Commentary

Aussie Pols Dump TV For Facebook Debate

It’s a sign of the times: this week politicians in Australia decided to dump broadcast TV in favor of Facebook for their next debate, indicating a sea change in media consumption habits down under. 

On Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of the ruling Liberal Party (which is actually conservative) challenged his main rival, Bill Shorten of the opposition Labour Party, to a debate on Facebook co-hosted by news.com.au, a News Corp. property.

Turnbull explained the decision to hold the debate on Facebook: “These are the platforms that many people, many would say most Australians see most of their media or news on. I think it’s important that we have an innovative election and use the platforms that Australians use.”

In addition to positioning the Liberals as tech-savvy and youth-oriented (both debatable points) the invitation was effectively a snub to the country’s 24-hour cable and satellite news channel, SkyNews, which recently launched a new “Election Channel” and had invited both men to speak at a “People’s Forum” in Brisbane.

Turnbull was apparently miffed that SkyNews simply named a time and place and invited both candidates, without prior negotiations behind closed doors to work out the details. Turnbull told a SkyNews reporter: “Look, the answer is your network, your company Sky News, announced they were inviting me and Bill Shorten to attend a debate on a particular night. What we’ve said, normally you would have approached us and sought to come to some arrangement. You chose not to do that and to issue in effect a decree, and we’ve said ‘no’.”

In fact the social network reaches at least as many Australians as the broadcast alternative.

According to SkyNews, its cable and satellite service reaches 2.5 million households and venues across Australia, and in September 2015 its coverage of the Liberal Party’s leadership poll (a high-profile political power struggle) attracted a total audience of around 700,000 viewers.

By contrast, in January Facebook had around 15 million active monthly users in Australia, or 62.5% of the total population of 24 million, including 10 million daily users. What’s more, Australians spend an average of 1.7 hours per day on Facebook, according to Nielsen, and around five million watch a video every day on Facebook.

1 comment about "Aussie Pols Dump TV For Facebook Debate".
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  1. John Grono from GAP Research, June 7, 2016 at 7:13 p.m.

    The cynic in me says that the PM has opted for FaceBook as (to the surprise of most people including myself) in the previous live debate he was judged by most to have come off second best.   Also, if he wanted genuine public reach he'd agree to appear on our public broadcaster's weekly Q&A programme.

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