"I think that if the enhanced news funding was not continued after nine years,I think it's a $15 million problem for the whole of the ABC,"Mr Anderson said.
"I'm operating on from the fact that this will sit on top of what we have as ENG funding."
The federal government sets the ABC’s funding in three-year blocks,with the next triennium to be determined at the budget next year,which has nominally been set for March 29. It handed the ABC $44 million through the ENG fund in 2019,supplementing its annual budget of about $1 billion,but the initiative is due to expire next year unless it is extended again.
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Senator Jane Hume,who represents the communications portfolio at estimates,said any extension of the fund would be announced at next year's budget.
Mr Anderson declined to speculate on whether any jobs would be at risk if the fund was not extended.
"Taking $15 million out of the budget will have an effect on many things,no matter how you slice it,"he said."We would have to be quite judicious about how we approach that."
"As I said,I'm not expecting that,not planning for that at the moment."
The ABC has already signed a similar commercial deal with Google under the bargaining laws enacted earlier this year,as have other media outletsincluding Nine Entertainment Co,owner of this masthead.