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ABC3 to launch December 4th

Ahead of its media launch this Thursday night, ABC3 is reported as hitting our screens from December 4th.

ABC3 logoThe ABC’s new children’s digital channel, ABC3, will launch on December 4th, according to The Age.

The date was revealed in an article on managing director Mark Scott’s appearance before a Senate hearing in Canberra yesterday.

The network will have a media launch unveiling the new channel this Thursday night.

Amongst some of the other points of interest from the hearing were:

– hosting programmes on iView for long periods after they have aired affected potential DVD sales by ABC shops.
– eventually ABC wants to offer every programme on iView for two weeks, with customers able to watch it on their television sets.
Bananas in Pyjamas, to be co-produced in Singapore, will not screen first on ABC3.
– ABC wants a new complaints system that allows viewers to contact programs directly and for corrections to be made more swiftly.

Source: The Age

18 Responses

  1. @Andrew B – but if ABC1 is still analogue I understand the kids programing… But if ABC2 is Digital only why still broadcast kids programming…. If ABC1 will continue to do so with your point taken and a full channel on Digital ABC3 full of children’s programming?

  2. I would expect that complaints will come flooding in when ABC implements their “world (or network) domination” plans for children’s television, and hopefully ABC will yield so that non-childrens content can reclaim a chunk of the schedule. An “iSnack 2.0” situation as I like to call it.

  3. I used to like farthing wood, I still rememeber the theme tune. Captain planet was a favourite too, and with the current obsession everyone has with the environment it could have a massive resurgance in popularity.

  4. @ Matt J – Yes. ABC2 will continue to have shows targetted to pre schoolers and ABC1 will continue to have kids shows at similar times to now. Maybe that will change once analogue is gone.

  5. Again, so does that mean ABC1 + 2 will still continue to show childrens programing when I could be watching something more interesting on both those channels at the same time as ABC will be showing kids stuff?

    Bleh

  6. The ABC should be putting more of it’s shows on paid-download sites like iTunes. In fact everything they own or have the rights to and currently sell on DVD should also be available for download.

    iView is great for programs you want to watch only once (or once more) as it’s free, but not being able to (easily) watch them on your TV, or download programs for watching multiple times (series, etc.), or transfer them to your iPod, etc. is a pain. A pain that many would be happy to pay to overcome. There’s no need for the ABC to enhance iView to do this when Bigpond and Apple, etc. already offer the features iView needs.

    Placing restrictions on their online distribution to protect their existing DVD market is a doomed exercise, the future of video is online downloads not plastic discs, and the longer the ABC lives in the past the more they hurt themselves.

  7. The ABC is too focused on online content, when television should be their focus. Several kids have only been shown on their iView service, and their iView service provides poor video quality (compared to digital TV).

    There is actually another two new seasons of Arthur, that have not been shown by the ABC yet.

  8. @TVTonightKiiD: I want those shows too, every time I see Rhys Muldoon, I think of him from The Genie Fron Down Under series one. I also want any 3 of the ABCs to show Degrassi Next Gen remainder of season 3, then all of 4-9. I dont understand why this show is being treated like Channel Nine would treat it, ABC is better than that.

  9. They have Genie From Down Under on iView (one new episode each monday, expires after 2 weeks). But I agree, they should bring back those old classics.

  10. Can’t wait.

    Oh, hang on.

    Yeah, I can. I’m one of the single childless people that are irrelevant in the last two governments’ societies.

    The only interest I have in ABC3 – especially as it’s not bumping child-minding-fodder off the other ABC channels – is whether it’ll screw up the picture quality of the channels that actually mean something.

  11. I hope they bring back the good shows such as The Genie Fron Down Under, CyberGirl, Thunderstone, Arthur, Madeline, Hey Arnold… etc, not this crap they show now.

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