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Multichannel Survey: ABC KIDS Comedy / ABC News / ABC ME

A star performer on ABC KIDS. ABC ME & ABC News take important roles during the pandemic.

ABC has four brands across three multichannels, with ABC Kids and ABC Comedy sharing the same channel. But ABC Comedy will soon be rebranded with Arts, Science, Education and Religion content.

Bluey is the star performer across all multichannels, regularly topping multichannel ratings and driving iview and breaking Timeshifted records.

ABC ME and ABC News have both played important roles during the pandemic, in Education and Breaking News, respectively. While ABC ME shows Mustangs FC and First Day have won awards, ABC News has recently celebrated its 10th birthday.

ABC KIDS | Comedy

Brand Identity: The trusted home of the best local and international preschool content |  Content to make you smile.

Target Demographic: Primary: 2-6 year olds. Secondary: Families with preschoolers | P25 – 49

Format / Tech Playout: Broadcast and iview  | Broadcast and iview

2020 Ratings Share / Demo Performance:
 On average ABC Kids reaches 2.2 million Australians (12.4%) each week across the 5 Capital Cities.1
 ABC Kids is the #1 channel for preschool children aged 0-4 in Australia:
o Reach: ABC Kids channel reaches 62.5% of children aged 0-4 or 697K.2
o Share: ABC Kids channel has a share of 51.9% for children 0-4.3
| Average share total people 2020 YTD: 1.8%

Key First Run Titles: Bluey, Play School, Play School: Kiya’s Excellent e-Birthday (Special), Play School Story Time, Play School Show Time, Play School Art Crew, Play School Art Time, Little J and Big Cuz, The Wiggles World, Peppa Pig, The Snail and The Whale, Shaun The Sheep, Sesame Street, Thomas and Friends, Dog Loves Books, Love Monster, Dino Dana, Book Hungry Bears, Floogals, Pablo, Noddy Toyland Detective, Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood, Molly and Mack
| Adam Hills: The Last Leg, Mock the Week, Staged, Intelligence, Ghosts, The Young Offenders, In The Long Run, Penn and Teller: Fool Us, Live At The Apollo, Motherland, High Fidelity, Brassic, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

First-Run Australian Content: Bluey, Play School, Play School: Kiya’s Excellent e-Birthday (Special), Play School Story Time, Play School Show Time, Play School Art Crew, Play School Art Time, Little J and Big Cuz, The Wiggles World
| Gruen XL, Whovians

Recent Success Stories:
Australia’s #1 kids show Bluey continues to draw huge numbers to the ABC.
 On ABC iview, season two has a VPM average of 2.7 million for 2020 YTD, making it the most successful program in the platforms history. Season 1 is also continuing to draw mass audiences and currently has a VPM average audience of 2 million for 2020 YTD.4
 ABC KIDS series Bluey has once again broken Timeshifting records. An episode that aired on March 21 had a metro consolidated timeshift audience of 1.3 million numbers, making it the most timeshifted program ever on Australian television!5
 In an ABC audience study, all the respondents surveyed (100%) agreed that Bluey was a ‘high quality program’, with 99% agreeing that the ‘program was different from anything they had seen before’. Bluey is the ABC’s highest rated program for both ‘Quality’ and ‘Distinctiveness’, across all content included in the study. 6
Play School achieves top marks for diversity and continues to draw healthy numbers on broadcast TV and iview:
 In an ABC audience study, 99% of respondents agreed that Play School reflects the diversity of Australia, the highest rating achieved across all ABC content included in the study.6
 On broadcast TV, and iview Play School specials continue to draw strong audiences. The third instalment of Play School Storytime had a metro audience of 210K, while Kiya’s Excellent birthday drew a metro audience of 133K, above the 2019 timeslot average. On iview, the special garnered a VPM average of 81K.7
| The iview binges continue to be successful and have featured a large number of premiere titles. The Easter binge, which included the Australian premiere of Motherland S1 & S2, drew 1.380m plays. High Fidelity, starring Zoe Kravitz, has had over 1.2m plays on iview.

