I can only go on the numbers and they don’t support these statement.
Sky News is not popular in regional Australia. The Sky News on WIN multichannel is the lowest rating commercial multichannel in regional Australia with a prime time share less than 2%.
ABC’s news channel has a similar audience share but combined with the audience for its main channel news programs, ABC News is watched by multiple times the audience of Sky News.
A “boutique” news service is probably the best description it has been given.
As far as being a news service popular with the regular Joe, I’m not sure how to measure that, but by far the biggest slice of Sky News on Win’s audience is over the 55 audience, and that doesn’t seem to match that description. Demo groups such as 16-39, 25-54, or people with a child who purchase groceries all put SNOW way behind any other channel including ABC News channel.
Overall, ABC TV is just as popular in regional areas as in metro, (identical audience shares metro and regional last 4 weeks) so regardless of what people might think of ABC they certainly use the service in ‘the bush’.
According to research this month, relating to the recent bushfire crisis, that predominately affected ‘the bush’
- The ABC was the most used and most trusted broadcast media source among the Australian community with 81% of the adult population aware of the ABC as an information source and one in two (54%) Australians claiming they used the ABC as their main source of information during the crisis. Claimed usage of the ABC was higher than all other broadcast services.
- The ABC was ranked as the best source of information on the scale and impact of the bushfires with ABC News TV the leading source of information on these topics during the crisis.
- Qualitative research found the ABC is well informed, up to date, associated with quality journalism and brings to the community impartiality, truthfulness, and depth of knowledge. The ABC helped to create a national conversation during the crisis and drove positive changes in behaviour.
Edit: I meant to say lowest rating commercial mutichannel.