may not be as visible but it’s there through the screens, radios and devices of our nation. It’s vitally important to who we are. That we as Australians own. It will be key to a successful future.
Stay tuned.