ABC ME - Programs and Schedules

Television ABC
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##ABC3 becomes ABC ME

###Delivering the best content to Australian audiences, wherever they may be

From 19 September 2016

Since its launch in 2009, ABC3 has been the home of trusted, quality content for school aged children and their families and has constantly evolved to reflect and respond to its audience. Now, in its biggest evolution yet, ABC3 will transform into ABC ME on September 19, a complete digital and broadcast service designed to reflect and celebrate the lives, interests and diversity of young Australians.

Developed with primary school children and their families, ABC ME will build on the success of ABC3. Quality short and long form Australian content, and the best international programming selected for an Australian audience, will be delivered via a dedicated broadcast channel and new app that can be personalised by the user.

ABC ME embraces the experiences of Australian school aged children. Brand new programs, including weekly pop culture review show News to Me, sci-fi action animation series Prisoner Zero and short-form documentary series This Is Me will sit alongside returning audience favourites including, Nowhere Boys, You’re Skitting Me, Little Lunch, Good Game SP and Behind the News. Additionally, new strands of short form content will provide children and their families unique opportunities to express their ideas, share their opinions and have their voice reflected back at them.

The new name got the thumbs up from children, and their families, looking for trusted content about their community, their life, their family and their friends. ABC ME will help show (but never tell) Australian kids where they fit in the world today.

The ABC ME app, designed specifically for and with school aged children, and with an optional parent section, will offer Australian families control over the content that is right for them.

Richard Finlayson, ABC Director of Television, says, “We’ve been listening to our young audiences and it’s clear that they want flexibility, mobility and control. In the past 12 months we’ve seen an extraordinary uptake of kids programming on our digital platforms. In 2016, 78%1 of ABC3 online program plays were viewed via a mobile device.

Families who have children aged 4-12 in the home are 28%*2 more likely than average to watch TV/Video on a mobile device. Such insights are at the heart of ABC ME and continue to inform our ongoing commitment to today’s digitally savvy Australian audience.”

ABC ME, on broadcast and digital, will come to life on September 19 (channel 23 on free to air and Channel 723 on Foxtel). Further details of the app will be announced on September 19.

1 Source: Webtrends
2 Source: Nielsen CMV, People 14+

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If I’m not mistaken, ABC3 has used it’s current On-Air Presentation package (with the usual evolutionary tweaks, of course) since 2009 so it’s about time that they got a decent relaunch!

I’m not entirely sure that renaming the channel is the right way to go, but since the main channel dropped the 1 a couple of years ago it’s probably a moot point.

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As @SydneyCityTV said, the channel could do with a rebrand, so far the new look looks great, but the new name is not doing it for me.

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27

ME doesn’t say much. I think they missed an opportunity to rebrand to either ABC Kids or something nostalgic like ABC Rollercoaster. That being said, I like it somehow. It’s good the ABC aren’t doing a BBC and completely neglecting on-air presentation at the first sign of budget cuts. The most shocking thing in that promo was that the Fairly Odd Parents is still going. Holy shit, I was watching that in the early 2000s!

When does ABC2 get its relaunch? It was mentioned once before that it is slated to happen sometime this year.

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Yeah, I thought that Fairly Odd Parents ended years ago too but it is still going from what I can gather online.

Hopefully before too long. ABC2 certainly could do with a refresh, even if it’s just a logo change (to include the recently revived “classic” ABC logo) and a move away from those godawful neon pink and green colours…

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30

Not liking the name change either. Sounds more like a slogan than a channel name. Have a feeling the channel is going to lose its way with this rebrand.

People know where to find ABC3 and it will be more difficult as ABC ME. Also sounds wanky. Anyone taking bets on how long before it becomes ABC3ME or even goes back to ABC3?

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31

I guess they are trying to move away from numbers? Maybe as audiences change they will move the channel completely online at some point?

32

Sounds good to ME.
Can we expect Play and Win to be on this channel? Wait… This isn’t 4ME :stuck_out_tongue:

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ABC Rollercoaster or Kids would have been better surely?

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34

The renaming of ABC3 to ABC ME kind of makes the current name of ABC2 look a bit silly now with the main channel not using number 1 anymore.

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35

Maybe ABC 2 could become ABC 4YOU :wink: I was being silly but I kind of like it as well… But then again it could be to close to the now defunct TV4ME

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36

The smartest thing to do would have been to rename ABC3 to ABC Kids, but that wasn’t going to work because they had already named the young children’s block that.

Obviously the recent removal of the ABC channel numbering scheme (ABC 1, 2, 3, 4Kids, News 24) is a lead up towards the ABC dumping ABC2 in the near future. Probably a blessing when you consider the sheer amount of dross and vapid nonsense imported from (the now-defunct) BBC Three and Discovery/Nat Geo that you see filling that channel.

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It’s not terrible. The design looks fresh and I like that me rhymes with three. However I’d expect a reality/fly-on-the-wall brand to use the term me rather than a channel aimed at teens.

Very keen to see what they have planned for ABC 2.

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39

I’m not sure that’s an obvious move?

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As I posted in the ABC2 thread a few weeks ago, a friend of mine was asked her opinion via an ABC viewer panel on a proposed name change to ON. So something is in the works.

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41

I can just imagine the pisstakes already regarding some of its programming… ABC ON drugs, ABC ON heat…etc. :stuck_out_tongue:

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