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Even more kids TV for ABC

The ABC is set to split its kids content, devoting its preschoolers content to ABC2 and aiming ABC3 at school-age kids.

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btnThe ABC is set to split its kids content, devoting its preschoolers content to ABC2 and aiming ABC3 at school-age kids.

The launch of ABC3 later this year will coincide with the re-launch of ABC for Kids, a dedicated preschool block on ABC2. It will expand its kids’ programming to between 9am and 6pm on weekdays and 6am to 6pm on weekends.

ABC1 will also continue to air six hours of kids programming each day. This will effectively mean there is kids content on all 3 ABC channels simultaneously for some parts of the day.

ABC has acquired more than 800 hours of children’s programming across all platforms since May,with another 800 hours over the next six months.

Recent pick-ups for ABC3 include Total Drama Island (Fresh TV/Cake Entertainment), Spliced (Nelvana), Connor Under Cover (Shaftesbury/Heroic), M.I. High (Kudos), Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab (September Films/Hamster’s Wheel), The Wannabes (Showcase Entertainment), Barney’s Barrier Reef (Darrall MacQueen), The Little Prince (Method) and Jungle Book (ZDF/Moonscoop/DQE).

ABC2 has acquired RDF’s Waybuloo, Roary the Racing Car (Chapman Entertainment), the new CGI Angelina Ballerina (HIT Entertainment), Toby’s Toy Circus (Target Entertainment Group), Nanigugu (Ypsilon) and Igam Ogam (Calon). Some are already screening.

Animation will comprise 66% of ABC2 and roughly 33% of ABC3’s total air time.

As for original productions, the channel has several on the go right now. There’s the YTV/CBBC reality series Prank Patrol (created by Canada’s Apartment 11 and produced in Melbourne by Active TV). Rush TV (produced in Sydney by Beyond Productions) profiles the music and artistic offshoots of the extreme sports world, and BTN Extra (pictured, from ABC TV’s News and Current Affairs team in Adelaide) offers a daily analysis of news and current affairs.

Other titles were revealed some months ago.

ABC3 is in discussions with RDF and Australian co-producer, Freehand, for two more of CBBC’s adventure series Escape from Scorpion Island. There are also two music shows in development.

Meanwhile, July’s open call  for hosts yielded more than 5,000 applications, with the winners to be revealed shortly after the MIPCOM Conference.

The hosts will make appearances throughout the schedule in slots.

Looking ahead to 2011, the network is searching out entertaining documentary series for ABC3, as well as boy-led dramas and animated series. Its call for pitches closes at the end of October.

Source: Kidscreen

29 Responses

  1. Really – why can’t they just make the ‘digital’ ABC’s as follows… 1 General Programming, 2 Repeated General Programming, 3 Kids

    Wouldn’t that be simpler? An entire kids ABC? Rather than bits and pieces spread across 3 channels??

  2. @ tasmanian devil, the station is rubbish because there’s already more than enough children’s television on the ABC, for all age groups. There’s the same amount as there was when I was a kid, so I speak from experience. A an entire new channel dedicated to kids is just ridiculous. How many hours of television do you want kids to watch each day?

  3. Unless you watch tv 18 hrs a day buy a pvr record the stuff from ABC1/2 and watch it during the day when the kids ca get their stuff. BTW less adult complaining why kids get all the airtime but we pay tax would be nice for a change

  4. As others have said here, I was hoping that once abc 3 launched, abc 2 day time programming would have more repeats from ABC1. I’m jealous that abc 3 didn’t exist in the 90s because that’s when I would have enjoyed more kids programming (such as round the twist) but even so, there’s only so much tv you can watch in a day. As a toddler in the late 80s I used to watch playschool and sesame street, the rest of the time would be spent playing outside or with toys- my point being pre-school aged (and younger) kids don’t need 12 hours of programming a day.

  5. thats disgraceful considering there were no more Degrassi Next Generations shown from season 3 onwards here in Australia.You only have to look at crap like Home and Away to see the trash Kids today are subjected to.

  6. @Someone BBBA, ABC 3 is not rubbish. The world does not revolve around you and the money spent on ABC 3 was to provide people who don’t think it’s rubbish with a quality channel. Kids shows may not be your taste but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t anyone else’s. Kids, for example? The only problem is, when are ABC going to realise that an extra channel is supposed to increase the variety, when they’ve done the exact opposite.

