ABC TV moves children’s programs off the main channel
The ABC will move all of its children’s TV programs from the main channel to ABC3 and ABC4 Kids to give ABC1 more room for adult content, the public broadcaster has announced.
Programs will be moved in two stages, the first starting on February 2 with the Sunday morning and weekday afternoon children’s shows moving. Then from July 21, all educational programming shown on ABC1 weekday mornings will move to ABC3.
Dierdre Brennan, the new head of children’s television at ABC TV who took on the role this year after previously working with BBC Worldwide and children’s channel Nickelodeon said the move would make it easier to find children’s content.
“The uptake of digital TV has provided a unique opportunity to further strengthen our children’s destinations within the ABC TV portfolio,” she said in a statement.
“With fantastic programming that is now easier to find, ABC4Kids and ABC3 will continue to deliver entertaining and educational programs which preschoolers and school-aged children enjoy.”
Brendan Dahill, ABC TV’s recently promoted head of programming and former controller for ABC1, said the ABC was maximising its assets.
“With digital switchover now complete we can take full advantage of the breadth of our channels to offer something for everyone during daytime,” he said.
“Kids will still get a full complement of programming on ABC4Kids and ABC3, whilst ABC1 will be providing general entertainment for our adult audiences and News 24 will broadcast rolling news coverage.”
I’ve long felt the ABC have been missing a trick by ignoring adult content. Why let SBS and the internet have all the fun?
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Hooray – better late than never. ABC1 should have jettisoned kids content with the launch of ABC2 & 3.
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So we can now watch more QI repeats on ABC1 in the afternoons. Can’t wait. ABC for kids is great but the ABC for grown ups is becoming more depressing, mediocre and middle of the road each year.
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