ABC operations

Television ABC
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ABC grows international audience

The reach of ABC content offshore has risen strongly in the first three months of 2025 with more than 11 million people outside Australia engaging and consuming ABC content across TV, radio, digital and social media.

Engagement across ABC International social sites jumped 111 per cent, led by ABC Pacific on Facebook, with around 570,000 people engaging with ABC International social content each month.

Pageviews for ABC International websites are up almost 50 per cent and total followers of ABC International accounts increased by about 3 per cent to 6.3 million.

ABC Radio Australia podcast downloads are also up in all countries except the US in quarter one of 2025 compared to last year.

According to the most recent available sources, ABC Australia TV attracts more than 10.5 million monthly viewers and ABC Radio Australia reaches more than 360,000 listeners.

The ABC Pacific Facebook page and Instagram accounts were particularly strong performers, with the key indicators of posts, impressions, video views and engagements increasing compared to the same quarter last year.

ABC International Head Claire M Gorman said: “We’re thrilled by the latest audience results across our digital platforms and linear broadcast networks.

“The ABC’s strong international audience growth demonstrates the impact of additional Government funding under the Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy in developing improved distribution networks and producing high-quality, bespoke content that reflects the diversity of stories across the region.”

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2179

Former ABC deputy chair Wendy McCarthy and former Radio National Late Night Live host Phillip Adams have both appointed Companion (AC) in the Order of Australia, in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours list.

Of the other former ABC employees also honoured: Sally Loane, Dr Cherie Romero and the late Matt Peacock were appointed Member (AM) while Ken Casellas, Gerald Doyle, Carol Duncan and Moira Hensen will all receive an OAM.

2180

ABC staff were warned of looming cuts on Tuesday by the journalists’ union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), which told ABC members of colleagues being called into meetings with managers “regarding a restructure”.

Marks indicated earlier that he was reviewing whether the ABC needed to “do everything” or could “spend our resources more wisely on doing fewer things better”.

While there will be cuts and redundancies there are expected to be new projects including a new unit dedicated to documentaries, something which has been strongly backed by the ABC chair, Kim Williams.

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2181

Q&A is one of the ABC’s best programs. It’s great to watch and pulls in high ratings. They’d be mad to cut it.

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2182

Depends how expensive it is to make. I suspect they’re going to squeeze more and more out of the ABC stone.

2183

Maybe 15 years ago

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2184

This is almost straight out of W1A.

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2185

377,000 viewers this year, is still pretty good for 9:30pm on Monday’s.

If they get rid of Q&A then they could possibly switch to comedy at that timeslot, after 4corners and Media Watch.

Some programs that I’d love to see back on ABC are The Hampster Wheel, The Chasers War on Everything, CNNNN, The Checkout.

Also, reruns of Little Britain on ABC Entertains could work.

2186

What about making Four Corners an hour (8:30 PM - (9:30 PM) and then make Media Watch a half hour show (9:30 PM - 10 PM), Then I don’t know a half-hour arts doco like the Picasso one they’ve been running, followed by the news?

Surely an extra 10 minutes added to Four Corners won’t be as expensive and since they’re already paying the Media Watch team for weekly shows, getting an extra 15 would make sense? Maybe a 15 minute panel discussions with media critics/academics after the traditional 15 minute editorial?

2189

Something like the BBC’s Newswatch would be great. They get execs on to actually answer questions from the presenter and viewers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTHp_vfDDsk

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2190

They’ve had extended episodes (60 minutes instead of 45) before so I don’t see why not - surely there is always stuff they have to cut out to meet the time limit. They also did extended studio interviews at some point in the 80s (one with Bob Hawke was portrayed in The Crown).

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2191

ABC announces plan to discontinue Q+A, boosts news documentaries and Your Say

The ABC has today announced a plan to discontinue Q+A after an outstanding 18-year run and look to new ways to facilitate discussion and elevate voices from around the country.

Q+A was a groundbreaking program that had made a significant contribution to Australian society, said ABC Director, News Justin Stevens.

“We’re very proud of Q+A’s great achievements over the years. The team has done a terrific job, including a strong performance during the federal election campaign,” he said. “Discontinuing the program at this point is no reflection on anyone on the show.

“We always need to keep innovating and renewing, and in the two decades since Q+A began the world has changed. It’s time to rethink how audiences want to interact and to evolve how we can engage with the public to include as many Australians as possible in national conversations. We’ll be working on how we can continue to foster engagement of this nature in an innovative way.”

