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Meet the faces of ABC3

The kids of Australia are about to get so much content on ABC3, it's like their very own 'Pay TV' network -without ads or fees.

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abc3 aAmberley Lobo, Kayne Tremills, Ben Crawley, Scotty Tweedie, Stephanie ‘Hex’ Bendixsen and Hannah Wang are the six lucky presenters who will become the faces of ABC3, the new ad-free children’s network.

The six were introduced to media last night by Kim Dalton, ABC TV’s Director of Television, who unveiled the new digital channel last night at the network’s Ripponlea studio.

Aged 19 – 24, they hail from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth and will adopt key roles in channel presenting, reporting and hosting after winning the coveted positions from more than 5,000 applications in the ABC’s Me on 3 hunt.

ABC3 will launch at 6pm on Friday December 4th 2009 preceded by a one hour studio-based live entertainment programme on ABC1 at 5pm.

“Then at 6pm Prime Minister Rudd will literally and metaphorically throw the switch and ABC3 will come to life,” declared Dalton.

“An important message to the parents of Australia is if you haven’t got a digital TV, or a digital set top box, you’ve got just under 8 weeks to get one for your kids. Otherwise they’re going to miss out on a bit of history.”

The channel will broadcast daily from 6am – 9pm (off air at other times at this stage), aimed at 6 – 15 year olds. Its core demographic is 8 – 12 year olds.

abc3 st3The new channel will be built around two key hosted blocks. Every morning from 7 -8:30am, Studio 3 will be on the air from Melbourne. Amberley Lobo and Kayne Tremills will host games, competitions, guests and more. Ben Crawley will provide roving reports from Adelaide and beyond.

During the day the channel offers factual, adventure, wildlife, documentary, game shows, news and current affairs, dramas and classic Australian animations.

At 4:30 – 6pm RollerCoaster will be hosted by Elliott Spencer with live action and cartoons.

From 6pm ABC3 has comedy, cartoons, drama and music.

Brisbane’s Scotty Tweedie will present the 26 part series Prank Patrol where kids get to create a prank on a friend. Sydney’s Hanna Wang will co-host the 52 part Rush TV with Chris Boadle with snowboarding, BMX, skating, surfing and motorcross. Stephanie ‘Hex’ Bendixsen will join with Good Game‘s Bajo for gaming news, tips and events in the 42 part Good Game SP.

Online ABC3 will offer blogs, games, activities, videos and user-generated content. Many of the programmes will be available in iView.

“First and foremost ABC3 will be a destination. A place and space to go to. To be entertained, to play, to discover, to create, meet friends and be part of the community. It will be the first and only truly multi-platform children’s service existing across television. Online streaming, download and mobile platforms. It will be exciting, innovative and it will be interactive.”

At launch date, more than 40% of the content will be Australian.

“And as we go forwards, we aim to increase that to our 50% target. It’s not enough but it’s a great start,” he said.

“There will be Australian-produced programmes across all genres.”

Much of the ABC3 programming will also screen on ABC1 from 6 – 8am and 4 – 6pm weekdays and 8 – 9am on Sundays.

abc3 bPre-schoolers have not been forgotten either. ABC for Kids will air on ABC2 weekdays from 9am – 6pm and weekends from 6am – 6pm. With titles including Wiggly Waffle, Giggle, Hoot, dirtgirlworld, Play School, Bananas in Pyjamas, Waybuloo, Fun with Claude, Angelina Ballerina, Fifi and the Flowertots, Toby’s Toy Circus, Mouk’s World Tour, The Octanauts, and The Jungle Book.

ABC for Kids will feature host James Rees, also selected from the Me on 3 search. Programming will air on ABC1 weekdays from 8 – 10am and 3 – 4pm and Sundays from 6:30 – 7:30am.

“During the week 32 hours of children’s content each day,” said Dalton. “This puts us up with the BBC as one of the largest and most comprehensive broadcasters of children’s broadcasting in the world. And that’s something we feel incredibly proud of and something we think is incredibly appropriate for the ABC.”

ABC3 Programming:
My Place
World Premiere
13-part half-hour drama series

CJ the DJ
World Premiere
52-part eleven-minute animation series

Dance Academy
World Premiere
26-part half-hour drama series.

Dead Gorgeous
World Premiere
13-part half-hour drama series.

