The [link|http://www.abc.net.au/Australian Broadcasting Corporation|http://www.abc.net.a...sting Corporation] is similar to the BBC, in that it is funded by the Government, but has a charter of independance and is seen as a service. One of the two major differences as I see it is that the BBC gets a lot of funding from the TV licensing, but Australia doesn't have that. The other is that the BBC was sole broadcaster for a long time, whereas the ABC had commercial stations (and later networks) alongside it from the beginning.

We also have a quasi-government broadcaster called SBS which was setup to provide TV programming for ethnic groups and was also funded by the government. However, some years ago, SBS began accepting advertising and whilst this gave them a lot more money for production, it also made them more commercial. They still have a lot of imported non-English content, but they have a lot of purely commercial stuff, too. Two of the best examples are Mythbusters and South Park, but they will also buy programs along similar commercial lines the other three networks wouldn't consider viable.

Both SBS and the ABC have in-house production for many things, but will contract out, too. The other networks do the same.

Wade.