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ABC iview Login to Watch from March 15

All the info on logins, privacy, anonymity and personal recommendations.

ABC iview’s Login to Watch will require email passwords from March 15.

Emails can be anonymous or pseudonyms. Viewers will still be able to watch all the ABC’s live broadcast streams on ABC iview web including ABC TV, ABC News, ABC Kids and ABC ME without needing to log in.

Personalised ABC iview services will mean increased user experiences through features including program recommendations, watchlists and the ability to pick up a show where they left off, across multiple devices.

ABC iview is Australia’s No 1 broadcaster streaming service, with more than 4500 hours of television shows, live performances and films to enjoy not only for free but also free of advertising.

There are currently almost 6 million ABC accounts delivering the benefits of personalised ABC iview services.

ABC iview started in 2008 as the nation’s first on-demand viewing platform. Now it is part of an increasingly crowded market, dominated by international streaming services. An ABC account will ensure that ABC iview’s unrivalled collection of Australian stories, faces and voices are not lost in the mix – safeguarding our national identity and culture.

Australians are already used to having logins to watch content on streaming services and the on-demand platforms of commercial and public broadcasters, such as SBS. Many of the personalised features now expected by viewers can be provided only to account holders.

Requiring a login on ABC iview, with all the privacy and data protections people expect of the ABC, enables the commercial-free public broadcaster to continue to nurture its relationship with audiences.

Nothing about creating a login for ABC iview changes our editorial independence, integrity or responsibility, including the privacy and data protections people expect of the ABC. The ABC places a high priority on the protection of personal information, in line with the trust that Australians place in their public broadcaster.

The ABC is bound by the Privacy Act and follows the Australian Privacy Principles on managing personal information. It has a publicly available privacy policy and privacy collection statement setting out the reasons for collecting the information and how it will be protected.

People can access any personal information held by the ABC about them by contacting the privacy officer.

The ABC will never sell the data, creating an account is free, and there is no paid advertising on ABC platforms in Australia.

ABC iview won’t only rely on recommendation engines and algorithms — human curation will still be involved.

An opt out feature enables audiences to control data they don’t want shared with third parties, like Facebook and Google.

Protecting children is a priority. Users can make ABC iview profiles for kids for safer experiences on ABC platforms. Households can create a single account for use across the ABC online ecosystem if they choose.

The ABC is committed to providing people with more control over other types of personal data too, like browser tracking cookies. Here is the current cookies policy.

Creating an ABC Account is simple and free – and we’re here to support you through the transition.

ABC FAQs

8 Responses

  1. I honestly don’t understand why people are so outraged by this. If you’re worried about your data, just start a fresh gmail account or similar. It’s not rocket science.

  2. Am yet to see any reason why the ABC needs to do this. As a free service, with no advertisement there doesn’t seem to be any compelling case.

    It should be left as an opt-in.

    I hope the ABC complaints dept has hired a bunch of new staff.

  3. Having a login allows iview to track where viewers are up to in an episode or series, which is a service that people expect these days. It also allows ABC to monitor viewing and to make recommendations to try and boost viewing. The fact everyone who is complaining has a login commerical FTA streaming sites, which do the same and use the information for targeted advertising, means the complaints are nonsense.

    1. Really? Everyone here complaining has ‘a login commercial FTA streaming sites’? Proof of statement please. Oh wait. Do you work for the ABC? You might well be right if so. You’ve used the data collected via the ‘opt out’ facebook tracking to link ABC logins to commercial FTA logins! Well done.

  4. Yes, logins are a nuisance quite often, but it does occasionally have some benefits.

    We have to sign up and log in to this site to comment, and you don’t seem pertubed about that!

    You doth protest too much, methinks – to slightly misquote Shakespeare.

    1. Sure johninmelb, just show me where this site says it will pass login information onto facebook et al, unless we take steps to opt out. Oh wait. That’s right. This site doesn’t do crap like that. Must be because we don’t pay for it.

  5. We can’t be seen to deny ABC Marketing their assumed birthright to spam account holders with addresible promos etc. It justifies their existence and helps their KPIs. It is nothing to do with aiding the viewer experience.
    Wish the ABC would grow up and lose their logo on ABC Iview content. That must cost money the ABC shoud spend on content production instead of content branding distraction.

  6. An opt out feature? Wouldn’t it be nice if public institutions such as the ABC, that we all pay for, did things the morally right way and set this to be opt-in, ie a person has to make a decision to allow facebook et al to track them around the internet and spam, uh sorry, advertise at them.

    Oh yes, and just before we forget, ‘why doesn’t someone think of the children!!!!’.

    This is all so predictable and pathetic these days. Not that it really matters for anyone with a brain. If this login to view requirement is up to the same standard as SBS and others it’ll be a doddle to sidestep.

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