★★★★★ 0/5

Uhlmann scoop launches ABC News 24

ABC Political Editor Chris Uhlmann spearheaded the launch of ABC News 24 last night with a good scoop on former PM Kevin Rudd.

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ABC Political Editor Chris Uhlmann spearheaded the launch of ABC News 24 last night by revealing that former PM Kevin Rudd had a “casual disregard” for the National Security Committee, sometimes allowing his 31 year old Chief of Staff to take his place.

Rudd reportedly allowed Alistair Jordan to fill in when he was late or absent. Departmental heads were often kept for more than an hour and made complaints.

The Opposition now says it makes him unsuitable as a foreign minister in any future Gillard Cabinet, and raises questions about why Julia Gillard didn’t confront him on the issue.

The Uhlmann scoop was an impressive way to launch the new channel and comes after some media commentary had recently questioned the ABC’s ability to break news when compared to newspapers.

ABC was also the first to reveal the “Spillard” challenge was on last month.

ABC News 24 made a traditional, serious debut reflecting on its history and spending much of its first hour featuring a wide range of stories from around the country to overseas. It had everything from the election to London Olympic venues to the dying Murray River basin. Rather than showcase the range of programming and presenters, it sought to give a taste of story sources. At times it felt like a slice of Foreign Correspondent meets Landline.

Visually the new ABC studio looked sleek and contemporary, with wide, uncluttered shots of presenters standing before a huge screen or seated at a desk.

It was followed by a relaxed episode of The Drum, comprising mostly talking heads hosted by Steve Cannane. The World hosted by Scott Bevan included stories from Burma, Fiji and the NASA space programme. But some audio problems impacted, included loss of a live interview to Afghanistan.

The News ticker on the bottom of the screen, which doesn’t scroll like traditional tickers, is too laden with promos for channel programming and not enough headlines.

Technical issues aside, the first real test will come without notice, when a big breaking story occurs and the channel is flying by the seat of its pants.

19 Responses

  1. And I would have thought they would have done a better intro of what the channel had to offer and also intro some of its reporters/programs. I did enjoy the broadcast and a couple of the programs eg The World and One plus One I will be watching.

    However I am left pondering why they would show BTN extra on ABC News 24, I got the impression it was a childrens show? So wouldnt it have been better to leave it on ABC 3?

  2. Hey Paul!
    Looks the comments and you will know how many people saw the first program.
    Some complaint that the picture it is not very good. For me and others look perfect. To solve your problem mate, reduce the size of the television or extend your living room.
    The icons on the bottom of the screen is really a nuisance.
    The first program was very good, so I hope now that we have channel ABC 24 news we will be able to see the rest of the world, no just New York, London, China, and the queen. Now we might know where Africa or Latin America are.
    Well done ABC. No good for Ruperto… you know who.

  3. The picture quality is not as good as the other channels for some reason, very pixelated. Hopefully they can fix that because it’s a very welcome addition to the free-to-air line-up, especially when big news breaks. I’ve been looking forward to this channel for a long time.

  4. Pretty impressed overall, very polished and there seems to be a good range of stories with the ABC’s usual high quality reporting. I suppose the question is whether that high standard can be maintained over the long term, with reporters being asked to appear on News 24 as well as doing all the other radio, online and TV stuff they have to do. It makes you wonder when they’ll find the time to go out and investigate things.

    Something strange is that the ABC1 bulletins have had their graphics and music updated to fit the News 24 branding, but they’re still using the old sets. Surely that can’t be permanent?

  5. Congratulations to the ABC on what is a very slick and interesting channel. Very impressed with the sets and graphics, and I’m sure after a couple of weeks the presenters and new show formats will become quite settled and polished.

    Well done to the ABC on taking a punt and creating something fantastic!

  7. Yes its A list presenters and vast resources are beating the pants of the B team at Sky. Lets hope the ABC can keep it going at this standard and at last some employees are being given a chance to realise their full potential.

  10. The set, logos, graphics and icons look really good. Other news channels seem to go around in a loop of top stories, but this channel seems to have the right balance of news, analysis and live reporters.

  11. I absolutely love the channel, I really feel like I have foxtel now. Abc news 24 seems to be a high quality channel, not a cheap after thought like GO!

  13. the launch of this channel last night was great!

    I think the news ticker was laden with promos for the channel as ABC was trying to publicise to the viewers about what they can expect from the it in terms of the channel’s show structure. I think within the next week this will settle and their will be more headlines. I like this new ‘ticker’ style

  16. Impressive start I thought. It looks very slick and of course the journalism is far superior to what you get on the commercials or on Sky News.
    I just wish that it was available on my FoxTel IQ box, i have to switch to terrestrial to watch it.

  17. Congratulations to the ABC. The new channel looks slick and contemporary and has given a fresh look to ABC News. Some achievement by those responsible!

  19. Dont have a HD set top box so I will not see this channel for a couple of years which is a shame because sometimes I am want news at 8pm etc if Im late home from work.

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