ABC News 24 is an Australian 24-hour news channel launched and owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.^[1][2][3] The channel replaced the former ABC High Definition simulcast of ABC1 and commenced broadcasting at 7:30pm (AEST) 5:30 (AWST) on Thursday, 22 July 2010.^[4][5]

The majority of the channel's content is produced from the ABC Ultimo Centre in Sydney, which the public can view being presented from an atrium looking into the news presentation studio. ABC News 24's early morning programme, ABC News Breakfast, is produced at the ABC Southbank Centre in Melbourne (weekdays).

Pre-launch[link]

The ABC announced in January 2010 that it planned to launch a 24-hour news channel.^[1] The new ABC News 24 logo was revealed by Freeview in their new promotion on Tuesday 22 June.^[6] The official promotional reel for ABC News 24 was launched on digital channel 24 between 6 and 8 July.^[7]

Speculation about a launch date for ABC News 24 took place in the weeks prior to the official announcement. The Daily Telegraph claimed in early July that the channel would be delayed due to technical issues at the ABC's new playout facility, MediaHub, in south west Sydney while other outlets reported that the channel was on track to begin in mid-July.^[8]

The ABC announced on 13 July 2010 that the channel would have its first live broadcast on 22 July.^[4][5]

Reception[link]

Since the commencement of regular broadcasting, the reaction to the new news channel has been mixed. A particular concern has been the pressure placed upon the budget and operations of both the news division of the ABC, as well as the broadcaster as a whole, owing to the decision to launch the channel without additional Government funding, as was the case with the recent launch of the children's channel ABC3.

In Senate Estimates hearings in February 2012 the broadcaster confirmed a $2.5 Million shortfall in the budget for its news and current affairs division and imposed a 1.5 percent cut in newsroom budgets, though denies the link to ABC News 24, instead pointing to recent major news events in the past year such as the Christchurch earthquakes and flooding in Queensland and Victoria.^[9] However, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has blamed the reported $20 million annual cost of the network for cutbacks in ABC1 sports coverage of the SANFL^[10].

ABC News 24 has been criticised for inconsistency with breaking news programming, with claims that the news channel frequently fails to cover breaking news or airs repeat programming during breaking news events. ^[11].

However, the network has seen success with high viewership compared to competitor Sky News Australia, with reach exceeding 2 million viewers weekly, tripling that of Sky News. ^[12]

Programming[link]

ABC News 24's output consists of a mix of live bulletins, timeshifted repeats of existing ABC News and Current Affairs output, coverage of the Federal Parliament's Question Time, documentaries and factual and arts programming.^[13] These draw upon the ABC's own resources and those of its partner broadcasters, the BBC, TVNZ, NHK, and Al Jazeera English.

Live rolling news coverage on the channel is presented on weekdays by Joe O'Brien (mornings), Ros Childs (midday), Kim Landers (Afternoon Live) and Juanita Phillips (evenings). Specialist and feature programming includes a daily business program covering the Asia-Pacific region, a topical debate program entitled The Drum presented by Steve Cannane and an international bulletin with former Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan entitled The World.^[13]

Existing shows ABC News Breakfast and The Midday Report are broadcast by the channel at the same time as on ABC1 respectively; one reason for this is that viewers in the AWST and ACST time zones, due to ABC News 24 being live around the country, can choose to watch these shows either live (ABC News 24) or on delay (ABC1/ABC2). In addition, The Business is shown in an earlier timeslot than currently scheduled on ABC1. Overnight, BBC World News bulletins from London are also broadcasted for two half hour bulletins, as well as two Al Jazeera Newshour bulletins. ^[13]

On 30 September 2010, the ABC announced the first new program to be shown on ABC News 24 titled Capital Hill. The political program, originally hosted by Chris Uhlmann airs Fridays at 5.30pm AEST/AEDT and takes a look at the week’s political events and news, as well as feature interviews with the key players of politics. It is now broadcast every weekday at 5.30pm AEST/AEDT and is hosted by Lyndal Curtis.

