Launched 22 July 2010 | Network ABC Television | |
Owned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation Picture format 576i (SDTV) 16:9/14:9 and 4:3 (PAL) Audience share 1.1% nationally (March 2011, [1]) Slogan It's news, when you want it. | ||
ABC News 24 is an Australian 24-hour news channel launched and owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The channel replaced the former ABC High Definition simulcast of ABC TV and commenced broadcasting at 7:30 pm (AEST) 5:30 pm (AWST) on Thursday, 22 July 2010.
Contents
- History
- Reception
- Programming
- Criticism
- ABC News 24 online
- News
- Other
- Former presenters
- International bureaus
- Overseas correspondents
- References
The majority of the channel's content is produced from the ABC Ultimo Centre in Sydney, which the public can view being presented from an atrium looking into the news presentation studio. ABC News 24's early morning programme, ABC News Breakfast and the evening programme The World is produced at the ABC Southbank Centre in Melbourne (weekdays).
Due to the rebroadcast of ABC HD on 6 December 2016, ABC News 24 reduced to standard definition.
History
The ABC announced in January 2010 that it planned to launch a 24-hour news channel. The logo of ABC News 24 was revealed by Freeview in their new promotion on Tuesday 22 June. The official promotional reel for ABC News 24 was launched on digital channel 24 between 6 and 8 July.
Speculation about a launch date for ABC News 24 took place in the weeks prior to the official announcement. The Daily Telegraph claimed in early July that the channel would be delayed due to technical issues at the ABC's new playout facility, MediaHub, in south west Sydney while other outlets reported that the channel was on track to begin in mid-July.
The ABC announced on 13 July 2010 that the channel would have its first live broadcast on 22 July.
In November 2016, the ABC announced that ABC News 24 and ABC NewsRadio will be rebranded under a unified ABC News brand in 2017.
Reception
Since the commencement of regular broadcasting, the reaction to the new news channel has been mixed. A particular concern has been the pressure placed upon the budget and operations of both the news division of the ABC, as well as the broadcaster as a whole, owing to the decision to launch the channel without additional Government funding, as was the case with the recent launch of the children's channel ABC3.
In Senate Estimates hearings in February 2012 the broadcaster confirmed a $2.5 million shortfall in the budget for its news and current affairs division and imposed a 1.5% cut in newsroom budgets, though denies the link to ABC News 24, instead pointing to recent major news events in the past year such as the Christchurch earthquakes and flooding in Queensland and Victoria. However, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has blamed the reported $20 million annual cost of the network for cutbacks in ABC TV sports coverage of the SANFL.
However, the network has seen success with high viewership compared to competitor Sky News Australia, with reach exceeding 2 million viewers weekly, tripling that of Sky News.
The channel's highest primetime viewership share was 9.5% during 2016 Federal election coverage on 2 July 2016.
Programming
ABC News 24's output consists of a mix of live bulletins, timeshifted repeats of existing ABC News and Current Affairs output, coverage of the Federal Parliament's Question Time, documentaries and factual and arts programming. These draw upon the ABC's own resources and those of its partner broadcasters, the BBC, TVNZ, PBS, NHK, and Al Jazeera English.
Live rolling news coverage on the channel is presented on weekdays by Joe O'Brien (mornings), Ros Childs (midday), Kumi Taguchi (afternoons). Specialist and feature programming includes a daily business programme covering the Asia-Pacific region, a topical debate programme entitled The Drum presented by Steve Cannane or Julia Baird and an international bulletin with Beverley O'Connor entitled The World presented from ABC Melbourne Studio.
Existing shows ABC News Breakfast and ABC News at Noon are broadcast live on ABC News 24 at the same time as on ABC TV in AEST/AEDT time zones; viewers in the AWST and ACST time zones can choose to watch these programs either live (on ABC News 24) or on delay in their local time (on ABC TV). In addition, The Business is shown in an earlier timeslot than currently scheduled on ABC TV.
On 30 September 2010, the ABC announced the first new programme to be shown on ABC News 24 titled Capital Hill. The political programme, originally hosted by Chris Uhlmann airs Fridays at 5:30 pm AEST/AEDT and takes a look at the week's political events and news, as well as feature interviews with the key players of politics. It is now broadcast every weekday at 1:00 pm AEST/AEDT and is hosted by Greg Jennett.
Overnight ABC News 24 uses 'satellite' programming, mainly from BBC World News which mostly uses the main BBC News bulletins, as well as sometimes using shows such as Impact (TV programme) with Yalda Hakim, Outside Source with Ros Atkins and Global with Matthew Amroliwala. These BBC World News broadcasts come live into ABC News 24 before being broadcast around Australia. About two hours of two Al Jazeera Newshour bulletins are also broadcast.
Criticism
Along with other rolling news channels, ABC News 24 has been criticised for launching into rolling news coverage for 'breaking news' where little new information supports such coverage, and just repeating limited information and footage about an event. Conversely, ABC News 24 has also been criticised for not turning to rolling coverage.
ABC News 24 online
ABC News 24 can be streamed online at the ABC's website and on YouTube. However, the news stream on both sites is not available outside of Australia, and unlike other programming on iView it is not currently offered as unmetered content by any internet service providers. The ABC News 24 stream is available in medium and high bandwidth varieties on the iView site.