The ABC and SBS could be asked to work more closely together as the Federal Government looks to continue slashing the budget of the two state run national broadcasters.

Last month’s federal budget cut about $43.5 million from both broadcasters through a 1 per cent efficiency dividend.

The federal government warned that further savings are to come, following an efficiency review.

The final report from that review is currently with the boards of the ABC and SBS and at the hands of the Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnball.

The 146-pages report contains 48 areas of analysis across the ABC and the SBS, identifies five key areas that it says may lead to significant operational efficiencies or savings.

These include the merging of some operational aspects of the SBS and ABC, the moving of SBS in Sydney and Melbourne into ABC headquarters, retiring old technologies, and finding new ways for the ABC to raise its own money.

The report says any merging of operations between the ABC and SBS would ensure the organisations maintain their separate and unique programming identities.

The ABC, SBS and National Indigenous Television (NITV) which was launced by SBS in December 2012, are funded by the state in the vicinity of $1.5 billion a year. More than two thirds of the funding goes to the ABC.

Media experts believe that ABC, SBS and NITV could be merged into a single public broadcaster, under the same roof, with a multichannel structure that exploits the rapid convergence of media technology.

One of the most prominent supporters of SBS, former Prime Minister Malcolm Frazer, whose government created the multicultural broadcaster almost four decades ago believes that putting the SBS and the ABC under one roof would lead to the eventual death of the smaller broadcaster.

In a speech last month, the past chairman of SBS, Joseph Skrzynski, said merging the two broadcasters would be ”wrong in principle, bad economics and even worse politics”.

The efficiency review into the national broadcasters was led by former Seven West Media chief financial officer Peter Lewis.