The ABC is singing the praises of ABC3, which it claims is the most popular channel for kids aged 5- 12.
Since launching nine weeks ago, the channel is now the top daytime channel among 5-12s (6am-6pm) across all FTA and Pay TV channels. Amongst those viewers it has a share of 13.1% compared to ABC1 (10.7%), Nine (8.3%), Disney Channel (6.9%) and Nickelodeon at (5.3%). Of course, not all children’s channels on Pay TV are aimed at the same target of viewers.
Prank Patrol, CJ the DJ and Rush TV are its most popular locally produced programs.
The ABC3 website has attracted 1.3 million visits since its launch, with CJ the DJ has the most popular of titles on its website.
Kim Dalton, Director of ABC TV said “We always said that there was a need for a commercial free dedicated children’s channel which had broad and diverse programs but with a focus on Australian characters and Australian stories. We were funded by the Government to deliver ABC3 to do just this and Australia’s children have voted with their eyeballs.
“These figures are an outstanding vote of confidence in the Government’s decision to fund ABC3, in the mix of quality and diverse Australian and international programming we are offering, and in our partners in the independent production community who are making many of them.”
Daily share averages this week have been around 0.3%% to 0.5%.
@kirben: Now I do agree with you, as does a lot of the rest of Australia, I feel it was a waste to use abc 3 for kids shows only, it would be better if it focused on some other area and put kids cartoons on abc2 during the holidays. Or at least they could put the preschjol programming on ab3 during the school day and use abc2 for other programmes.
Paull: That is the whole point, the ABC doesn’t have enough new content for a single kids channel, but are wasting two channels with kids programming that is basically endless repeats.
The ABC managed to show different series in the afternoon (4PM-6PM) each weekday on the ABC1, followed by an additional hour (6PM-7PM) on the ABC2 only a few years ago. Which offered more new content, quality content, and variety of content. Compared to what is currently offered by the ABC1/2/3.
After school programming would be the most important for children, and that is exactly what I would like to see return at the very least.
Seeing as abc can offer more channels unlike the commercial I can accept a kids channel and news channel from them I mean they play out series on both abc1 and abc2. Also its fine if they play older Australian content instead of older American/Uk/Canada content I mean isn’t this country Australia? I do think new local and Internation content is just as if not more important too.
@kirbin: so i guess my question now is, would you rather we go back to pre-December 2009, when there was no such thing as a 24 hour kids channel? Isn’t it unreasonable to expect new and diverse programming every day? I mean, I’d love it if channels that were aimed at me(Go! For example) had new shows that I liked 24 hours 7 days a week, bit the reality is, I only catch a couple of hours from GO each week.
So I guess you’re left with 2 choices, get foxtel which includes a number of kids channels that run all day, or don’t watch abc3 and go back to the days of just kids
programming on after school and on Saturday morning.
Seemingly alot of adults complaining about too much kids tv on ABC want instead outdated classic shows from when they were kids. Bunch of hypocrites.
Unlike the compalints how kids don’t get out and play enough, maybe a few couch potato 20-50 yo’s need to move that lard and breath some called fresh air instead of sulking over kids getting all the fun.
It depends what you mean by smorgasbord. If you bothered to take a closer look at what the ABC provides for kids, you would see that 90% or so of it is repeats. So in regard to quantity, yes it is a smorgasbord. But what Kirben said is true, a lot of the ABC’s Australian content for kids is originally from the commercial networks and a greater emphasis on more first-run shows would be more satisfactory.
My main concern with ABC3 is that, after all the hype dies down and the new series planned for the channel (My Place, Prank Patrol, CJ The DJ etc) have been run, it will become a wasteland of repeats. Not much of a smorgasbord there. Also, before ABC3 launched, it came across that it would have some variety in the types of shows it would screen, so not just the run of the mill cartoons and dramas, also documentaries, educational shows, factuals, game shows etc. It somewhat disappoints in that area too.
Now we have ABC3 for kids, why do we still have to put up with kids programs on ABC2?
There are lots of great shows they could be showing us instead… lots of classic repeats too…
Andrew: Wrong, maybe you should actually check out what is offered. There isn’t much new content or variety on any of the (free to air) TV networks anymore, and quality content is becoming rarer and rarer to find.
