ABC Kids is the main children's television channel in Australia. Operating from 05:00-19:30 local times, the channel is dedicated to broadcasting for the Under 7s category. ABC Kids is owned, as the name suggests, by The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and all programmes which are shown on television can be found online on ABC iview, the streaming platform for ABC as a whole. Bluey airs on the channel, and is the most popular show of any ABC programme, with just shy of 2 billion views in 2022 for this show alone.[1]
History of the Channel[]
Like most channels around the world, children's television in Australia existed as a block for a few hours a day on the main channels. In 1991, this was organised into a daily block with offering for pre-schoolers and young children. This time slot was known as ABC For Kids, and stayed this way until 2001, when the service was rebranded as ABC Kids (which now included the ABC logo with its iconic Lissajous Curve, compared to the blocks of the previous logo) and started offering programming for older children as well as an increase in broadcasts for younger children.
Due to the vast distances in Australia, it was an issue to have one service broadcast across the continent at the same time. However, ABC Kids was the first channel to achieve digital multichannel transmission (on its now iconic channel number 22) for ABC, beginning transmission on 7 August 2001 from Canberra. No additional funding was requested by the broadcaster, hoping that the success of the channel would increase funding in its own right. Programming ran from 6:00-18:00, a total of twelve hours, with the remaining twelve hours being operated by an older children's/young adults channel (Fly TV).
The uptake of Digital Television in Australia was slow, however, and the digital channel was cut, alongside FlyTV on 30 June 2003, as the low viewership numbers compared to cost of operations would save AU$25m (approximately $40m in 2023 money). However, the regular broadcasting block on the main channels was kept untouched, with younger viewing for FlyTV integrated into the block also.
In February 2009, it was decided that two blocks would run for children's television instead of one, with ABC For Kids running on Channel ABC1 from 08:00-11:00 and 14:55-16:00, these blocks would later be renamed as ABC1 For Kids. Additionally, ABC For Kids On 2 would feature children's programming all day until 18:00, which displaced some ABC2 programmes onto other channels, and the logo from the 1990s was reused.
This did not last long, as in 2011, all children programming moved from the main channel and divided between ABC3 (a new logo for the channel being released at the same time) and the dedicated ABC 4 Kids channel. ABC For Kids On 2 remained on ABC2, but rebranded as simply ABC 4 Kids and refocused as part-time for preschoolers which shared the same bandwidth of ABC 2, with the segment operating only from 06:00-19:00.
The channel itself was rescheduled to begin daily transmissions at 05:00 compared to the norm of 06:00 on 7 July 2014. The channel name changed from ABC For Kids to ABC Kids and a new logo was released on 2 March 2015[2]. As sister channel ABC Comedy recieved a reband on 4th December 2017, the finishing of transmissions on ABC Kids continued for another 30 minutes ending at 19:30 daily. ABC tried to cut this back to 18:30[1][3] on 1 January 2023, but this was extremely unpopular[4] and moved scheduling to finish at 19:00 instead 6 February[5], but reverted back to the original finish time of 19:30 on 13 February 2023 due to the complaints.[6][7]
Bluey on ABC Kids[]
Bluey is produced in Queensland, the second largest state in Australia, in the state capital of Brisbane, so it was natural that Bluey would first air on ABC Kids before other channels. The channel was the first in the world to begin showing the show on 1 October 2018. The show has been extremely popular for ABC Kids, ABC iview and ABC on the whole, being the most watched show in the entire country, let alone for pre-schoolers[1]. Bluey is the only Logie award winning show to air on ABC Kids, winning both of it's two consecutive nominations in 2019 & 2022 (the 2020 and 2021 awards being cancelled).
As of 2023, ABC Kids airs Bluey three times a day on weekdays, with the load order of episodes corresponding to the release of which episode aired first (Season 1 episode 1-52, then Season 2 episode 1 and so on) minus seasonal specials. The first airing of the day is at 08:03, with an episode much later at 18:21 and the last programme an hour later at 19:20. On weekends, however, this changes to having two episodes playing back-to-back at 08:03 and 08:11 (also being determined by episode load order), followed by an additional episode at 11:10 and the final two episodes airing the same time as on weekdays (18:21 and 19:20) later on. Bluey is the last show to air on daily programming each day, before the channel returns to airing at 05:00 the following morning. Additionally, sister channel ABC ME (which targets the 7-18 demographic of Australians) runs a single episode of Bluey daily at around 16:15 on weekdays, 16:20 on Sundays and 16:25 Saturdays, the episodes shown running in chronological order.
From 20th September to 1st October 2021, the channel ran Bluey's Most Wanted. On 5th November 2022, it ran The Best of Bandit, which was followed a week later by Chilli's Greatest Hits, then Bingo's best hits and concluding on 2nd December 2022 with For Real Life. The Best of Bluey. On 19th November 2023, the channel aired Blueyfest, an event which had fans pre-select their favourite 100 episodes and aired in order throughout the day.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Bluey New Episode October 2020 (ABC Kids Australia YouTube Channel Banner).jpg (34 KB)")
External links[]
- ABC Kids at Wikipedia
See Also[]
Bluey TV Channels list
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| ABC Kids | Disney Channel | Disney Jr. | CBeebies | BBC | Rai Yoyo | France 5 |Disney Channel Deutschland| RTÉjr | Azteca 7 | Digitoon | TV Cultura | NTV | RÚV2 | TV5 |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://tvtonight.com.au/2022/12/multichannel-survey-2022-abc-kids-abc-tv-plus-abc-me-abc-news.html
- ↑ https://campaignbrief.com/abc-kids-unveils-new-brand-ide/
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/173407216019501/posts/-fancy-an-earlier-bedtime-parents-from-1-january-2023-abc-kids-on-channel-22-wil/6419476054745888/
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/173407216019501/posts/-fancy-an-earlier-bedtime-parents-from-1-january-2023-abc-kids-on-channel-22-wil/6419476054745888/
- ↑ https://about.abc.net.au/statements/abc-kids-abc-tv-plus-programming/
- ↑ https://about.abc.net.au/statements/abc-kids-programming/
- ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2023/02/weve-listened-to-the-audience-feedback-abc-backflips-on-kids-programming-time.html