  8. Keeping pre-school programming on the ABC2, when the ABC3 is launched makes on sense at all. If children are are school, then who will even be watching the ABC2/3, other than pre-schoolers? the ABC really should move all children’s programming from the ABC2, to the ABC3, and offer alternative programming on the ABC2 instead. The pre-school programming could be shown during the day, when children are at school, and more varied content could be offered durng the day, when school holidays occur. The ABC doesn’t even have enough new content for existing children’s programming, with far too many frequent repeats of recent series. There is very little new content shown on the ABC2, and the afternoon timeslot (4:00 PM – 6:00 PM on the ABC1/2 weekdays) really suffers from lack of new content (too many repeats) and variety (RollerCoaster used to offer different series, each weekday). The new series licensed won’t make much difference, when they have to be expanded over two or three channels, and be spread over a long period of time (a year a least).

    Far to much money been wasted on reality TV series again, we don’t need more reality TV series or more seasons of Escape from Scorpion Island. It is bad enough when reality TV series are shown the first time, but the ABC are even repeating these series! The ABC really seems out of touch, judging by comments from Brooke-Hunt in the original article. The ABC’s lack of new content and endless repeats, often doesn’t give older children an alternative at all. I don’t see why the ABC wants exclusive rights (which usually costs more) to TV series, or why the ABC wants TV series with online elements (not everyone has online access). Many shows (music shows, sports shows, news, current affairs and factual entertainment) would be better aimed at whole family, instead of focusing solely on aspects for children. And their clear bias for Australian content continues, instead of looking for quality content from worldwide.

  9. I understand their logic, kids shows on abc1 because not everyone has digital tv, abc2 is pre-schoolers and abc3 for older children. I think that there should be an ABC channel that screens non-children’s content at some point throughout the day.

    Regarding Business Today and ABC AP News, the former is important, but the latter is not, it is produced for people outside Australia and major stories relating to these issues can probably be found online or in ABC News Breakfast.

  10. You’d think an advantage of starting a children’s channel would have been that it would give the ABC the ability to show other types of programming through the day. I have no idea why they are doing what they are – a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.

  12. Funny how the nanny-state crowd get worked up demanding the Government ban junk food advertising from commercial TV, but no one raises an eyebrow when the Government broadcaster wastes public money on rubbish like ABC3.

  13. I thought multichanneling was supposed to give more choice – all three ABC channels showings kids’ programmes doesn’t achieve this. The ABC should ensure that it is not showing programmes aimed at the same audience or of the same genre across all its channels. Also, shouldn’t we be encouraging children to be doing something active with their time rather than watching TV?

  14. in this age where childhood obesity is apparently a big problem and parents relying too much on TV as a baby-sitter, is the ABC doing much to help the situation by filling three channels with children’s programs during the day?

  17. Tin tin and Round the Twist are absent on that list, how sad.

    But really, why do they have to ruin day time abc 2 with pre-school shows, instead why not put the pre-school shows on during the day on abc 3 (when the older kids are at school and therefore would be unable to watch abc 3) and leave abc 2 for something else.

  19. Er David, this is old news. I’ve known about that for months. But it gives me a chance to express my opinion:
    I hope that ABC rethink their structure for all this kids programming, because really there is far too much. For example, between 4 and 4:30pm all three ABC channels will have kids shows on, which is just ridiculous. On top of that, 7, 9 and GO! will have kids shows on too. I mean how much choice do you really need? This is what they should do:

    ABC 1:
    6:00 ABC News Breakfast 9:00 Business Today 9:30 Asia Pacific News 10:00 ABC Schools TV 11:00 Adult programming for the rest of the day

    ABC 2:
    6:00 Something new 8:00 Preschoolers programs 4:30 Programming as normal ABC 3 unchanged (school kids programming 6am-6pm)

    That way ABC NB, BT and ABC APN will get moved to the main channel with some alternative offering on ABC 2, ABC 1 will get to expand its daytime schedule, we won’t lose ABC 2’s afternoon programming and there’ll be plenty of stuff for kids. Everyone’s happy.

  24. I still haven’t heard what the ABC plans to do with Business Today and ABC News for the Australia Network, currently airing after 9am on ABC2. I’d be sad for them to go from the schedule… But hopeful that ABC4 is their not too distant home.

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