There have been many unanswered questions since late last year, when ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie began to spill some beans about her plans for a 'full overhaul' of the organisation.
The Australian reported that she's embarking upon 'the most far-reaching overhaul in the organisation's 84-year history'. It said that this 'could see the ABC collapse the television, radio and online departments into one single [digital] division, organising content by genre in a horizontally integrated structure'.
Guthrie needs to spill more beans before we can be sure, but I would speculate that we are going to see a severe reduction - or even the end - of the Corporation's TV and radio 'stations' as we know them. There could be no more ABC TV, ABC2, Radio National, Classic FM or Triple J. It would be just ABC Digital. All or most of the content would be delivered exclusively via its website.
Perhaps this is why the Director of Television has left, and - according to The Guardian's media columnist Amanda Meade - the current Director of Radio '[does] not have Guthrie's ear'. It seems to me that Guthrie wants new managers who - like her - think in terms of digital distribution rather than radio and TV stations. She came to the ABC from Google and has never worked in a radio or TV station.
Eliminating 'over the air' distribution of content would save the ABC about $200 million a year in transmission costs. Much of that amount would be channeled into program making or returned to the Federal Government. In addition, the Government would have its eye on revenue windfalls from selling the spectrum to the telcos who are struggling to satisfy the demand for mobile data.
The Government has already told community TV stations that they must leave the airwaves and use the Internet instead. TVS Sydney has gone and the other stations will follow in coming months. It has stopped funding for community radio DAB+ digital radio transmissions.
In addition, any rollout of DAB+ beyond the five mainland capital cities has stalled, and abandoning the platform was touted by the Government when Malcolm Turnbull when he was Communications Minister. This has happened overseas, with some countries such as Singapore discontinuing digital radio and others such as Canada and New Zealand rethinking plans for digital radio and opting for digital distribution as the replacement for FM and AM.
Earlier this week I had a conversation with a former ABC radio presenter whom I knew when I worked there in the 1990s. It seems that management is already commissioning podcasts featuring high profile presenters, that are not intended for airing on Radio National or any of the other existing stations.
The question is how much it will matter, and I can really only answer for my myself. About 90 per cent of my radio listening is to podcasts, and I choose them by genre and reputation rather than the station from why they originated, if they originated from a station. I also use platforms such as iView and SBS On Demand more than the TV 'stations'.
So I guess Guthrie's plans - if I've guessed them correctly - won't make much difference to me. But for others - especially for older people and those who are not digital natives - the ABC's abandonment of stations will mean the abandonment of them.