ABC News 24’s first audience share is just 0.7%
The first audience data has been published for the ABC’s new rolling news channel ABC News 24 – yesterday night it had a free to air audience of just 0.7%.
Although the channel launched just over a week ago, ratings organisation OzTam did not immediately start publishing ABC News 24’s numbers.
But yesterday, they became available, with a preliminary share of 0.7% reported for ABC News 24 yesterday evening. The only channels which rated lower were ABC2 and ABC3.
Sunday’s evening’s share:
- Seven: 24.6%
- Nine: 24.0%
- Ten: 18.8%
- ABC1: 12.4%
- GO!: 6.0%
- One: 4.3%
- 7TWO: 4.1%
- SBS1: 3.5%
- SBS2: 0.8%
- ABC News 24: 0.7%
- ABC2: 0.5%
- ABC3: 0.3%
Update: The ABC has released its own analysis of Sunday’s OzTam data. ABC News 24’s share in the less competitive daytime slot was 1.4%. Its metro reach for Sunday (which requires five consecutive minutes of viewing) was 523,000 or 3.5% of the five city population.
ABC boss Mark Scott said: “We are delighted with the first figures we’ve received for ABC News 24. A reach of over half a million in a single day has exceeded our expectations. This result reinforces our belief that the Australian population has a strong interest in an independent, free-to-air news service available 24 hours a day.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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How does it compare to SkyNews? Is this low or high for what it should be? ABC3 is seriously good at what it does and rates lower meaning stats can’t be the whole story.
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ABC not good at news, but smashes commercial channels at regular night viewing content.
Weather after the break, the sky is falling and in sports…..
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It is the only channel available only on high def. Be interested to see a breakdown of the figures.
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Hi Inq,
The most viewed Sky News show last week delivered an average audience of 38,000, which would put it behind ABC News 24 which is of course available as digital free to air.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I get the impression that rolling news channels are dipped into almost randomy throughout the day, with only newsrooms (and media lobbies) keeping them on the whole time. Certainly, the most complaints I’ve heard have been it’s HD only. Interesting to see how that changes and how going to SD will affect ratings. Interesting for everyone. Cheers Tim (and Paul for reminding me)
Not that anyone cares who “I” am. :o)
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Have an old TV no HD – went looking for it and can’t access it. So if it was available for SD TV might rate higher
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I have been watching ABC News 24 all weekend.
Who says it has a low viewing? (Boxes in the living rooms of a select few TV advocates…?)
I noticed the trashing The Australian and The Telegraph gave to the new channel. Perhaps they are a little bit scared…?
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it’s stupid to present the stats without any commentary or context. why should it be any bigger than this when it has just launched? surely it needs time for audience numbers to build? and it’s only ever going to appeal to an elite audience anyway
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I think they are doing a great job, one thing lacking on Australian tv is good in-depth news coverage that is available more of the time – SBS does great news but getting home in time from work to watch it is not always possible
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Given there are so many touchpoints for consumers to receive news via the ABC (local radio, radio national, internet, mobile, etc), I’d say that their viewing stats for ABC News 24 are great.
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@ ABC News 24 Fan. Who says so??? … the huge majority of people who didn’t watch it all weekend from the around 13,000 people in the ratings panel every day.
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ABC are the most reliable and responsible news source – this is a good thing – and i see it growing.
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It brings the news up to the minute, unlike sky which repeats news every 15 minutes!
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I liked what I’ve seen so far and enjoyed the repeat of Q&A on saturday evening.
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