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ABC Chair wants more younger audiences. Here’s the top shows they are already watching.

The ABC shows which have the biggest 16-39 viewers are also, by definition, the ones with the biggest broad audiences.

EXCLUSIVE:

“I want the ABC to go after younger viewers, listeners and readers on every platform as a vital part of our civic duty,” ABC Chair Kim Williams said last November.

“Not because I don’t appreciate the audiences we already have – we love our audiences — but as a matter of intergenerational equity. The ABC is for all our citizens, no matter what their age.”

Williams, in his address at the National Press Club was chiefly advocating for an increase in funding, but if the national broadcaster is determined to lift its younger audiences, what content is ir creating for that demographic, and what shows are currently drawing its biggest youth audiences?

According to Roberta Allan, Head of Programming, Acquisitions & Streaming, ABC shows which draw the biggest mass audiences are also, by definition, the shows with the highest proportion of viewers aged 16 – 39.

Fisk is the biggest comedy in Australia. It’s doing amazingly and is, by and large, the biggest in that space. But Austin got a really great general-size audience in this age group last year, and Utopia (in 2023),” she tells TV Tonight.

Guy Montgomery’s Guy-Mont Spelling Bee brought in mass audiences, and a high 16 to 39 age group. That’s been amazing, and is obviously coming back this year, which is great for us. Then we’ve got programs like Gruen and Hard Quiz, which always do that job, and they’re back this year as well.

“In terms of factual programs there’s Muster Dogs, again (due to) just the absolute sheer size of it. When you look at the casting, it’s multi-generational. That leads to people seeing themselves on screen, which really works.

Grand Designs Transformations has also done really well in this space, which is delightful. I think nearly every age group is interested in property and architecture, different cities and the like.”

Mystery Road: Origin, The Newsreader, Bay of Fires, Mother & Son have also scored in the same demo -all are returning in 2025.

Unexpectedly, News & Current Affairs is also one of the biggest drawcards for 16 – 39 year olds.

Four Corners and Australian Story consistently bring in both mass audiences and this age group, (as well as) Politics. Nemesis earlier last year, to the latest US Election, to any state election coverage – the numbers are just so high there.”

While ABC has a history of attracting young audiences with break-out comedies such as Chris Lilley and Superwog, not all of them have fired.

Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe was in a similar vein to Superwog, I would say, in terms of that. We did Gold Diggers in 2023, we did In Limbo which I think was probably a broader play in that context. Last year we did White Fever and this year we’ve got Optics.”

Written by and starring Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst (The Feed, Nugget is Dead: A Christmas Story) and The Chaser’s Charles Firth, Optics is a new workplace comedy for ABC centres around crisis management PR firm who battle weekly public relations crises from celebrities, sports stars and corporate titans.

Both Owen and Zerbst are also former Fresh Blood producers, an initiative returning in 2025 to develop new comedy.

But what about rage? Surely it rates with younger audiences too?

rage‘s cumulative audience is big, versus each individual offering. But we’ve also got BTN High and on ABC iview we’ve got over 300 hours of content for teens. So there’s a lot in the space. In those circumstances, it’s more about having a volume offering to ensure that when you come in, you can find more,” Allan explains.

ABC iview remains a key part of commissioning and programming strategy. Its average viewer age is 49 versus 62 for ABC linear broadcast.

“And it’s the same content,” Allan continues, “so it just goes to show that a younger demographic are used to On Demand apps. They’re used to find their content when they want to find it, and how they want to find it. We’ve spent a lot of energy on a holistic journey through the ABC.”

Yet ABC does baulk at making Young Adult content which it insists is a fickle audience, well-served by streaming giants with much bigger budgets.

“Over the last couple years we have made a number of YA programs and they haven’t found a significant-size audience. So I guess it comes to ageing through the ABC. We’ve got so many people into ABC Kids then potentially lose them and then try and get them back for YA… I guess where we’ve been more focusing on how do we transition them out of ABC Kids?”

ABC Family launched in 2024 aimed at co-viewing with young audiences and parents to address gaps between huge crowds for Bluey and Kangaroo Beach and older viewers drawn to broad content.

“We’ve done shows like Hard Quiz Kids to make a key adults brand more accessible to this age to then hopefully help age them into the larger offering. That’s been a really big thing for us, to try and keep them on that journey with us.”

Allan also rejects criticism of the broadcaster for not having enough young presenters.

“There’s Guy Montgomery’s Guy-Mont Spelling Bee, A Bite To Eat with Alice. I just went to see A Very Musical Christmas with Jeremy Fernandez and Megan Burslem. New Year’s Eve had Concetta from Triple J. I actually think there’s a lot of younger presenters on ABC.

“I mean, we can always be doing more, but the other part is ensuring that what we do is recognised.”

While Allan maintains there are always new projects in development, the Chair’s point was largely one of a decrease in real funding terms at odds with a desire to fulfil ABC’s Charter of informing and entertaining the Australian community.

“If there was more money, there would be more commissioning, full stop. Almost where it goes on the broadcast channel isn’t so much the thing. It’s more about which demos, what genres, what topics, etc… just changing the cadence of things, increasing the volume and the like,” she says.

“The other part to that, if there’s more funding, would be about discovery. Because often that’s one of the hardest things.

“I mean, it’s just so much more crowded now. That’s where the broad plays make sense, right? Because you’re reaching the most people.”

5 Responses

  1. Funding issues. How does the ABC justify paying for the streaming rights for programs such as E.R.? Is that really what they are funded for?

    I assume it wouldn’t be a big cost and it is engagement bait to get people to use iView, but I do question whether the money could be used elsewhere in the ABC – like reinstating the ABC/RMIT fact checkers (discontinued in the middle of last year) as we are in a world full of misinformation!

  2. And yet the ABC made the very good, Crazy Fun Park for the 10 to 14 year olds, it went on to win best children’s show at the AACTA awards, and then didn’t renew it.

  3. Iview isn’t quite “the same content” it’s a mixture of “catch-up”, archives, “shown in other states” and “pre-broadcast”, an ABC convenience store.

  4. … “a decrease in real funding”? it always amuses me when someone trots out that oft-quoted comparison between the ABC’s peak appropriation funding in 1985, before Hawke started slashing it, and today which omits some fairly significant factors like:
    * the ABC no longer operates six state symphony orchestras;
    * the majority of the cost of commissioned content, particularly drama and documentary, is now met by external funding from Screen Australia, the various state funding bodies and others and not only the appropriation like it was in 1985;
    * there are over two thousand fewer staff than in 1985 so the ABC no longer carries their wages and on-costs like building space and facilities, electricity, air-conditioning, etc;
    and the biggest difference is that the ABC now spends the vast amount of its program funding on the news department rather than program content that will “entertain”…
    take all that into account and the real “decrease” largely evaporates …

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