All 50 of the broadcaster’s retail outlets are to be shut, with 300 staff facing redundancy.

The ABC has announced it is to close all 50 of its ABC Shops across Australia, migrating all of its retail activity to online. The closures of the ABC’s retail outlets will see up to 300 staff made redundant. The planned closures will be staggered, as individual outlets come to the end of their current leases. The bulk of sales at ABC Shops comes from the sale of DVDs and CDs, including all those released on the ABC Classics label. However, a growing trend in consumer habits that has favoured online retail, downloads and streaming services has seen a significant reduction in ABC Shop revenue across its network of stores.

Mark Scott, the Managing Director of the ABC said in an interview on RN Breakfast that ABC Shops had been running at a loss and that the ABC “can’t be in a situation where we’re taking money away from broadcast to prop up this retail chain,” adding, “we’ve run the ABC shop for 35 years, and we know millions of people love shopping in them… but it is not possible for us to...