New projects from ABC NEWS include embedding Your Say as a permanent initiative to drive audience engagement in communities throughout Australia.

During the federal election campaign Your Say received almost 30,000 online submissions, 36 per cent of them from outside the capital cities, plus thousands of talkback calls on local and regional radio. Hundreds of Your Say contributions were used by News teams and its insights informed the questions put to politicians and the topics for the ABC’s leaders debate.

"Your Say ensures we have a strong framework for putting the public’s views, concerns and questions at the heart of our journalism, complementing our daily commissioning and reporting,” Stevens said. “We’re keen to see what else we can do with this.”

ABC NEWS is also investing in producing more news documentaries. Building on the success of individual high-end programs such as Killing Season and Nemesis, it will soon advertise for the new position of Executive Producer, Documentaries & Specials.

“We’re excited about being able to produce additional high impact, premium news documentary programs to complement the ABC’s strong factual slate,” Stevens said.

Q+A, which is currently off air, launched in 2008 under Executive Producer Peter McEvoy and host Tony Jones.

“Many extremely talented and dedicated people have worked on Q+A, as presenters and behind the scenes,” Stevens said. “I sincerely thank them all, and everyone who has contributed as audience members and panellists.

“I want to call out current Executive Producer Eliza Harvey and presenter Patricia Karvelas. They are hugely talented journalists who have done an outstanding job with Q+A in recent years.

“On top of hosting Afternoon Briefing, presenting the popular Politics Now podcast and writing analysis for the ABC NEWS website, Patricia also recently reported for Four Corners, and we’ve now asked her to do more for Four Corners as time permits.”

Karvelas said she had immensely enjoyed being part of the program.

“Spending time with the audience members who came to Q+A late on a Monday night has been the best part of this job,” she said. “They have always been the reason for this show and I’m forever grateful to them for coming on national TV and having the courage to ask questions of powerful people.”

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2192

Yes, there was a comment on the TV Tonight post about this from a former Media Watch employee saying that an interview segment after the traditional 15 minute editorial would be cost-effective and fill time.

They then suggested Planet America which actually makes sense, they can move the 30 minute Wednesday show onto Mondays after Media Watch at 10PM. That way Monday is still newsy for people who turn to the ABC on a Monday.

It also opens up an hour comedy slot at 9:30 on Wednesdays for international titles or local comedy shows.

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2193

The last thing the Australian public broadcaster should be doing is giving niche American political news more of a profile than its already already has - which is way too prominent. There’s nothing Planet America does that cannot be found elsewhere online by publishers and broadcasters with many more resources. The try hard humour is also really not quite right now the country is increasingly authoritarian. The ABC should be focusing on Australia and Asia.

2194

Bring back Back Chat - through with the amount of commentary around on ABC content they might need more than 15 minutes.

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2195

It weirdly rates 400K on a 9:30 PM slot on Wednesdays so there seems to be an audience for it. I do wish we had like an Asia Pacific Version for say a Tuesday night slot or even Sunday mornings after Offsiders.

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2196

I love this idea, especially now that there is actually an ABC Ombudsman in the organisation who should be in charge of a show like this! Could also have a radio version on Radio National and Local Radio.

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ABC boss says 50 jobs to go in first big change

The ABC’s new managing director has confirmed a number of sweeping operational changes at the national broadcaster, resulting in the loss of at least 50 jobs.

Former Nine boss Hugh Marks, who took over the top role at the ABC in March, informed staff of the changes on Wednesday afternoon, in an email seen by Mumbrella.

The ABC’s content division will be renamed ABC Screen, and will include a newly created digital content department to “streamline digital and social content to align directly with our screen genres and commissioning process.” This department will be led by Jennifer Collins, current director of the content division.

The audio division will also be simplified, with the separation of the sport and capital city network teams, the integration of music programming into the ABC’s music networks, and the establishment of an ‘audio quality’ team, to bolster training for content makers.

The ‘social strategy’ team within ABC Audiences will also be dismantled, with its duties to be carried out by various teams within the strategy, marketing, and screen divisions.

2198

Yes… and bring back TVTV :blush:

2199

Don’t encourage them. You’ll have 15 minutes of Sky News-influenced trolls writing in to rip on the ABC. I guarantee it.

Shit that takes me back. A Simon Townsend joint.