Recent ABC programming is causing growing disquiet that quality is giving way to ratings. Is the national public broadcaster short-selling the regions and cutting its coverage of the arts in favour of cheap studio game shows? ABC TV no longer has a prime-time arts program, the audio program The Listening Room has been abolished, there is little original music and dance programming on ABC television and the online arts portal, ‘The Space’, is no longer maintained.

Martin Harrison investigates these changes and proposes a radical way forward.