The end of ABC ME, and how Australia gave up on kids’ TV

[@benzj]

🌏 What do you think about these changes in Australian kids' TV? Do you think it will have an effect on the genre as a whole? Sound off in the comments! 👀For more on international kids' TV channels and the impacts they have, watch my video looking back at the closure of CITV in the UK: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWbThIxnj6xqprM ⚡ Support my videos and get exclusive extras: benzj.tk/join | 🟥 *Subscribe* for more insightful content: benzj.tk/sub

[@shaneharrisnj3484]

It's not a good call, especially when Bluey is on a 1999-04 SpongeBob-esque hot streak of good publicity, viewership, and exposure.. ABC Me even carried SuperNoobs and Detentionaire, and despite the latter being a better product, the viewership (and maybe interest, pre-Bluey) was certainly not there. At least ABC still has Media Watch and Planet America, so I can't complain too much.... Plus, I dig the light blue hexagons... It definitely has a Miles from Tomorrowland vibe...

[@phantomstrider]

I grew up watching ABC for Kids and it's really cool to learn the history behind it and how it has shifted since I was a kid. Thanks for making this. I never even realised the non-profit Australian Children's Television Foundation existed yet it was such a big part of my childhood. On a side note, let me know if you ever need someone to read Australian-accent quotes like here at 9:10 😄

[@AndrewHager02]

Man… it’s times like this, I wish there was something we could do to help kids TV stay afloat in the long run. First I’m hearing that PBS and the US Department of Education are at stake, now this. Edit: And now I’m just remembering that Teletoon’s gone and Nelvana is at stake, too. It’s a sad time for the international entertainment industry. There’s just gotta be something we can do to save children’s entertainment!!

[@i-is-eepy]

i didn't expect to see one of my go to youtubers here but what a nice surprise

[@Gloryzuki]

*Howdy, Strider! Glad to see you here.*

[@Musicradio77Network]

Australia’s ABC ME is now ABC Entertains where they are airing shows that were imported from the US, including “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” which is now showing on weekends which is a welcoming addition to the show’s lineup

[@skunkman9815]

Actually MLP FIM was a canadian show but it airs in America

[@Musicradio77Network]

@ Yes! It’s now airing in Australia on ABC Entertains (formerly ABC ME) on Saturday and Sunday mornings and on Thursday mornings.

[@aussiefurbymogwaifan6621]

This used to air on go

[@AussieSonicAndPersonaFan2007]

As Someone Who Grew Up With ABC3/ABC Me This Really Does Make Me Sad

[@AJ-xc4qe]

This era for kids media has been a fucking mess and the kids networks in general have been going on a slow downward spiral. Like how they’ve cancelled everything except the nostalgic stuff. The only explanation that makes sense to me about why Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network massacred most of their shows is because kids don’t watch cable anymore. And they believe that the only people left still watching them are millennials who grew out of the demographic who still talk about them. All three networks got rid of all the shows that those millennials wouldn’t care about (but I’m an adult millennial and I loved some of those shows) and brought back shows they loved when they were kids in the form of sequels. It’s why Bunk’d and Raven’s Home were the only live action shows that Disney Channel let end on their own terms and the only two “new” live action shows are also sequels: Wizards Beyond Waverly Place and Alice In The Palace. It’s why Adult Swim took up more and more of Cartoon Network’s schedule time and opens every “night” with Checkered Past, a block of reruns of Cartoon Network classics. Sure, there are a couple actual original shows from all networks combined that are in production, but who’s to say that even they don’t also get shunted to make room for sequel shows? I’m just saying, good luck Rock, Paper, Scissors fans. Cuz it’s the only wholly original non franchise show that Nickelodeon has now that people seem to like. Yeah, screw you, Tyler Perry. I want The Bureau of Magical Things back so bad! Maybe it will when it’s nostalgic enough🤦🏿‍♂️

[@shaneharrisnj3484]

