Farewell to ABC ME, ABC TV Plus…
In its 8 year existence, ABC ME has delivered some enormously diverse and entertaining titles -while ABC TV Plus commissions evaporated.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Top Stories
Today marks the last day of broadcast for ABC ME, which launched in 2016 after rebranding from its ABC3 origins in 2009.
The channel will become ABC Entertains largely with more adult programming than its teen / tween history. Although there are children’s titles in the morning, there are more adult offerings across the day.
ABC ME launched in 2016 as a joint broadcast / digital service with an app for school-aged children.
It included a weekly pop culture review show News to Me, sci-fi animation Prisoner Zero and short-form documentary series This Is Me plus returning ABC3 titles Nowhere Boys, You’re Skitting Me, Little Lunch, Good Game SP and Behind the News.
New ABC ME titles included The PM’s Daughter, Mustangs FC, The Deep, 100% Wolf: Legend of the Moonstone, Hardball, Itch, MaveriX, The New Legends of Monkey, Space Nova, The Day My Butt Went Psycho!, The Flamin’ Thongs, Built to Survive, The Deep, Mikki vs The World, The InBESTigators, The Strange Chores, Spooky Files, Crazy Fun Park, Turn Up the Volume, Soundtrack To Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse, First Day, Born to Spy, Are You Tougher Than Your Ancestors?, Teenage Boss, The Unlisted, My Year 7 Life, Â Advice to My 12yr Old Self, Nippers.
Some titles will still continue on ABC Family.
Also concluding today is ABC TV Plus renamed as ABC Family, and incorporating ABC Kids  in the daytime then from 7:30pm family titles aimed at older teens and co-viewing titles.
It was rebranded in 2021 from ABC Comedy (formerly ABC2), as “a place to feed the mind, the heart and the funny bone.”
Local shows included Art Works, Why Are You Like This, All My Friends Are Racist, And We Danced, The Set (pictured above), Australia Debates, Compass, Women of Steel, Palazzo Di Cozzo, I’m Wanita, Australia’s Best Competition Competition, Australian Women In Music Awards, Ride -but by 2023 commissions had all but evaporated.
You can read more about upcoming programming from Monday June 3 here and download TVT Guides here.
18 Responses
The ABC has entirely given up on Primary School aged children, that’s what this move says. The big mistake with ABC 3/ME was a lack of focus at first. With ABC 3 they initially claimed the channel would serve children, preteens and young teenagers. These are three very different groups with wildly different tastes and interests.
ABC ME’s re-branding was a smart move to refocus on 7-12. Dropping the overtly kid aesthetic of 3 for a more minimal logo (which was more likely to appeal to preteens) and entirely dropped the fantasy that teens would be remotely interested.
But now they have entirely abandoned the primary school market as far as broadcast is concerned, and it’ll be devastating for what little remains of that industry here in Australia. Ironically now Channel 10 will serve the primary school demographic more directly via Nickelodeon, but with purely American content.
If Australian children’s TV was struggling to keep its head above the water before, this’ll finally drown it.
I went to check ABC Entertains……..I do not think ancient repeats of the series ‘ER’ is very ABC??
There was also an old (as in at least 10-15 years old) British car repair show that seemed like it would fit better on 9Rush or 7Two.
I would like one of the channels to have from 7:30pm on awards to have old classics like degrassi, Super Ted, Raggy Dolls, Original Inspector Gadget and Astroboy, Original Heartbreak High, Grange Hill, Art Attack, Big Square Eye, The Afternoon Show, Ship to Shore, Around the Twist, lift Off, Roger Ramjet, Couch Potato and More Kids/teen classics from the 80s and 90s.
I’d add Vidiot and Press Gang to the list. They’re probably just gathering dust in the archives, though are quality programs.
I always had pitched this is something they could have done for ABC ME during the over-night shot when they had it in the ‘station closed’ mode prior.