Upcoming Key Titles: New Play School content including a new special and spin-off series, Bluey, Tik Tak, Sir Mouse, Kangaroo Beach
| The October Spring Binge on iview from 2nd-31st October which will include the premieres of Brassic S2, In The Long Run S3 and The Young Offenders S3. Binge all eps of Staged on iview from 21st September, Gruen XL, Ghosts S2 (later this year), Ross Noble’s stand up special, El Hablador (3rd & 10th October)

Upcoming Changes to Playout / New Channels: N/A | Channel rebrand

1. Source: OzTAM (5 City Metro) Consolidated 28 Data, Average Weekly Reach, Total Ppl, 2020 W1-33, 0500-1930.
2. Source: OzTAM (5 City Metro) Consolidated 28 Data, Average Weekly Reach, Ch 0-4 2020 W1-33, 0500-1930.
3. Source: OzTAM (5 City Metro) Consolidated 28 Data, Share for Ch 0-4, 1.1.2020 – 15.8.2020. 0500-1930.
4. Source: OzTAM VPM Average. Bluey 2020 S1+S2.
5. Source: Oz TAM (5 City Metro), Timeshift 28 Data.
6. Source: ABC Quality& Distinctiveness Study, 3x annual survey, Play School (n=408), Bluey (n=569)
7. Source: OzTAM (5 City Metro) Consolidated 28 Data Average Audience/ VPM Average Play School Storytime/ Kiya’s Excellent Birthday.

ABC ME

Brand Identity: An integrated broadcast and digital destination dedicated to Australian school children, offering distinct, diverse and inspiring content for them and their families. With a keen focus on Australian stories and points of view, as well as the best from around the world. ABC ME is also the home of ABC TV Education, providing longform educational content for teachers and students.

Target Demographic: 7-12yr old and their families

Format / Tech Playout: (ie. MPEG 2) n/a

2020 Ratings Share / Demo Performance: On average ABC ME reaches 1.4 million Australians (7.7%) each week across the 5 Capital Cities. ABC ME is the second most popular multichannel for school children aged 5-12 reaching on average 390K each week or 22%.1

Key First Run Titles: Are You Tougher Than Your Ancestors?, Teenage Boss, ITCH, First Day, Mustangs FC, Prank You Very Much, Good Game Spawn Point Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, Malory Towers, Utopia Falls, The Next Step, Horrible Histories and Almost Never.

First-Run Australian Content: Are You Tougher Than Your Ancestors?, Teenage Boss, ITCH, First Day, Mustangs FC, Prank You Very Much, Good Game Spawn Point, What It’s Like, Get It Together and the DisRupted Films

Recent Success Stories: ABC TV Education launched an extended offering for Term 2, broadcasting 300 hours of education content to support students learning from home around the country. Across broadcast, iview and Education online ABC Education delivered curriculum linked content to help young Australians continue learning throughout the pandemic Including a raft of bespoke Mini lessons hosted by real teachers and made in conjunction with NSW and Victoria Departments of Education covering primary Maths, English and Science. ABC ME’s key digital stunt ‘Super Summer BEST FEST’ saw the audience tapping the app in droves with stellar performances over the December and January school holiday period, achieving 2.3M plays and 4.4M plays in the respective summer months. Key titles The Inbestigators and Little Lunch led the charge alongside the animated comedy series Total DramaRama. In March, ABC ME premiered the groundbreaking series, First Day, about a young transgender girl named Hannah navigating the challenges that come with starting a new school. The First Day S1 broadcast premiere achieved a metro and regional average audience of 61k total people, up 50% on the timeslot average. The program achieved a 64.6% metro share and a 60.6% regional share among our key demo of CH 5-12 and on iview, the series achieved a vpm series average of 27.2k from 182k plays. ABC ME bid farewell to its much-loved series Mustangs FC in its third and final season, premiering on iview on New Year’s Eve, achieving a vpm series average of 18k from 383k plays. In 2020 year-to-date, Mustangs FC S3 ranks within the top 10 ABC ME programs on iview.

Upcoming Key Titles: 100% Wolf S1, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir Special, Endlings, Secret life of Boys S4, So Awkward S5, Operation Ouch! Do Try This At Home S1, Katy, Horrible Histories.

