ACCS: How is ABC Family doing since the end of ABC ME?
ABC has more than doubled its child audience in primetime following a multichannel refresh.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Three months on from a switch from ABC ME to Family channel, ABC has doubled its child audience.
Programming on ABC Family begins at 7:30pm, whereas ABC ME was not attracting significant audiences in primetime.
Channel content includes Hard Quiz Kids, The Strange Chores (pictured), US sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, Expedition With Steve Backshall, The Secret Life Of Our Pets, US animation Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures alongside replays of Little Lunch, The Inbestigators, Merlin, Bluey and Shaun the Sheep.
Teenage Boss hosted by Emma Watkins will debut in October.
Speaking recently at the Australian Childrens Content Summit, Catherine Collins, ABC Senior Channel Manager Children’s said ABC was happy with the results so far.
“In terms of the linear viewing in what we call the pre-bedtime zone….we have more than doubled co-viewing in the 0-12s, and in 0-12s and 0-12s watching by themselves on linear broadcast, which is great. That’s compared to ABC TV and ABC ME,” she said.
“On our iView channel, we are seeing the highest ever viewing minutes across our multi channel portfolio since these changes were made, and it’s still growing, which is great.”
ABC has also made some recent changes to iView on connected TVs.
“We are seeing more kids signing up for their own profiles on the service. It’s not on all your TVs yet, but if you do have a connected TV, you may now be prompted to add a Kids sub profile,” she suggested.
“For us, that’s really exciting because it helps us to know more about our audience, and helps us to talk directly to that audience in the most appropriate way.
“Probably sounds very nerdy, but I am extremely excited about that!”
3 Responses
The demographic has shifted in the programming after ABC Me ceased. There is now a gap in wholesome programming for teens on free-to-air television, otherwise, the available content consists of shows like Teen Mom and Jackass on MTV.
ABC sees its strengths as being content for younger audiences. Whether it’s a disproportionate focus on youth demographics or an imbalance in programming across genres on Rage and ABC radio stations, it does not cater to all age groups and niche groups as public broadcasting should.
Why aren’t channels 22, 23 and 24 in std definition?
SBS has four channels in high definition: channels 30, 31, 32 and NITV. Audio is in stereo
9 has three channels in high definition: 90, Gem and Go!. All audio is in Dolby digital, ‘DD’.
7 has three channels in high definition: 70 in DD, 7Mate in DD and 7Bravo in stereo.
So why aren’t the ABC channels all in high definition? That would be an improvement in picture quality for 22, 23 and 24.Thanks
Thank You for the Info David..
I’ve noticed these Programming changes and I knew it would improve it’s Ratings!
Don’t watch ABC nor will I but good on them for improving their Channels, long overdue..