Agreed. This is why I kept telling my friends and even my subscribers to either stream any niche cartoon on Tubi, Pluto, or use a DVD.... Sure, some of the cartoons that I, Benzie, and Jordan Fringe have talked about are not famous or well-known, but they deserve a chance.... DN Ace on Tubi, Detentionaire on Pluto, or some old Atomic Betty DVD from Warner... Whatever you crave, you are going to have to dig deep. Heck, it is hard enough for me to watch the more niche stuff on the English-language Primo TV so I can watch Code Lyoko and Street Football Season 4 because the channel is in the thousands (1721 on Xfinity in Philadelphia, PA/Vineland, NJ)

[@RabidLeroy]

We all know plenty of friends Down Under who grew up on ABC Kids, and in turn ABC 3 and ABC ME, and it shows. While Australia has a good history with kids tv, even with Bluey as peak family entertainment (appeals both to the very young as well as parents), it’s a major gut punch for such a demise like this. Canada likewise also is facing the demise of Corus/Nelvana, so it hurts a lot.

[@ThompsonSteamtrain]

It’s really disappointing that the ABC iview removed the French animated series Droners on their streaming platform.

[@BhiPho]

i basically remember abc3 (abc me) back then it's sad to see it go away

[@KungEMuller]

Wow! Linear TV is taking a major dive all over the world right now. Yikes!

[@KungEMuller]

@@shaneharrisnj3484 Yeah, but Tubi and Pluto are the only affordable streaming services around. Every other streaming service in the world is just plain expensive.

[@jacobwiggle3681]

I never grew up with ABC for Kids, because I'm American. But, I just hope that they don't shut down that channel.

[@smophie6260]

As a Australian I can assure you I deeply doubt they’d cause any problems to that sector of their network, abc for kids here is pretty much what pbs kids/ nick jr is for yall over there. A national staple, if anything were to happen I can tell you national outrage would ensue

[@ChrisTheMagical12]

OH THAT’S WHERE ABC ME WENT 🥲🔫

[@YakkoWarnerTower]

Bluey is BIG down in Australia, and it's kind of the SpongeBob, Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes or heck even Animanicas for the ABC

[@squidwardsbussy]

you really tried to sneak in animanicas lol

[@ThompsonSteamtrain]

ABC3 was my childhood -Benjamin frewen

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

Another brilliant video from you! Excellent work!

[@kootunesscrewy]

Well that sucks... I blame streaming.

[@KirbenAU]

Actually Pay-TV was the real problem, it all went downhill from there. The government added protection for sports on (free to air) TV, and no protection for children's programming. The first few years were not too bad, but over time more and more content moved to Pay-TV only, and too bad if you couldn't afford it... and unlike other countries paying for Pay-TV wasn't common at the time

[@YakkoWarnerTower]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Australian ABC has a Disney+ styled streaming service.

[@redeye_]

@@YakkoWarnerTower iview has existed for a long while

[@Algebruh2407]

@@YakkoWarnerTower ABC's streaming platform Iview has existed since 2008, and has been on mobile and TV platforms for nearly a decade and a half now. Though they can't paywall it like Disney+ because it is government funded and people would be pissed if it did.

[@marxmatter]

didn't even realize ME shut down till i saw this video LOL personally it was always abc 3 to me, rip.

[@KirbenAU]