NEWS ON 3
BTN extra

The Animation Projects
World Premiere

Escape from Scorpion Island
World Premiere
26-part half-hour action series

abc3_logoBarney’s Barrier Reef
Australian Premiere
20-part half-hour documentary series

Twisted Whiskers
Australian Premiere
26-part half-hour animation series

Gaywyn
Australian Premiere
52-part, 13-minute animation series

Michaela’s Wildlife Challenge
Australian Premiere
52-part half-hour documentary series

Black Panther
Australian Premiere
Six-part half-hour animation series

Trapped
26-part half-hour drama series

Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab
Australian Premiere
52-part half-hour science series

Be the Creature
Australian Premiere
26-part, 47-minute documentary series

Heartbreak High
130-part half-hour drama series

How to Be Indie
Australian Premiere
26-part half-hour drama series

Spliced
Australian Premiere
26-part half-hour animation series

Jolly Rabbit
Australian Premiere
52-part, eleven-minute animation series

Connor Undercover
Australian Premiere
39-part half-hour drama series

I.N.K. Invisible Network of Kids
Australian Premiere
26-part half-hour animation series

The Jungle Book
Australian Premiere
52-part eleven-minute animation series

AND: Relive some of Australia’s most-loved drama series from the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) which continues to deliver world-class content made especially for Australian kids. Round The Twist, Mortified, Genie From Down Under, Spellbinder and Worst Best Friends will screen on ABC3 and a number of them will also screen online at abc.net.au/abc3.

Channel:
Free-to-air digital 23
Foxtel 723
Austar 723
Optus 723

53 Responses

  1. I was wondering about Degrassi – Next generation as well, if I am not mistaken ABC has not played it in a few years, even though they repeated orginal Degrassi on ABC2 about a year ago.

    My brother and I loved Heartbreak High back in the day, it is a very well written, fairly well acted, believable representation of high school (may be a little out of date now though).

  3. OMG are you serious! i am sooo happy they’re going to play The Genie From Down Under! I love you ABC3 <3 (and TV Tonight for bring the news hehe)

  4. Still pretty much a white world at ABC isn’t it.

    A token ethnic kid and that’s it. No wonder people black face up without realising what they represent

  5. Congrats and all to the new presenters, and I did have a suspicion it’d be pitched fairly mainstream, but would it hurt to have one presenter who isn’t so…shiny? And some content that is a little more edgy? Just because kids are young, doesn’t mean they are dumb…

  7. I’m all for a permenant kids channel, but I’m really disappointed that all three ABC channels will be filled up with kids content. They may as well just rename the network to Nickelodeon. I thought ABC2 could now be free of kids content, or at least some of it..?

  9. The watermarks all use the plainer white logo. I assume they will still use the standardised format as well – the freeview website did have a logo up for ABC3 in red – in the same format as 1 & 2.

  10. Indeed, what is with the terrible branding. It was only a year or so that did that global rebrand to bring everything into line.

    Not only are they moving from the two boxes they use for the other three channels but they’re going back to the old logo as well.

  13. Heartbreak High was shown by the ABC long ago, and Trapped was already shown by Seven in the past.

    I’m surprised they bought the Black Panther series, the animation really looked bad, if that is the new Marvel series.

    Only The Jungle Book series actually sounds interesting, if they faithfully adapt the original stories, and it doesn’t end up as another moralistic series.

    So overall we get mixed action/comedy series (Connor Undercover, How to Be Indie, Invisible Network of Kids, Jolly Rabbit, Spliced, Twisted Whiskers), dumbed down documentaries (Barney’s Barrier Reef, Be the Creature, Michaela’s Wildlife Challenge), more reality TV (Escape from Scorpion Island) and a few new Australia series (CJ the DJ, Dance Academy, Dead Gorgeous, My Place). Along with more endless repeats of older Australian series, many of which were not worth watching the first time around.

    Still no sign of any serious series for older kids, is it really too much to ask for the odd kids series with an interesting on-going story (ie Avatar – The Last Airbender)? there are still many out there, that have never been shown on free-to-air TV.

    We don’t need more hosts shows, if the hosts are going to be talking down to kids, been silly, and been hyperactive (ie Elliot on RollerCoaster). I miss the old days of decent hosts, like James Valentime on the Afternoon Show long ago.

    I still think documentaries, music and sports shows that everyone can enjoy are better, than kid specific versions.

  15. OMG Question: Heartbreak High is mentioned there! Is that a revivil of the old high school soapie/drama? Or are they repeats or is it just a different show all together? Please be replaying the show I Loved it!

  17. The only Irony here about ABC2’s Preschool daytime programming is that this government owned channel is encouraging the young ones to watch more tv, when their official guidelines recommend 0-1 hours of tv per day.

  18. Wow, quite a line-up there.

    I’m by no means a kid anymore, haven’t been for many years now, but I think i’ll be tuning in occasionally as there’s some classic shows they plan to show.

    I might just tune in to ABC1 at 5pm on December 4th to see what exactly happens and to “be part of history”.

    BTW, the channel will broadcast from 6am to 9pm yeah? not 9am.

  20. Thanks for all the info David. Interesting logo emphasising the number 3.
    But, don’t you mean that ABC3 will be shown initially from 6am to 9pm (instead of 6am) weekdays from December 4?

  25. Great news for “working families”. You have a new babysitter!

    Bad news for those who know what this will mean to the already-stretched digital bandwidth used by the ABC.

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