Clearly the lack of audience is due to poor programming. Most people would recognise that documentaries about the prohibition era in the United States, and on Russian and American research into manned space travel - both current programs - aren't going to attract a large audience and is perhaps not the best fit for a network that this supposed to project Australia’s image to the world. And would you believe that it currently features shows encouraging tourism to London, Paris and Vienna? As such the network has been unable to attract substantial advertising, not even from within government. Departments that spend millions marketing Australian goods and products to the world, such as education, tourism and Austrade don’t see it as a useful advertising platform because it has such a small audience . And we also found that the network was doing a poor job of engaging people online through social networks. Little effort was being made to make the network’s digital assets mobile – which in countries like India mean you have little chance of reaching a younger audience. It was clear to us that the network was failing and that a golden opportunity to sell our nation to the fastest growing economies of the world was being missed.

In the ultra-competitive media market of Asia a new approach was needed. So this is what we pitched: Where the ABC provides three channels, we offered to create five, including specific ones for India and China, where the ABC has failed to get landing rights after years of trying. Ask yourself, how can you provide a serious service to Asia without full access to the world’s most populous nation? The ratings tell us that under the ABC the Australia Network has just 140,000 viewers per week in the Asian and Pacific regions. The ABC currently broadcasts to 45 countries; we planned to take it to 180, including all 20 of the G20 member nations so vital to Australia’s diplomatic objectives.

There is currently just one Australia Network website with pitiful visitor and social media numbers. We offered to create five websites and to use the lessons we have learned at Sky to increase visitor and user numbers and drive those viewers to the network’s television channels. The ABC has let Australian exporters and diplomats down, doing little to help them. We pledged to work with exporters, tourism bodies, universities, Austrade and AusAid to ensure the network can support trade fairs and aid projects and service the millions of businesspeople, foreign students and tourists who visit Australia every year. The ABC has acknowledged that without the $20 million it gets for the Australia Network, its national news services might face significant cut. By contrast we don’t need to subsidise our core operations. In fact, we have undertaken to spend every cent of the $20 million the government provides on the service itself and will even forgo the management fee as well as re-invest all the revenue back into the service too. Let me be clear, Sky will not make a cent from this deal; this isn’t about profit, it’s about creating a great broadcasting network that will take Australia to the world. We knew we could do it and do it well because we have been doing it for years, and with a reputation for journalistic independence and professionalism second to none which is why we are consistently chosen to anchor state and federal election leaders’ debates. With the cancellation of the tender process - sadly for Australia the argument being put forward is that the Australia Network only belongs to the ABC and has no place in the private sector.

The fact is, good public services are tendered out to the private sector all the time. The military does it; our diplomatic services do it; and so does the ABC, which contracts much of its content out to private production companies. Add to this the strict guidelines laid down for the operation of the Australia Network, and the argument against anyone but the ABC being suitable to run the broadcaster just don’t stack up. For the record, Sky News Australia is not controlled not by News Corp but is a joint venture of Nine Entertainment Company, Seven West Media and British Sky Broadcasting, which is itself only just over one-third owned by News Corporation. You do the maths: News owns about one-third of one-third of our controlling company, which in any case has arms-length structures that give our news services independent editorial decision-making. So Sky News is not just an independent media company, we are an independent Australian media company. We are Australian and proud of it. And along with our expertise in digital broadcasting, and our superior offering, that makes us the right people to provide an Australian voice to the rest of the world. Given the chance, we will replace the current failed Australia Network with a world class and widely-watched international broadcaster for Australia. Angelos Frangopoulos is the chief executive of Australian News Channel, which has bid for the Australia Network. Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU