Comments on: ABC3 takes on Pay channels

By: snickers

snickers — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:47:40 +0000

@Janine – Parents are too afraid to let their children play outside anymore thanks to all the fear spread by the collective media and government. This is the culture we now live in. TV and video games are not to blame.

By: Janine

Janine — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:44:09 +0000

More kids programming? Children should be playing outside instead of staring at the TV for hours on end. But I’m old-fashioned, I guess.

By: Stan

Stan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:49:21 +0000

That was really frustrating to read!

I can’t believe they’re going ahead with *expanded* kids programming on ABC2! Until recently, ABC2 were airing Australia Network’s ‘Asia Pacific News’ & ‘Business Today’ between 9am & 10am weekdays which will now never come back if they go with kids programming. What other FTA network offers news (in English) between 9am & 11am weekdays?

I understand ABC1 have to be left alone until their analogue signal is switched off in 2012. But ABC3 should be airing tween/school-age programming from 6am to 9am weekdays, then go with pre-school stuff from 9am to around 3pm (??) & then go back to tween & teenage programming until 9pm or something.

Please ABC! Tax payers with functioning brains want ABC2 all to themselves… Pretty plaese! Even if they do a GO! & just re-run the night before’s prime-time programming from either ABC1 or ABC2. SBS1′s afternoon line-up is the only thing worth watching if you’re not into cooking or adults talking to each other like they’re five years-old…

By: tasmanian devil

tasmanian devil — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:27:26 +0000

Good to see this issue cleared up a little, but it still seems to me that they haven’t thought it through enough. I see their points (not everyone has digital TV yet, school aged kids and preschoolers are different markets, etc.) but that isn’t really a sufficient excuse to broadcast kids TV on all channels at the same time, and the ABC could manage their schedule a lot better. A simple solution to all of this is to leave everything as it is at the moment, and wait until digital switch-over time to carry out their master plan. By that time, an ideal and tidy schedule would be:
News Breakfast moves to ABC 1, followed by general programming. ABC 2 carries all preschoolers programs (6am-6pm 7 days a week). ABC 3 has content for older kids and also becomes the new home for the education programs (Mon-Fri 9am-3pm).
@quokka
You are right in that schools view ABC educational programs as part of their curriculum, but this (wrongly) has nothing to do with ABC’s childrens programming. In fact they make an effort to distance the educational childrens TV with non-educational. A good example is 10am weekdays on ABC 1. A voice over says “To watch more of your favourite shows, flick over now to ABC 2″ right before the educational programs begin, which is rather deplorable, and encouraging kids to not watch educational TV. As I said, the right idea would be to have educational programs on ABC 3 from 9am-3pm.

By: Andrew B

Andrew B — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:12:08 +0000

Even if ABC3 only showed school aged children’s programming during school holidays and something else outside of school holidays you would have the childrens’ programming on most of the time given that school holidays are different in every state.

By: aussietv

aussietv — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:12:41 +0000

Baffles me that it is easier to buy international titles rather than re-license our own content. Why are things so complex with our system of local content and licensing? Most producers, directors, writers are happy to offer their content to new audiences, you just have to look at all the vast amount of material that has been curated from our local talent in the ACMI screen worlds exhibition. Adam Elliot donated his Oscar even. Heartbreak High for example seems to be very prominent across Europe in re-runs, but the last time it was on air was early 2000′s on a saturday morning timeslot, and that was the last series. Isn’t Australia one of the biggest producers of children’s television in the world? And most of this came from the ABC. Round the Twist, Wayne Manifesto, Genie from Down Under, all international successes. And yes, although 9 are playing Skippy, Spyforce ect in metro, WIN plays Crawfords classics but metro cannot because of some sort of rights issue regarding payments for actors in metro. And not many people are willing to stay up until 2am. Obviously it all comes down to one thing, money.

By: franz chong

franz chong — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:59:23 +0000

I have to agree even though I am not a Parent of School Age Children About The Point of Showing School Age Kids Shows when except for School Holidays they are not home to watch them.It is a waste of time.
Someone forget to mention about people who are homeschooled in this.

By: Mike Retter

Mike Retter — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:34:50 +0000

Brillient.

By: Axel

Axel — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:52:53 +0000

ABC 1 is one of my main channels. ABC 2 and ABC 3 are just a complete waste of money. No thanks, I will delete these 2 channels.

By: Kirben

Kirben — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:46:38 +0000

quokka:
There has been no mention of educational content even been shown on the ABC3 during the daytime on weekdays so far.

The few educational shows (ie Behind The News) that are shown at schools, are on the ABC1, and will continue to be on the ABC1, until analogue TV is turned off in the future I expect.

By: quokka

quokka — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:18:50 +0000

Um…I not sure if any of you have been to school, or have school age kids, but classes watch ABC at school as part of the curriculum. There are educational and current events shows. Hence the need to show school age shows during the school term.

By: Richard W

Richard W — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:07:07 +0000

The ideal solution would be for ABC3 to show school aged kids programing before 9am and after 3pm weekdays. From 9am – 3pm when kids are in school, they could play documentaries which would appeal to kids and adults.

Daytime TV is full of soaps, infotainment programs and US chat shows. Give us a choice to watch something more real life and educational. The fact im at work, I don’t really care, but I still would like my ABC money to go to some use!

By: Kirben

Kirben — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:04:16 +0000

The ABC needs a new director, this one obviously doesn’t have a clue. I’m tired of the bias for Australia content no matter what the quality. The ABC frequently wastes money by buying Australia series, that have already been shown by commercial TV networks.

Most of the Australian content for kids is terrible, compared to international markets. Both recent shows (ie Blue Water High) and older shows (ie Round the Twist Series 3/4) . Australian content should be bought on quality, so the local market is forced to produced more quality content.

The ABC doesn’t offer any competition to Pay-TV channels, there is little new content shown, and endless repeats (especially on the ABC2). While several new cartoon series, are still been limited to their iView service.

Why is the any need for school age content during the daytime of weekdays, when the kids will be at school? mixed content could easily be shown on the ABC2 during the school holidays instead.

I don’t see the new content announced for the ABC3 making any real difference at all, when there is little variety provided, and that content will need to be spread over three channels, for a least a year (until next funding).

It looks more and more like the ABC3 will offer little new content or variety, only more endless repeats (of Australia series I expect). With more and more kids, not watch the ABC’s channels at all.

By: CAM

CAM — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:53:36 +0000

What is going to happen with ABC HD? With ABC3, there won’t be enough bitrate for a decent HD channel. Will ABC stick with 720p resolution for HD? It’s already been previously downgraded from 1080i. Surely they won’t dare to degrade it further to 576p?

By: Beej

Beej — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:44:19 +0000

@Richard W – actually you’ll find that CBeebies and CBBC actually are broadcast on (BBC1) BBC3 and BBC4 during the day, and then BBC Three and BBC Four programming kicks in about tea time. But i agree with the point that, obviously there is scope to appeal to kids on both ABC1 (only ABC analogue channel) and ABC3 (dedicated digital kids channel) but keep ABC2 for a more adult audience

By: Paull

Paull — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:39:12 +0000

Yeh leaving school aged stuff on ABC3 during the school term is just plain silly, they could easily put pre-school stuff on ABC3 during the terms, then during school holidays shift that to ABC2 and put school aged programming on ABC3 during the day.