ABC to examine charge by the byte brigade
Lisa Murray
February 8, 2007

The ABC could soon start selling episodes of The Chaser, Kath & Kim and The
Aunty Jack
Show on the internet as part of a plan to bolster its commercial arm.

The broadcaster's managing director, Mark Scott, said yesterday a new division,
ABC
Commercial, had been set up to investigate ways the ABC could make money from
digital
technology.

"We are not looking at any advertising around our broadcasts but we need to
investigate
whether we should charge for the delivery of archival material," Mr Scott told
the Herald.
"We haven't made any final decisions but we've created a new division and
investigating
that is part of its brief."

The division, which replaces ABC Enterprises and will be headed by Lynley
Marshall, is
expected to look at whether the ABC should charge people for downloading
television or
radio programs that are at least a week old. It could also follow the BBC's lead
and
consider the introduction of advertising on an international ABC website.

The head of ABC Enterprises, Robyn Watts, is leaving as part of the restructure
after a
roller-coaster year. She was the executive who had to inform Chris Masters that
the ABC
had decided not to publish his biography of Alan Jones, Jonestown. She also made
the
controversial decision to put ABC news updates in shopping centres, where they
were
spliced with advertisements.

ABC's Stateline presenter, Quentin Dempster, a former staff-elected director,
warned the
move to sell archived material could erode the public's trust in the
broadcaster. "The
Government and the board has no mandate to further commercialise the ABC and any
move to do so should be put to the Australian public," he said yesterday. "The
public has
already paid for the content."

Source: Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au)