Mr Dalton admitted that the decision to make downloads  available for free  might seem counter intuitive, given the prospect of profitable sales of the DVD through ABC shops.  However he argued that such was the quality of the production that it attracted large audiences for the initial broadcast on Channel 2, high usage of a special Summer Heights High website, more than a million downloads over the internet plus record sales of the DVD.

Mr Dalton said:

We worked very closely with the co-producers to ensure that we could deliver free, full downloads of the program after each week's broadcast.  We knew this was highly commercially desirably content, but we went with a counter-intuitive strategy to the standard restrictive distribution policy.

And what happened?  The Summer Heights High broadcast achieve an average 5 city metro audience of 1.3 million.  The program captured a viewing share of 47% among high school aged students, and 45% of 13-24 year-olds.  The Summer Heights High website was one of the most popular ABC TV program sites.  1.2 million downloads were recorded for the program in 2007 and interactive games were available.  And how did this affect the viability of the DVD?  After two months in release, Summer Heights High had the highest sales of any individual Australian title in the last four years.

Clearly, the paradigm is shifting.  Our online on-demand offering does not erode our audiences; it strengthens their engagement and enjoyment.

The full text of the speech is available from the ABC website at :

http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/cci_kim_dalton_26_june_2008.pdf