The 1980s and 1990s offered more, in terms of new content for children. The 1990s offered more, in terms on quality content and variety for children.
I’m still annoyed the ABC dropped Avatar – The Last Airbender, which was one of the best series of the 2000s.
@Paull, the kids of today have a smorgasboard of entertainment,compared to only a few years ago.
Personally I am happy that my abc is focussing on Australian content. It might be tacky and dated but it would seem from the figures that the kids dont mind. Mine dont. Would I like new content – of course (but it all costs). Am I happier my kids watching ‘skippy help a helicopter land’ rather than learning that the last letter in the alphabet is Zee – absolutely.
Paull: Most older Australian live action series don’t age well, many series suffer from be aimed too much (ie pop culture) at kids of a particular time period. Older animated series usually don’t have this problem, but the ABC seems more focused on live action series lately. The nostalgia appeal of any older series is irrelevant, as they channel is meant for kids, and not adults. There are actually several related complaints about older Australia TV from kids, in the ABC3 forums.
Also any older series fail to take advantage of digital channels, most series were not produced for widescreen, and many series (even from 1990s) suffer from poor video quality.
By overseas content, I meant content from any country worldwide. The ABC have shown animated series from many different countries around the world, in the past. It is good for kids to learn about different countries and cultures too, those elements are often shown by kids series that are set in other parts of the world.
Buying more quality animated series from overseas, and producing good English translations locally, would be a good comprise. Kids get better quality series, and the local industry can still be supported by translation work (ie directors, scripts, voice actors) too.
ABC3′s figures are very good. when you hear that a channel is running a test patter for half of primetime and it targetted at kids 5-12. you’d expect .1% maybe .2% share across primetime.
but getting up to .6% and regularly beating channels like ONE which have a much wider target audience and run for the full primetime, and only after being on air for a few months is a huge achievement
@kirben: it’s unreasonable to expect a channel that runs only children programming for 15 or so hours a day, plus runs childrens shows every week day arvo, to constantly come up with new shows, repeats are inevitable. Plus, showing older Aussie shows (from the 90s for example) will broaden the channels appeal to an audience that was young in the 90s (such as myself) to go back and rewatch old shows, in adition, it allows these older shows to establish a new audience from younger viewers watching these shows for the first time.
As for your comment on lack of overseas content, I’m assuming you mean American content (or brittish) and not Chinese, Indian, Croatian, Ethiopian and other countries that don’t primarily speak English. If that’s the case, then I’m glad abc is show a majority of Aussie kids shows, American shows can cause confusion amongst kids due the difference in culture, such as pronunciation of words and letters, as well as every day life (ie school).
The only thing I’m annoyed at by abc is te fact that the didn’t release this channel while I was still a kid, or at least while I was still in highschool.
Kirben’s right on all accounts. ABC 3 should be a lot like good journalism. It’s the quality not quantity of content that should count. You may claim you have 40% local content, but if half of this is most likely rerun content, and any new kids content, is either “good” quality (My Place, News On 3, Prank Patrol) or poor quality.
The reason why Nine’s high, is due to The Shak (axed recently), Hi-5 and both Kids WB and Go’s reliance on Cartoon Network animated product, such as Ben 10 and Camp Lazlo.
As for ABC3, they should just apply a golden seal of quality, like Nintendo do with Wii games, on Australian content to weed out the weaker quality products.
Until all people have digital childrens programmes are spread on ABC1,2 and 3. ABC 3 is great for kids and will get even better having just started in December.
I recall those comments from Kim Dalton in that previous article, but actions speak louder than words.
The ABC have bought more older Australian TV series for the ABC3 so far:
Blinky Bill (Series 3) Don’t Blame the Koalas Flipper and Lopaka (Series 1) Heartbreak High Round the Twist Spellbinder Spellbinder 2 Sweat The Genie From Down Under The Sleepover Club The Tribe Trapped Worst Best Friends
Plus the following older Australian series, that were bought for the ABC in the last few years:
Cybergirl Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist Erky Perky Mortified Parralax Silversun Sea Princesses Wormwood Yakkity Yak
Kim Dalton to TV Tonight:
“The priority is commissioning new material, the second is to relicense Australian back catalogue and the third priority is to buy-in a range of content that’s available internationally.”
