Creator / Australian Broadcasting Corporation

aka: ABC Australia

Yours.

"The functions of the Corporation are: [...] broadcasting programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community..."

—The ABC Charter, part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983

"Few Australian institutions excite such passionate attachments as the ABC (which may be why those who think Australia does not need a public broadcaster are so relentless in their criticism of it)."

—The Age

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation provides the oldest national TV service in Australia. It began in 1929 as the Australian Broadcasting Company,^note and was also later called the Australian Broadcasting Commission until the current name was finally adopted. a national public radio service that tried to be like the The BBC.^note Some Aussies even call the ABC "Auntie", as Brits do the Beeb Since its nationalisation on 1 July 1932, the ABC has always tried to bring the same service to all Australians, first on radio and later on television after 1956. Not an easy task, considering how remote every town and city is. However, it has paid off — it is currently the only national radio service, and has consistently maintained its position as Australia's most trusted media service.

While the ABC has always played second — and sometimes, third and fourth — fiddle to commercial radio in Australia, it still maintains a role on the country's radio dial and currently runs five radio services:

• ABC Local Radio (its programming is actually divided between local, statewide and nationwide)
• Radio National (the only Australian radio station that still runs "serious" programming^note in other words, if you are not an intellectual, you are not the usual Radio National listener
• ABC NewsRadio
• ABC Classic FM (one of the first FM services in Australia)
• Triple J (the "youth" station, and the only radio service that can play the F word in the afternoon)

The ABC is currently coming third in TV ratings. The three commercial networks each had higher viewership than the ABC for years until it overtook Network Ten in mid-2012.^note The Late Show even lampshaded this with a parody of the Nine Network's "Still The One" promotion, with the slogan 'We're still number four!' Specifically because it doesn't worry about ratings, the ABC takes care of a lot of public remit programming ranging from indigenous programming and religious shows to sessions of Parliament and current-affairs shows to hours and hours' worth of kids' shows. As a result, it holds a special place in many Aussies' hearts. Its news and current-affairs service makes the commercial networks look like amateurs. Its dedication to children's television means that millions of Aussies grew up in front of the ABC. Its production of a variety of esoteric programmes (Australian Story, Gardening Australia, Rage, Media Watch, and Spicks and Specks) would not have even run, let alone become successful, on Aussie commercial TV. This all makes it essentially a showcase of Australian television production. It also has a lot of British programming... possibly more than many channels in Britain.

Of course, it's not all nice and fuzzy. Ever since Australia got rid of the license fee (we had a license fee?), the ABC's budget has been depressingly meagre, meaning that while it provides a wide range of Aussie programming, many TV shows can afford little more than sets and people — so be prepared for any ABC comedy or light-entertainment show to joke about this. Also, because many of its shows (especially comedies) push the envelope and are often offensive, it receives the ire of many conservative groups complaining about how their taxes are paying for filth. Some conservative Aussies also complain that the ABC also has a bias toward the Labor Party, while some left-wing Aussies complain the ABC has a pro-Liberal bias. Former ABC journalists have run for both parties, the matter is contested, and as with any polarizing political subject matter on this site, you're better off taking this debate to some other website on the Internet.

Despite these problems, the ABC is still well-loved in Australia, and a vast amount of Australiana has come from the ABC over the years. For a list of shows that aired on the ABC, look at the list of Australian Series and choose every other one. That is how influential the ABC has been.

The ABC broadcasts four different television channels altogether:

• ABC TV, formerly known as ABC-TV and ABC1: the original channel.
• ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy), launched March 2005. Since May 2011 it has had a programming block from 5 AM to 7 PM which is branded like a separate channel named ABC Kids (formerly ABC 4 Kids), aimed at pre-school children.
• ABC Me (formerly ABC3, launched December 2009: Australia's only free-to-air channel purely for children, aimed at a slightly older audience than ABC Kids. Perhaps inevitably, it became the channel most-watched by Australian kids, and produced a few smash-hits such as teen drama Dance Academy.
• ABC News, launched July 2010: a free-to-air 24-hour news network, known for extending the ABC's respected journalistic repertoire (if on an absolutely tiny budget).

The ABC also has an online service for watching its content called iview, which includes some web-exclusive content. Like comparable services in other countries, such as BBC iPlayer, iview can only be viewed in its country of origin.

Two of the network's defunct TV channels are ABC Kids (not to be confused with the current ABC Kids channel) and Fly TV: both children's channels, which aired from 2001 to 2003. They have now effectively been replaced by the new ABC Kids and ABC Me, respectively.

The ABC also runs an international feed available on select Pay TV providers worldwide, first under the name ABC Asia Pacific then Australia Network and lately, ABC Australia.

Not to be confused with the American Broadcasting Company or with the Japanese network Asahi Broadcasting Corporation (TV Asahi's Osaka affiliate), which both have the same abbreviations. Likewise the now long-defunct British ITV station ABC Weekend Television.

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Programs originating on The ABC:

• Angry Boys
• The Aunty Jack Show
• Australia You're Standing In It
• Bananas in Pyjamas
• Bastard Boys
• Behind The News (ran on the main channel until 2014, when it switched to ABC Me)
• Blinky Bill
• Blue Murder
• Blue Water High
• Bluey
• Almost everything done by The Chaser, in particular The Election Chaser and its sequels, CNNNN, The Chaser's War On Everything and The Hamster Wheel
• The Code 2014
• Content
• Crownies
  • Janet King, spin-off of the above
• The D-Generation
• Dirtgirlworld
• The Doctor Blake Mysteries
• The Ferals
• Feral TV
• Frayed
• Frontline
• The Games
• Gasp!
• Get Krack!n
• Giggle And Hoot
• The Gillies Report
• The Glass House
• Good Game
• Good News Week (Channel Hopped to Network Ten in 1999)
• The Gruen Transfer
• Harrow
• The Hollowmen
• Johnson and Friends
• Kath & Kim (Ended up Channel Hopping to Seven Network)
• The Late Show (1992)
• Little Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers
• Magic Mountain
• Media Watch
• Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
• Mother & Son
• Mystery Road
• The Newsreader
• Phoenix (1992)
• Play School - the Australian version.
• Prisoner Zero
• Rake
• Redfern Now
• Ronny Chieng: International Student
• Rush (1974)
• Savage River
• SeaChange
• Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell
• Silversun
• The Slap
• Sleuth 101
• Spicks and Specks
• The Strange Chores
• The Straits
• Summer Heights High
• Swinging
• Upper Middle Bogan
• Utopia
• We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year
• The Weekly with Charlie Pickering
• Welcher & Welcher
• Various shows by The Wiggles.
• Anything that originated on ABC Me

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