Programmes[link]

(All times in AEST/AEDT)

• ABC News
  • Weekdays: Half hour news bulletins at 12pm, 2pm and hour news bulletins at 1pm
  • Weeknights: Half hour news bulletins at:
    • Monday: 7pm, 8pm, 10.30pm and 12am-12.20am.
    • Tuesday-Friday: 7pm, 8pm (excluding Friday), 11pm, 12am-12.20am
  • Weekends: Half hour news bulletin at 7am, on the hour between 2pm-7pm, 9pm-11pm. Also there is a longer news bulletin between 12pm-12.45pm and short news updates at 4am, 6am (Saturday only), 1pm, 8pm and 12am

• ABC News Breakfast (Weekdays 6-9.30am)
• Weekend Breakfast (Saturday 8-11.30am; Sunday 8-9am, 10am-11.30am)
• Business Today (Weekdays 9.30am)
• ABC News Mornings (Weekdays 10am-12pm)
• The Midday Report (Weekdays 12pm East Coast Edition, 2pm WA Edition)
• Afternoon Live (Weekdays 3-5.30pm)
• Capital Hill (Monday-Thursday 5.30pm-5.45pm; Friday 5.30pm-6pm)
• The Quarters (Monday-Thursday 5.45pm, Weeknights 6.45pm)
• The Drum (Monday-Thursday 6pm-6.45pm; repeated 11pm Monday and 10pm Tuesday-Thursday)
• Planet America (Fridays 6pm-6.45pm; repeated 10pm Friday)
• Grandstand (Monday-Thursday 7.30-8pm)
• Contact Sport (Friday 7.30-8pm)
• ABC News With Juanita Phillips (Monday-Thursday 8-8.30pm)
• News Exchange (Fridays 8pm)
• The Business (Monday-Thursday 8.30pm-9pm)
• One Plus One (Friday 8.30-9pm)
• The World (9-9.35pm Monday, 9-10pm Tuesday-Friday)
• Tonic
• Parliament Question Time (2pm on sitting days)
• National Press Club Address (12.30pm on selected weekdays)
• Newsline
• 7.30 Select
• State to State
• The World This Week
• BBC World News (Overnight)
• Al Jazeera Newshour (Overnight)

Repeated from ABC1[link]

• 7.30
• Lateline
• Insiders (Live)
• Inside Business
• Offsiders
• Asia Pacific Focus
• Australian Story
• Q&A (Live)
• Four Corners
• Landline
• Behind the News
• Big Ideas (Weekends 1-2pm)
• Foreign Correspondent

ABC News 24 online[link]

ABC News 24 is streaming online at the ABC's website.^[14] However, contrary to previous ABC News and ABC Online practice, the news stream is not available outside of Australia,^[15] and unlike other programming on iView it is not currently offered as unmetered content by any internet service providers. The ABC News 24 stream is available in Medium and High bandwidth varieties on the iView site.

Presenters[link]

News[link]

• Karina Carvalho and Michael Rowland - ABC News Breakfast (Virginia Trioli on maternity leave)
• Andrew Geoghegan and Miriam Corowa - Weekend Breakfast
• Joe O'Brien - ABC News Mornings
• Jane Hutcheon - Friday ABC News Mornings
• Ros Childs - The Midday Report
• Kim Landers - Afternoon Live
• Juanita Phillips - ABC Evening News
• Scott Bevan - The World and Tuesday-Friday evenings
• Jeremy Fernandez - The World and Monday evening
• Richard Davies - weekday afternoon updates and weekend evenings
• Nick Dole - weekday afternoon updates and late evenings
• Jason Om - weekday afternoon updates and late evenings
• Simon Palan - weekend afternoons
• Kumi Taguchi - weekday late evenings

Substitute news presenters[link]

• Erin Bell
• Tracey Bowden
• David Coady
• Whitney Fitzsimmons
• Brigid Glanville
• Nick Grimm

[edit] The Drum

• Steve Cannane - presenter
• Tim Palmer - presenter
• Annabel Crabb - contributor and substitute presenter
• Latika Bourke - contributor
• John Barron - contributor and substitute presenter
• Stephen Long - substitute presenter

Finance[link]

