Australia’s taxpayer-funded leftist propaganda machine likes to claim that it is uniquely beloved by Australians. But it seems strangely reluctant to put that to the acid test of the market.
Ratings show that less than one in ten Australians tunes into the ABC. Yet all Australians are forced to pay for it.
The ABC is now floating the idea of forcing people to log-in for its online streaming services. This is an interesting one, because it would make accessing the ABC online, at least, an opt-in service.
Aaand, just like that, the ABC gets cold feet.
The ABC has delayed its controversial decision to introduce mandatory log-ins for its iview streaming service by nearly six months.
The public broadcaster was originally due to roll out compulsory logins throughout July and August but on Wednesday revealed this would now be pushed back until the end of the year.
It’s enough to make you think they’re afraid that no one will take up the generous offer of having to register for something for which our taxes have already paid.
The decision comes after intense scrutiny earlier this year when it was revealed Australians using iview would need to provide an email, postcode, their year of birth and their gender to access iview.
Under gender, users will have a “prefer not to say” option.
How about a “prefer not to pay” option for the ABC?
[ABC’s managing director David Anderson] was questioned about the log-in requirement at Senate estimates in May and said it was being introduced to provide “value to the Australian people”.
If the ABC were really committed to providing value to Australians, it would actually provide balanced, factual content, instead of pandering exclusively to the narrowest views of the inner-city green-left.
Then there are, of course, concerns over what the ABC will do with all that valuable data it collects.
Third party services including Google and Facebook might be able to discover an iview account holder’s viewing preferences but the ABC does give users the ability to opt-out if they don’t want this to happen.
No doubt hidden in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of the Leopard”.
The Institute of Public Affairs’ director of communications Evan Mulholland said there should be no mandatory log-ins at all.
“After the misuse of metadata at a federal level, or the misuse covid check-in app data at a state level, Australians should be very sceptical of state entities like the ABC, compelling users to hand over personal information,” he said.
“Users of iview should not have to ‘sign up’ for a service they already pay for in taxes.”
The Australian
Better still, Australians should have the option of whether or not their taxes fund a service that most of them don’t even use.
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