ABC receives nearly all its funding directly from the government via legislative appropriations, and is prohibited by law from airing commercial advertising on domestic television and radio services (although it does have the capacity to earn additional revenue via merchandising). Early in its history, ABC was funded by a license fee, though this was abolished in 1973 when the Labor government argued that the near-universality of television and radio meant that direct public funding was a more equitable method of providing revenue (Inglis 2006). In 2008, ABC received $ million (A$ million) directly from the government (ABC 2009). SBS, by.