Upcoming Changes to Playout / New Channels: N/A

1. Source: OzTAM(5 City Metro) Consolidated 28 Data, Average Weekly Reach, Total Ppl, 5-12s 2020 W1-33, ABC ME, 24-hour.

ABC News

Brand Identity: Australia’s trusted destination for round-the-clock news coverage, breaking news, analysis, interviews and original reporting. For 10 years ABC NEWS channel has brought an Australian perspective to the major issues and events that affect us all, with access to unrivalled resources from ABC NEWS in eight states and territories, 48 towns and regions across Australia and international bureau. ABC NEWS is available on TV, livestream and on demand.

Target Demographic: All people, but with a focus on 16+

Format / Tech Playout:
SD TV, Ungeoblocked livestream on news.abc.net.au and iview

2020 Ratings Share / Demo Performance:
• ABC News channel reached on average 2.8 million metro Australians weekly in 2020YTD, up +34% on the 2019 average
o In March, ABC News channel achieved a metro average weekly reach of 3.3 million, its highest monthly result to date
• ABC News channel achieved a metro primetime share of 1.5% in 2020YTD, up on the 2019 average of 1.1%
• ABC News channel achieved a metro daytime share of 5.7% in 2020YTD, up on the 2019 average of 3.4%

Key First Run Titles: News Breakfast, Weekend Breakfast, Insiders, ABC News Mornings, ABC News at Noon (simulcast with ABC TV). Special event documentaries including Best Games Ever: Sydney 20 Years On, New Normal, Childers Hostel Fire: 20 Years On, Holden: End of the Road, Y2K: The Bug That Didn’t Bite, Call To Arms: The Liberation of East Timor, Australia Remembers: 75th Anniversary of The End of WWII, Troubled Territory: Hong Kong, Songlines: Solution to Climate, Think Twice: Game Zero, Australia Wins World Cup Bid.

First-Run Australian Content: The World, Afternoon Briefing, Planet America’s Fireside Chat, ABC News Regional, The Virus, The Business, The Mix, The Drum, One Plus One, The World This Week, Close of Business, The Breakfast Couch, Capital Hill, ABC Evening News, ABC Nightly News, ABC News Overnight. Plus Australia’s only regular news bulletin with Auslan interpretation providing accessible information to keep Australia’s deaf community connected and informed every Sunday at 6pm.

Recent Success Stories:
• ABC News programs have experienced significant Year on Year increases in metro audiences including ABC News Mornings (+106%), ABC News at Noon (+126%),The World (+43%) and The Business (+30%)
• The News channel live stream also experienced significant triple digit year on year uplift on both iview and YouTube in 2020YTD
• On Sunday the 2nd August the Melbourne Stage 4 Lockdown announcement achieved a metro average audience of 580,000 – the highest program audience achieved on the ABC News channel
o Driven by the Victoria Stage 4 Lockdown, ABC News channel was the #1 ranked network for daytime on Sunday 2nd August, with a metro daytime share of 13.4% – the highest daytime share for the channel ever recorded

Upcoming Key Titles: Budget 2020: extensive coverage of the most consequential federal budget in generations. ACT Votes and Queensland Votes election coverage. USA Votes: live coverage of the three Presidential Debates plus all-day coverage of Election Day.

Upcoming Changes to Playout / New Channels: N/A

10 Responses

  1. It’s interesting to have seen the expansion of what was ABC channel 2 expand in to the suite of channels it is today. It’s certainly an accomplishment. There is a concept yet to be expanded into its own standalone channel and still the best hope for a 24 hour free-to-air music video channel would be from the ABC with the considerable archive of Rage. Back to back random music videos on shuffle utilising the entire archive would be a dream.

  2. I still think a better option would be to have all the ‘children’s content’ on ABC ME; and leave ABC Comedy to the adults.

    The ABC also need to get better at promoting Comedy’s first run content on the primary station. Alternatively start taking the very best of that first-run content and screening it on the primary station.

  3. Also keen to hear what will become of ABC Comedy. I know there’s a lot of repeated content but I always find something to watch on there everyday.

    Shame that it never quite reached its potential after the untimely demise of Tonightly early on.

  4. “ABC Comedy will soon be rebranded with Arts, Science, Education and Religion content”

    Does this mean the new rebranded night time Channel won’t carry any drama, comedy or Scripted content?

  5. ABC NEWS is best news coverage in Australia. Was a very important scource of reliable information during bushfires.
    Joe O’Brien is Australia’s best news reader, always quick to provide information people need and ask 5he questions we want answered

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