• Whitney Fitzsimmons - Business Today
• Ticky Fullerton - The Business
• Alan Kohler - "Kohler Report" and Inside Business
• Di Bain
• Alicia Barry
• Lexi Metherell

Sport[link]

• Paul Kennedy - ABC News Breakfast, weekday mornings and Contact Sport
• Lucy Carter - Weekend Breakfast
• Peter Wilkins - Grandstand host
• Amanda Shalala - Grandstand sports update
• Tulsen Tollett
• Claire Aird
• Amy Bainbridge
• Meredith Sheehan

Weather[link]

• Vanessa O'Hanlon - ABC News Breakfast and weekday mornings
• Graham Creed - Afternoon Live and weeknight evenings
• Paul Higgins - ABC News Breakfast and weekday mornings fill-in presenter

Canberra bureau[link]

• Lyndal Curtis - political editor and host of Capital Hill
• Mark Simkin - chief political correspondent
• Hayden Cooper
• Andrew Greene
• Latika Bourke
• Melissa Clarke
• George Roberts
• Gillian Bradford
• Julie Doyle

Other[link]

• Jim Middleton - Newsline
• Jane Hutcheon - One Plus One
• Tony Eastley - The World This Week
• Dr Norman Swan - Tonic
• John Barron and Chas Licciardello - Planet America
• Matt Cargill - News Exchange

Former presenters[link]

• Ali Moore - Afternoon Live, 2010
• Chris Uhlmann - political editor and host of Capital Hill, 2010
• Nick Lucchinelli - producer and presenter
• Kathryn Stolarchuk - producer and presenter
• Melissa Hamilton - presenter

Overseas bureaux[link]

• Auckland
• London
• Moscow
• New Delhi
• Washington, D.C.
• New York
• Bangkok
• Beijing
• Jakarta
• Jerusalem
• Johannesburg
• Tokyo
• Port Moresby
• Kabul^[16]

Overseas correspondents[link]

• Sean Dorney - Pacific
• Liam Fox - Papua New Guinea
• Dominique Schwartz - New Zealand
• Sally Sara - Afghanistan
• Zoe Daniel - South East Asia
• Mark Willacy - North Asia
• Anne Barker - Middle East
• Matt Brown - Indonesia
• Stephen McDonell - China
• Philip Williams - Europe
• Rachael Brown - London
• Lisa Millar - London
• Norman Hermant - Moscow
• Michael Brissenden - Washington
• Jill Colgan - Washington
• Jane Cowan - North America
• Ginny Stein - Africa
• Peter Cave - Foreign Affairs Editor (Worldwide)

References[link]

External links[link]

Television in Australia portal

• ABC News 24
• ABC News 24 on Twitter
• ABC News 24 on Facebook
• ABC News 24's channel on YouTube

v t e Free-to-air television in Australia Free-to-air services Main channels ABC1 ABC2 ABC3 ABC4 Kids ABC News 24 (HD) Seven Network 7Two 7mate (HD) TV4ME Nine Network GO! GEM (HD) EXTRA Network Ten Eleven One (HD) SBS One (HD) SBS Two Main affiliates NBN Television Prime7 Southern Cross Television Southern Cross Ten WIN Television (Gold) Independent affiliates GWN7 Imparja Television Southern Cross Central WIN South Australia WIN Western Australia Joint venture affiliates Central Digital Television Tasmanian Digital Television Darwin Digital Television Mildura Digital Television West Digital Television Community television 31 Brisbane 44 Adelaide C31 Melbourne TVS (Sydney) Westlink (Regional & Remote WA) West TV (Perth) Resources Media Companies Australian Broadcasting Corporation Special Broadcasting Service Ten Network Holdings Seven West Media Nine Entertainment Co WIN Corporation Prime Media Group Southern Cross Austereo Articles Television in Australia Television broadcasting in Australia Digital terrestrial television in Australia (Freeview) Regional television in Australia Television ratings in Australia Community television in Australia Lists Defunct channels Timeline of Australian television List of Australian television callsigns List of Australian television series (long running) List of Australian television presenters List of Australian Digital channels Awards Logie Awards AACTA Awards Subscription television in Australia Television in Canada Television in New Zealand Television in the United Kingdom Television in the United States