24th April, 2005

ABC Board Members,
ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs,

Subject: ABC Vandalises an Icon of Australian Cinema
Picnic at Hanging Rock, ABC TV, Thursday, April 21, 2005

After a few minutes viewing this program, I was unable to continue owing to my rage
and disgust at the ABC for its vandalisation of this magnificent, cultural work. I refer
to the socalled “watermark” ­ in fact, a visual distraction constantly preventing the
viewer from becoming involved in the film.

It is a constant act of will to try and ignore the station identification in scenes such as
this:

Any motion of the subject causes the logo to leap from obscurity, in this scene it
appears to be etched on the mirror glass.

I do not believe that Peter Weir, BEF Film Distributors, the Australian Film
Commission, John Graves or Patricia Lovell would have insisted on a station
promotion defacing this masterpiece. I do believe that it is purely the result of the
ABC trying to appear more like a commercial television station.

The form letter response from ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs to complaints
about the watermark says that “In a multichannel environment there is a need to subtly
identify the channel for viewers and this identification will become even more
necessary as the number of digital stations increase in the coming years.” This is
complete rubbish. What “need” is there? “Necessary” for what reason? If I'm
wondering what channel I'm watching, then I'm not really watching the film. If I do
want to know what channel I'm watching a single press of any TV or set top box
remote control will tell me instantly without having the ABC constantly whispering it
in the corner of my eye.

Will ABC Classic FM then be incorporating a constant whisper to all their
broadcasts saying “You are listening to ABC Classic FM”? Of course not – that
would damage the enjoyment of listening to the music!

There is absolutely no logic in degrading the quality of broadcast programs in order to
prevent pirating. Why not just return to analogue, narrow screen broadcasts. Why not
go all the way and scrap colour television and broadcast good ol' black and white?

Yours,
(full name witheld)