Dalton says it is simply cheaper for the broadcaster to purchase titles internationally than to re-license loccal titles.
“One of the issues is we have about Australian drama is that the producers have to go back and pay residuals on the performing rights. There’s a much more complex rights equation that goes on when you re-license Australian content than if you’re simply picking up acquired material internationally.”
Baggygreen: Pre-school children might not mind the frequent repeats on the ABC2, but the ABC3 covers children from 6 – 15 years old. You don’t expect them to watch the same series for 9 years do you? I have lost count of the number of times many series have been repeated in only a few years time.
There are many timeless TV series (ie Babar) for children, but there still needs to be a decent amount of new content too.
The ABC is buying many older Australian TV series (regardless of quality), simply to fill their idea of as much Australian content as possible though. There are much better choices (ie MCoG, Rupert, Tintin, Twins of Destiny) overseas, even for older TV series.
So, since it’s the most popular can we take away the kids shows from ABC1 and 2 now?
I would suggest that some of that figure that makes up Nine would include GO which has alot of children’s programming. Otherwise Saturday mornings on Nine must really count well.
@Kirben. Surprisingly children are only 6 for one year. the next year a new one comes along who hasnt seen the show before. this model has worked modestly well for say ‘The wiggles’. Oh an my 6 year old is pretty captivated by an old show this minute that you would have consigned to landfill; its called Snow White and was made by some guy called disney about 100yrs ago; its about her 352 viewing i think.
So take the kids crap off ABC1 and 2!
Suprised to see Nine as the 3rd most popular channel for kids between 5 and 12. They only have an hour of children’s programming per day. Maybe its Ellen, Kerri-Anne and The View that have more appeal to the young ones than those on channel 7.
Well done to Abc3 nonetheless.
Paull: The ABC is an Australian channel, funded by the government. So I can understand why they want some Australian TV series.
But the ABC plans for 70%+ Australian content on the ABC3 in the future, which would have to include a large amount of older Australian TV series. Why should so much content be chosen simply because it is Australian? while new and better content from overseas is overlooked?
Could you imagine the complaints if they attempted that on the ABC1?
@kirben: The Australian Brpadcasting Corporation has an Australian bias? Well I’ve heard everything now, haha!
They can’t get rid of the ABC2 childrens block because it’s designated for ages 5 and under, with shows such as Arthur (sarcasm). Whereas ABC3 is for ages 6 and over. They could, however, cut back on the ABC1 block now that they have two designated channels, so perhaps an hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, and then remove it altogether in 2014.
The TV ratings aren’t accurate at all, but the ABC tries to find any excuse to praise their poor attempt at a kids channel. A few thousand people choose what we are forced to watch in each area, made even worse when it is divided into gender and age groups.
I really doubt many kids are watching the ABC at all, with the constant endless repeats on all channels, especially the return of more and more old Australian TV series. There are many complaints about the constant repeats from kids, in their own ABC3 forums.
The ratings have returned and school holidays ended, but there is barely any new content for kids on the ABC’s channels in February. It is shocking that more new content and quality content was been shown, a few years before the ABC3 existed.
The ABC still have not proved they even need a kids channel so far, the ABC has not even had enough new content for the kids programming on ABC1 in the last few years.
Kids don’t need a channel focused on solely Australian characters and stories, they need a channel focused on new content and quality content from around the world. The Australian bias is ruining the ABC3, with cheaply produced new Australian series, and endless repeats of older Australian series.
It’s great to see mostly quality TV for kids. My kids fit the demographic and both love it. Scorpion Island is a particular favourite. Good on ABC
Great, now this channel is doing so well, get rid of the childrens shows on ABC2, and in 2013, lose the majority from ABC1.
I don’t mind ABC3, especially on Sunday afternoons as it has Don’t Blame the Koalas, Naturally Sadie and Round the Twist. I also quite enjoy Sweat as the show features Heath Ledger. The other programs I like are Lizzie McGuire, Blue Water High and Heartbreak High.
My one compliant of the channel is that it finishes early. I know that the age bracket that the channel is directed to are meant to be in bed by the time the channel closes, but what about weekends and school holidays? Children do stay up later on the weekends and during school holidays, so can’t the channel broadcast a little later until 11pm or midnight?