They’d still be broadcasting content suitable if a random kid does tune in at 11pm or 2am for whatever reason (could be from a hospital bed for example), but have a nostalgic driven programming block for those who might be naturally more up at the time. It would have been a win/win, much better than just doing nothing for all those hours.
End of an era and new chapter for ABC. I remember watching the Degrassi series on ABCMe and ABC TV Plus had Spicks & Specks re-runs most nights at 7.30pm. Also Giggle & Hoot signing off brought back memories of Fat Cat. Hopefully ABC Entertains will retain water-mark free “rage” broadcasts.
I don’t see why ABC decided to swap the adult channel (22) with the older kids (23)-also odd that the kids channel will be 24 hrs a day ‘coz so many 5 year olds are watching their shows at 3 am! Over the last few weeks 22 was showing many more films than the usual 1 or 2 Friday nighters for some unknown reason-that has stopped now.
I can see the logic in a way. It’ll make 22 a fully family-friendly channel, so it reduces a risk of something graphic being on if a kid does happen to turn on the TV at an odd-hour. There was always the memes I used to see of a TV guide cutting off 22’s “ABC KIDS” but the program playing was a sex documentary at 9pm. Since the ABC is giving up on serving the Primary School market for after-school, then it is the logical move to shift that sort of vibe to the remaining time in-between ABC Kids for the rest of the hours in the evening. ABC ME’s evening content was often things like family-friendly rage, mild anime, etc
I am glad all ABC channel are now 24/7 ( except 30 minutes at 4:30 am on one channel, weird )
On Tuesday morning the station close was for only 4 minutes!
It’s long-long-long overdue!
ABC wonders why teens and youth aren’t viewing their shows, then continue to reduce shows made for them even more instead of investing in more shows for them that they would actually want to watch.
Australians watch plenty of ABC shows as kids, but having less shows for teens leads to younger demographics watching the ABC less, leading to their audience continuing to skew older and them not creating shows that appeal and compete as well with the commercial channels and to a younger adult, primetime audience.
Kids under 12 watch lots of ABC Kids, and will continue to do so. When they get access to a phone or tablet when they start high school they switch to YouTube and God knows what else. They come back to the ABC when they turn 55. ABC Me content will still air on ABC Kids after 7:30pm and ABC Kids and Me content is always available on iView and apps.
ABC Kids is for pre-school aged, perhaps covering Prep as well.
The 7-12 demographic isn’t going to be watching the likes of Play School, Peppa King, Kangaroo Beach etc. That’s what ABC ME was for, older primary.
Shows like Round The Twist and Lift Off set a high standard for children’s programming. Before ABC 3 came about, the feedback was that the children’s programming had become bland and that children should get the good standard of programming that we had seen as kids. I don’t know if it’s nostalgia, though I wonder if ABC 3 (ME) lived up to that. The one standout children’s show these days that captures the attention and imagination is Bluey.
If you’re producing children’s content, I believe it should be made so that the children really enjoy it and find it fun, rather than producing it for the sake of churning it out.
I think there should also be a prominent place for content for ages 12-18 as the new channels, including linear streams have more of a focus on ages 12 and under. Otherwise teens will go to Nickelodeon, MTV or elsewhere, some of which isn’t overly wholesome.
But Kids TV was all funded by chip, soft drinks and takeaway ads which are now banned, and there were only 5 channels to choose from. They weren’t competing against Nicholodeon, Netflix, HBO, CBC, ABC Kids/Me, CBeebies, Boomerang, YouTube etc. Kids 12-18 are not watching Nickelodeon, God knows what they are watching that their parents don’t know about. Albanese it trying to keep the younger kids off social media.
I understand things have to evolve as the climate changes I just hope that some of these titles will still be available as my girls approach the former ABC Me demographic. You have promoted many of these titles over the years e.g. Crazy Fun Park, Mustangs FC and I am sure they would like to watch them. It is important the pay view Australian content. I have checked your guides and many do not appear, hopefully they can view on ABC iView.