Channels Seven and Ten may be” tussling over” who deserves the title of “Ws biggest winner for 2006”, but there’s no dispute about who is the “biggest loser,” The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 21 November, 2006. The Herald said the answer is clear: “That’s the ABC – down 9 per cent in average audience across the whole day, with only one show in the top 100 for the year.” What Australia “loved” on the ABC this year, said the Herald, were these programmes:
1. Bogle and Chandler (1.78 million);
2. Planet Earth (1.38m);
3. Andrew Denton and Billy Connolly (1.29m);
4. Midsummer Murders (1. 29m);
5. The Queen by Rolf Harris (1. 29m)
6. Silent Witness (1. 17m), and
7. The Queen at 😯 (1. 16m).
Two of these programmes – both Royal – would have cost next to nothing to put on. This year, the ABC, as the national broadcaster, should have shown the service for The Queen’s Eightieth Birthday, as they should have shown this year’s Trooping of the Colour. As we pointed out in our column of 1 August, 2006, this was shown twice in the Federal Republic of Germany.
If you agree, you can make your views known to your newspapers, talkback, your MP and Mr.Mark Scott, the ABC General Manager.
In our column of 15 November, 2006 we suggested that there is an excellent and interesting way about learning about some crucial aspects of our constitutional system – just watch the State Opening of Parliament. Our new Queensland Convener, Tom Bradley, advises that there is a good commentary on the Official Opening of the new Parliament on a BBC podcast in the series of “Today in Parliament”. This is available as a free download on the BBC web site : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament
The State Opening is covered by the 15 November 2006 podcast. The website reference for the audio version of that broadcast is: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/radio4/todayinparliament/todayinparliament_20061115-2300_40_pc.mp3
Mr. Bradley also says that according to the BBC, Her Majesty travelled to the Palace of Westminster in the Australian State Coach, not as some reported, the Irish State Coach.