ABC TV

Overview

ABC TV is the flagship television channel of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia’s national public broadcaster. Funded by the federal government and carrying no commercial advertising, the channel provides news, current affairs, drama, comedy, documentaries and children’s programming to audiences across the country. It heads a family of ABC channels and the ABC iview streaming service, and is consistently rated among the most trusted media brands in Australia.

History

ABC television began on 5 November 1956, when station ABN-2 opened in Sydney, with services in other capital cities following soon after; the launch came just in time for coverage of the Melbourne Olympic Games. Modelled in part on the BBC, the ABC had already established itself in radio since 1932, and its television arm quickly became a central part of Australian public life. Over the decades the channel pioneered Australian drama, satire and current-affairs television, expanded to a nationwide terrestrial network, and moved into digital multichannels and streaming, with ABC iview launching as one of the world’s early broadcaster catch-up services.

Programming

News and current affairs are the channel’s backbone, led by nightly ABC News bulletins, the flagship investigative programme Four Corners — on air since 1961 and Australia’s longest-running television current-affairs show — and the weeknight analysis programme 7.30. Discussion and documentary strands such as Q+A and Australian Story are complemented by acclaimed home-grown drama and comedy. Children’s television is a historic strength, exemplified by Play School, broadcast since 1966, and more recently by the globally successful animation Bluey, produced for the ABC.

Significance

As Australia’s national public broadcaster, the ABC holds a statutory role in informing and reflecting the nation, and ABC TV is the most visible expression of that charter. Its journalism sets the agenda in national affairs, its emergency broadcasting is vital during bushfires, floods and cyclones, and its commissioning of Australian drama, comedy and children’s content sustains the local production industry. For generations of Australians, “Aunty”, as the broadcaster is affectionately known, has been a defining presence in the country’s cultural life.