ABC News Victoria showed a Wurundjeri title card at the end of tonight’s bulletin. It used the old 2017-2021 design and looked quite messy. A shame because I think they’re the last 7pm bulletin to start doing it of an otherwise excellent initiative.
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Why does that look slanted?
It’s the angle of the screen.
Updated tonight with the current graphics. Looks heaps better.
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Kabul Airport vision
Due to the dangerous situation in Afghanistan, the ABC like many other news organisations had to rely on news agency coverage and personal images and videos from people on the ground. There was a high volume of fake videos circulating on social media purporting to be showing scenes in Kabul and at the airport. The ABC has a rigorous process for verifying footage and on this occasion that process failed when the ABC used three seconds of vision that purported to show people rushing into Hamid Karzai Airport, when in fact it was from a football stadium in Texas. The error was picked up just after the story went to air in East Coast 7pm bulletins (on August 18) and the story was re-edited in time for all non AEST time zones. The incorrect images were not posted on digital platforms. The ABC apologises for the error.
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Love the closer shot and the way the camera does it. Be good if they could do it all week only ever done on Weekends.
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Yeah I remember when ABC News Melbourne used to do a proper closer Monday-Thursday. Now they just do a handover to 7:30.
ABC achieves record news audiences
News audiences are surging to record levels across the ABC’s platforms as Australians seek trustworthy sources to help them navigate pandemic conditions at home and keep across critical international events.
Last week the ABC News app had 1.39 million users across the seven days – the highest on record. Total ABC iview consumption and streams of ABC News Australia on YouTube were also the highest ever.
ABC News has now been Australia’s No 1 digital news brand since 2020 in overall monthly unique audience as well as on smartphones and among women.
In the month of June more than half of all Australians aged 2+ used either the website or app, representing 12.8m people.
Last year coronavirus and the US election contributed to record digital audiences for ABC News, with daily users across the website, AMP and app increasing 69% compared with 2019. So far in 2021 that has grown by a further 3%.
Major audience drivers in 2021 include coverage of the continuing impact of COVID-19 on all Australians; the ABC’s world-class reporting of the Asia Pacific, including recent events in Afghanistan; the outstanding Regional & Local coverage from news teams across the country; and our unrivalled investigative reporting.
“The audience appreciation for ABC News journalism and coverage is extraordinary,” said ABC Director, News Gaven Morris.
“The demand for trustworthy, quality content on digital platforms is huge and still growing incredibly fast.
“Our television and radio broadcasts remain strong on our live channels and traditional services and we’re also seeing great take-up through on-demand platforms such as ABC iview and ABC Listen.
“We’re proud Australians across age groups and in all parts of the community are turning to the ABC – and that we’re delivering the services they want just when they need us the most.”
Mobile and social
The ABC’s mobile app in particular is growing exceptionally fast, with daily users up 28% year-on-year so far in 2021 on top of 72% growth from 2019 to 2020. The app had an influx of new users during Facebook’s February news ban.
ABC NEWS also dominates third-party platforms. It’s the No 1 Australian news brand on Apple News (3.6m monthly audience), No 1 on Instagram (700,000 followers) and No 2 on Facebook (4.5m page followers). The ABC News Australia YouTube channel has 1.4m subscribers and ABC News In-Depth has 724,000 subscribers.
ABC NEWS channel
The appetite among news consumers for live and on-demand content continues to increase, with consumption of ABC NEWS on-demand video growing exponentially.
Since 2018, daily live streams of the ABC NEWS channel in ABC iview have increased by nearly 400% (to 120,000) and daily live streams of the ABC News Australia channel on YouTube by 600% (to 140,000). These include the ABC NEWS channel stream as well as live events such as COVID media conferences.
Despite a declining broadcast market, ABC NEWS channel has bucked the industry trend to increase its metro weekly reach from 12.5% in 2018 to 15.7%. Over the same period metro weekly reach for TV overall dropped from around 80% to 71%.
News consumers have also taken to live blogs. Since January 2020 the ABC’s live blogs have had 360m page views, with the biggest live-blogged topics being COVID news, the bushfires, floods, US Election, the death of Prince Philip and the Tokyo Olympics.
Radio and audio
In 2021 year-to-date ABC News on Radio is reaching an average of 880,000 Australians aged 10+ each week across the five metro cities. This is above all previous years except 2020, when record reach of 981,000 was achieved.
The key ABC Radio news and current affairs programs across ABC NewsRadio, ABC Local and RN are reaching an average of 2.3m metro Australians aged 10+ every week. This is close to last year’s record of 2.4m for the programs in their current timeslots.
With ABC NEWS expanding its offering of on-demand audio content in the Listen app, on-demand streams so far this year have been triple what they were last year and more than seven times higher than in 2019. The live stream of ABC News Radio in the Listen app has recorded a 16% increase in weekly plays in 2021 on top of a 66% uplift in 2020.
The Coronacast podcast, launched in March 2020, has so far achieved 11 million streams in the Listen app, with streams hitting a record high of 234,000 in the week of 8-14 August.
Current affairs
The best long-form current affairs content is also finding a digital audience. Plays of ABC news and current affairs on-demand content on ABC iview have increased by 7% so far in 2021 on top of 44% growth in 2020.
On YouTube, views of on-demand videos from the ABC News Australia and ABC News In Depth channels have more than doubled from 2019 to 2021.
On-demand watch hours have grown even faster, driven by high watch times for current affairs full episodes. The top videos so far this year have been Four Corners “Beirut Blast” (4.6m views) and the Foreign Correspondent episodes “Inside Mexico’s Most Powerful Drug Cartel” (4.4m views) and “The Year Bali Tourism Stopped” (3.4m views).
I do find the YouTube channel very helpful. You can rewind, pretty much no ads, solid platform. Helpful when your on the run and want the info. Some of these pressers pull 30k YouTube watchers.
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Yep, just need a way of doing slightly more refined rewinds / fast forward. Enlarging to full screen makes it somewhat easier.
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So would that mean we’ve now got more than half of the ABC News studios in HD?
I definitely know that NSW (all three studios), Victoria and Queensland are already in full 1080i. So too the Parliament House bureau in Canberra, but I’m not sure whether the ACT’s 7pm news has received their upgrade yet.
It plays the autocue for the weather presenter. 
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I just wanted to gather thoughts of regular ABC News viewers.
I’m sure we can all agree that the ABC have fantastic radio coverage. There isn’t a town where they don’t have an ABC local station.
My question is - are viewers happy with the 7pm state bulletin?
Are state bulletins enough? Do they cover the news locally enough for you? Or should they have a 7pm bulletin in each area that they service local radio stations?
Such as ABC News Sydney, ABC News Newcastle, ABC News Broken Hill, ABC News Central Coast, ABC News Coffs Coast etc at 7pm.
Could it be done? How could it be done? Use the same journalists that do the local radio for a 7pm bulletin?
It would be great for up and coming journalists and a great training ground for them to present local ABC bulletins in regional areas such as Broken Hill and Newcastle etc.
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Nah, just axe the national late news and do another live state bulletin at 10:30. Good opportunity to highlight some more regional news.
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So you’re saying that the 7pm state bulletin provides enough local coverage for you?