Sadly for news hounds, the terms of trade negotiations between SPAA and the ABC did not involve the taking and returning of hostages, although everyone in television is always a hostage to fortune. Instead, they are a lesson in the importance of detail.
A SPAA negotiating committee involving Owen Johnston, the organisation’s production executive, has been conducting these biennial negotiations from the producers’ point of view for some months, as the parties track a mass of detail.
