In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Pyne, whose electorate of Sturt covers Adelaide, outlined the TV shows that were produced in his city, "including but not limited to The Cook and the Chef, Poh's Kitchen, Dream Build, and the Karta orang-utan documentary at Adelaide Zoo". The Education Minister said that one day before Mr Scott made his announcement, nearly 1 million Australians had tuned into a TV program made in Adelaide - the anniversary program Countdown - Do Yourself a Favour. The government's efficiency study into the ABC and SBS described the Adelaide studios as "little used" and found the ABC could make significant savings by selling off its television studios and outsourcing more production to the private sector. The Education Minister urged Mr Abbott to restore the Howard government's tied-funding initiatives for regional production before Christmas, to stop local jobs being lost. Labor discontinued the Regional and Local Funding Programming Initiative when it came to power in 2007.

Cabinet colleague Malcolm Turnbull has portfolio responsibility for the ABC as Minister for Communications, who also received the letter along with Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann. Under Mr Pyne's proposal, the ABC's total funding would remain the same but it would have to spend specific amounts on regional production. Mr Pyne's letter reads: "Dear Prime Minister, "As you would be aware, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott recently announced changes to the ABC structure as a response to savings announced by Minister Turnbull.

"As part of these changes, Mr Scott announced the closure of ABC TV program production in South Australia … By moving ABC TV elsewhere it will incur unnecessary costs and remove the efficient and innovative production unit from South Australia. ABC South Australia has a record for low-cost, high-quality, high-efficiency production." Mr Pyne says popular shows such as Dream Build, Po's Kitchen and The Cook and the Chef have been produced from the ABC's Adelaide studios and that ABC management has used funding cuts to make the broadcaster more Sydney and Melbourne focussed. "A return to tiered funding for regional production from the Commonwealth will allow the South Australian production unit to continue telling regionally-flavoured stories of national interest," Mr Pyne wrote. "I urge you to consider a return to tiered-funding which will allow this to occur and could potentially be found within the ABC's current budget, to remain cost neutral overall. Time is of the essence in order to protect the jobs which may go before Christmas this year." When announcing his changes to the broadcaster, Mr Scott argued the economics of the television sector make it more efficient to base production, outside of news and current affairs, in Sydney and Melbourne.

In his efficiency study into the ABC and SBS, former Seven West Media chief financial officer Peter Lewis found: "The large television production studio [in Adelaide] is rarely used. TV production demand currently consists mainly of internal documentaries and one-off specials." The ABC closed down its Hobart television production studios in 2012.