Let me dive in to the murky waters of commercial media and clean them up for you. These were once rivers of gold where the likes of Fairfax Media and News Corp ambled uninterrupted by as much as a clown fish. Then, about 20 years ago, the sharks began to circle. First it was Realestate.com.au (1995) then Carsales.com.au and Seek.com.au (both 1997). Each of those businesses is now worth more than Fairfax, publisher of The Sun-Herald.

Australia's newspaper and magazine industry doesn't have a problem attracting readers. The challenge is to work out how to make money out of journalism now that they no longer enjoy a monopoly over the distribution of information. The same is true of the commercial broadcasters. Advertisers wanting to reach mass audiences were once beholden to Channels Seven, Nine and Ten. Today, there's Skype (2003) Facebook (2004) YouTube (2005) Twitter (2006) and Instagram (2010). They're all chasing those same banks, insurance companies, retailers and fashion houses that used to have little choice but to pay newspaper companies and television networks to run their ads. Now, at minimal cost, they can access global audiences. Meanwhile Australia's newspapers and TV networks are clinging desperately to business models that are broken and blaming the ABC for their woes. Even if the ABC collapsed tomorrow, that wouldn't solve their revenue crises.

Even if the ABC collapsed tomorrow that wouldn't solve the revenue crises faced by Australia's newspapers and TV networks. Credit:Peter Braig

Each commercial media company has much more to fear from Michelle Phan and Bethany Mota than from Peppa Pig. Together, Phan and Mota reach 14 million young people every day through their YouTube channels. Phan teaches them how to wear make-up while Mota provides fashion and lifestyle tips. Phan makes $5 million a year from cosmetics companies. Nineteen-year-old Mota just signed a fashion branding deal that's estimated to be worth $50 million. Then there's 19-year-old Perth actor Troye Sivan. You've probably never heard of him but 12 weeks ago the millions of followers of his YouTube channel helped propel his debut album to number one on the iTunes charts in 55 countries. Time Magazine has listed him as one of the world's most influential teens. The media advertising apocalypse has nothing to do with the ABC. Estimates by Deloitte Access Economics suggest there are now 200,000 people employed in online-related companies in Australia. Less than 1% of them work at the ABC. The other 99% spend the bulk of their time trying to wrest advertisers away from traditional media companies and move them into the digital space.

During her address to the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival in 2012, Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth (chairwoman of Shine Group) praised the BBC for being furthest ahead in recognising that "the new world demands new ecosystems". Unlike her brother, James, she isn't threatened by a strong public broadcaster committed to putting viewers, readers and listeners first. They no longer want their news on their desktops. Increasingly they want to consume news on their tablets and phones. More people are now reading the news on their smartphones than anywhere else and, far from it being a young person's trend, the fastest growth is coming from the 55-69 year olds (53%).