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ABC adds Radio channels to TV

Now you can listen to ABC Radio through your digital TV.

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Last week ABC added its Radio stations to ABC TV channels.

This means you can now hear ABC Radio through your Digital TV, but it may require a retune. More info on doing that is here.

You can check what’s on radio guides here.

21 Responses

  1. Old AWA TV….13/14 yrs….I am listening to ABC Classic radio….
    Who knew….just found out I have a button that says TV/Radio….😁
    I have had SBS radio for years…without switching….as I did not realise I could.

      1. Soon there will be no original content as there ratings won’t support the cost of producing the programs. That’s why most shows now are short seasons and don’t last long. Many now are 6-10 shows per season and the trend now is 3-6 part ministries (love that term for mini series).

  3. Who would have thunk that so much could be squeezed into a single analog TV channel.
    For those in the cap cities it’s quintuplication, AM/FM; DAB; Satellite (VAST); Internet (radio.abc.net.au/help/streams); TV. Not all delivery systems will have the same channels or audio quality.

  4. This is a pretty big moment in television history and impossible to understate. When digital radio was introduced the Commonwealth indicated it would be unviable to introduce it in regional areas so the large cities got it with vast publicity attached and the country got nothing.
    To now have some form of access to these stations (I live in a radio blackspot so even analogue radio is only accessible on car trips out of the area) is a big step up from previously. I suspect my ‘television’ viewing will now be very heavily weighted towards Radio National and the Melbourne version of newsradio.

    1. Because none of these stations are available on any radio I have, and I daresay a lot of other people couldn’t previously access them either. I’ve been listening to a couple of the stations for the last few hours, instead of crappy morning TV.

    2. As far as I know, all these stations are available on digital radio, which is only available in large metropolitan centres. Putting them on the digital TV spectrum makes them available to regional listeners.

    1. It’s actually very popular and it is measured in digital and internet only radio ratings.

      In a very crowded market of digital/internet stations, in sydney alone, ABC Kids Listen consistently ranks 5-8% market share which is huge. ABC Country has a lot less listeners by comparison. It also consistently outranks commercial stations such as News Talk Sport, Triple M Aussie, Buddha Hits, Chemist Warehouse Remix and Triple M Country but some of those have been going a lot longer.

      If you google “radio today radio ratings” and select the 3rd result, that will take you to the latest ratings articles and the digital only ratings are always somewhere near the top. They are released every month. You can view all the capital cities.

      It’s rare that any one station in any one city cracks 100,000 listeners just because the market is so crowded. So for kids listen to be getting…

  8. I noticed this on the weekend as well, my TV automatically retuned the new channels. I also noticed that SBS had expanded their audio channels as well.

    But the question- do the commercial and community stations and networks also have the capability to broadcast audio-only channels?

    1. There are broadcasts of some community and commercial radio stations on VAST and on UK Freeview. There is also on-screen information for UK Freeview radio, which is more informative and better than viewing a blank screen, though I’m not sure about the technology behind it and if it can be replicated on Australian Freeview.

  10. This is very good as it gives more options when watching the television. I noticed they have ABC local from the state capital only. It would be nice to be able to receive all 8 ABC local stations from the various capitals on the television for variety, but I accept that it’s not common to have broadcasts from out of state regions on Freeview, maybe with exception of VAST (satellite), and we can always access the local radio streams online.

    I also wonder about the expansion of digital radio outside of the big cities. The uptake of consumer DAB+ had been slow, but the DAB+ technology is becoming more common in newer vehicles nowadays.

    2. DAB+ radio only “expanded” to all capitals last year (so Canberra, Darwin and Hobart have it now too)

      Instead regional stations are concentrating on a cost saving drive by applying to the ACMA to convert their AM stations to FM so they can use less power and consolidate their transmission equipment. This is slowly happening across Australia. Google acma fm conversion for more on that. The latest consultation is for Swan Hill, Central Western Slopes, Mackay, Gunnedah and Roma to lose their commercial AM radio – but it’s happening across the country.

  11. For those who were in the TV Lounge last week, I brought this up, so for some of us, this isn’t news. I think this will benefit those who don’t have digital radio or live in regional areas where there is no digital radio (I have digital radio at home, but don’t listen to it much. I think both ABC and SBS should put all their audio channels in the three-digit channels (note that I deleted the SBS audio channels in the two-digits as they are repeated in the three-digits).

    FYI, I did a rescan last week, and I got the TV channels back up for those who were wondering.

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