Highly-paid ABC presenters should have their salaries published and the national broadcaster forced to focus on rural issues, Liberal MPs say.
They also want the costs of different shows published, to see if Q&A costs more to produce than Landline.
Malcolm Turnbull has been hosing down speculation the coalition will sell the ABC after Liberal powerbrokers voted to privatise it at the weekend's Liberal federal council meeting.
But in the coalition party room on Tuesday several MPs called on the government to keep up the pressure on the ABC.
They want highly-paid presenters to have their salaries published and the cost of production for TV shows to be publicly available.
The MPs also called for the ABC's pay bonus structure to be reviewed and want the broadcaster to focus more on rural and regional issues.
Both the ABC and SBS were given the chance to voluntarily make the salaries of their top-paid employees public but declined.
The federal government introduced legislation to the Senate to force the broadcasters to disclose salaries but it has not yet gone for a vote.
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield says laws are on their way requiring the ABC to spend more time on rural and regional stories and he agrees the bonus structure doesn't make sense given the ABC is not a commercial operation.
Mr Turnbull explicitly ruled out ever selling the ABC but other Liberals are sticking by the push.
ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie said the commercial media sector doesn't need a new "advertising behemoth".
"I can appreciate that the ABC would fetch a high price in a commercial market but does the public want a new media organisation that compromises quality and innovation for profit?" she told the Melbourne Press Club on Tuesday.
"Does the commercial sector want a new advertising behemoth in its midst? I think not."
In this year's budget, the federal government introduced a three-year funding freeze that slashed $84 million from ABC, following a decision to axe $43 million in funding for news and current affairs.
Labor has promised to reverse the freeze if it wins government.
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