ABC strike gives SBS World News its best night of the year after hundreds of journalists walked off the job

Hundreds of thousands of ABC viewers changed channels last night when the first industrial strike by journalists and support staff in 20 years forced the public broadcaster to replace the evening news with an old episode of Australian Story.

At 7pm an estimated 123,000 viewers switched from the ABC to SBS World News, which was half-way through its one-hour bulletin. The programming disruption doubled the audience for the SBS news to 381,000, its best night this year.

Instead of the nightly news, 308,000 ABC viewers tuned into watch “Sink or Swim”, a profile of Olympic swimmer Michael Klim first broadcast on February 2, according to the OzTAM ratings service. The news bulletin the night before had 948,000 viewers.

The 7.30 current affairs program, which had 717,000 viewers the night before, was replaced by a repeat of Hard Quiz: Battle of the Networks. Some 347,000 people watched ABC host Leigh Sales, Seven’s Larry Emdur, Nine’s Karl Stefanovic, and the Ten Network’s Angela Bishop answer questions from comedian Tom Gleeson.

The News Breakfast and ABC News at Noon programs were also cancelled. Notices were shown on air apologising for the disruption and encouraging viewers to log on to the ABC news website, which the journalists’ union said was covered by a “digital picket line”.

The most-watched show of the evening across the nation was the Seven News, which had 1.36 million viewers, followed by the Nine news, which was watched by 1.29 million people.

About a third of ABC staff went on strike at 11am on Wednesday for 24 hours after being offered a 10 per cent pay rise over three years and a $1000 bonus.

Some journalists delivered short speeches at the end of television news broadcasts on Tuesday evening promoting the strike, which they said was to obtain “secure, safe and sustainable jobs”.

Conservative commentator and barrister Gray Connolly joked on social media that he was in talks with the ABC to host a show with political consultant Parnell McGuiness during the strike.

“But imagine the catastrophe if ABC audiences heard another viewpoint!” Ms McGuiness replied. “Thankfully current programming minimises that risk.”

‘Games’

Members of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the Community and Public Sector Union gathered outside ABC offices around the country holding banners urging the broadcaster to agree to their industrial demands.

The unions want a 13.5 per cent rise over three years and fewer short-term contracts. Inflation in February was 3.7 per cent, although Westpac Bank predicted this week inflation would hit 5.5 per cent by the middle of the year. The government-funded broadcaster has a budget of $1.02 billion this year.

Managing Director Hugh Marks, who was appointed in December, 2024, expressed sympathy towards staff caught up in the strike and questioned the organisers’ conduct.

“Sometimes it feels like a bit of a game to me, and I don’t think this is a game,” he said in an interview with ABC Radio Sydney, which was operated by managers. “This is really serious. Both sides need to say: ‘You know what, the audience comes first and we need to stop playing games and focus on that.’”

In a separate statement he said: “There is a lot of noise. Much of it is inaccurate. Some of it is misinformation.”

The journalists’ union’s federal president, ABC environment reporter Michael Slezak, said Mr Marks comments were “massively offensive” and should be retracted.

“It’s simply outrageous,” Slezak said. “These are not games. People here are giving up their own wages to fight for the conditions under which a public broadcaster can be great. He’s been in this organisation for five minutes, but a lot of people striking have been here for years and years.”

The opposition spokeswoman for communications, Sarah Henderson, said the pay offer was a “pretty good deal” at a time when other Australians are concerned about remaining employed.

“So, I say shame on ABC staff who have made this decision,” she told Sky News. “Australians deserve much better than this.”

With AAP