You don't understand the situation at all, I'm in Australia, and tracked the cartoon side of (free to air) TV for almost 20 years, it already died long ago. You can't compare us to other countries at all, you wouldn't believe how much we missed from overseas. The Australian local industry only cares about their funding and quotas, they never cared about quality. Australian cartoon series always got the best timeslots in the mornings, and the commercial networks were forced to show them. You wouldn't believe the amount of repeats that most Australian cartoon series were given (as they bounced from channel to channel), but people still didn't watch them. They almost never offered any Australian or cultural elements, the majority were just cheap productions for the free funding. The ABC never had enough new content for two channels, the ABC ME was a wasteland of repeats, with a huge amount of cheap infotainment, and even a stack of reality TV. Did you know the ABC focused funding on buying older Australian content, rather than more new quality content from overseas? Did you know the ABC offered half a dozen new series online only, when the ABC ME first started? which virtually no one could watch, and was never actually shown on TV. Did you know the ABC ME showed Naruto season 1 again (after been shown on Cheez TV long ago), only to never show anymore? felt more like an advertisement for DVDs/streaming. Did you know the ABC would frequently mix new content and repeat so much, you would struggle to even see the new episodes? I still remember the struggle to end see the end of Skyland. We missed out on a massive amount of quality content from overseas for many many years, because of the priority for local garbage content, but the local industry didn't care about that. Nine was showing less and less new content on Kids WB on weekends, and Saturday Disney was barely showing any new content either, and nothing from overseas was ever shown on weekdays. Nine was actually showing cartoon series (Justice League, Static Shock) in the middle of the night at one stage, with ads you wouldn't want any child ever seeing. I still have not even seen Static Shock season 2 onwards, as there is no legal option available locally. The start of the digital multi channels were actually that last brief golden age we got, Nine was finally able to show all the content from Warner Bros. they had been holding back for years, and we finally got to see the rest of the cartoon series from Jetix on Seven HD. This wasn't a case of people losing access at all, but finally getting some real variety for a brief time (until rights expired). The Disney contract with Seven, and Warner contract with Nine expired a few years later, then Toasted TV died, and we were left with nothing decent at all. Gravity Falls was the last Disney cartoon shown, and you wouldn't believe how long it took to get the final episodes. Most of the newer cartoon series from Warner Bros were just skipped over again too, so we never even saw them. The Australian industry can rot in hell for all I care, they have literally watched all quality drain away from children's programming for years, only to constantly complain when their funding and quotas are effected. We were literally left with nothing decent at all to watch for years, but it was always about funding them...

[@KirbenAU]

To give an idea of what is was like in older days on ABC in particular, you would have Sesame Street shown, then Play School, with programming for older children from 4:30 to 6:00 PM, offering a variety of local content and overseas, which continued until Rollercoaster eventually ended. The ABC's focus on funding older Australian content (repeats, with local industry crying for even more!) started during Rollercoaster, and got worse and worse as the ABC3 started, to the point there was barely any new content on the entire channel at all. Meanwhile an excellent series like Prisoner Zero, which was produced completely in Australia (very rare not to be a co-production), didn't even get a 2nd season..... Also I will note, for every Bluey, there are half a dozen poor Australian cartoon series, and the live action side wasn't much better. I would be struggling to find 10 Australian series overall, that I could state are even worth still watching. I will note that over rated series like Round the Twist and Spellbinder were products of their time, and have really aged really poorly (take off the nostalgia glasses!), unlike the Paul Jennings books which the former was based on for first two seasons only. Flying Bark tried to add on-going elements to their series, starting way back with Blinky Bill, and Flipper, but they were aimed solely at a young audience. They managed to finally get the formula right later on (Legend of Enyo), but it has been all downhill since, with generic series and more poor remakes.... Media World managed one decent series (The Silver Brumby), but then went downhill again. I thought Dogstar was really bad, until I saw the earlier work (New Adventures of Ocean Girl), which I would rate as one of the worst Australian cartoon series ever. SLR Productions only decent series was Deadly, due to been based off the Paul Jennings books. I have not seen any decent original content from them, that goes beyond generic. A Stark Production is the perfect example of why there never should have been any Australian requirements at all. Their Santa's Apprentice movie makes a absolute mockery of the original SantApprentice series from France, and The Deep should have ended long ago, with the sheer amount of fillers each season, horrible villains, and wasted potential (constantly telling, rather than showing, no attempt at real world building) Moody Street Kids isn't even worth mentioning, outside their work on Transformers: Rescue bots. I think that covers all the major companies left in Australia, and shows exactly what forced funding causes, quality wise.

[@KirbenAU]

Its even worse than I thought, the ABC started licensing series from Warner Bros for iview, and it was bad enough they were already licensing all the DreamWorks animation spin-offs. If that isn't a conflict of interest for a public broadcaster, than I don't know what would be. It looks like the ABC will completely fail to even offer any unique cartoon series in the future. If they wanted a mystery series, they could have licensed Famous 5: On the Case or Geronimo Stilton. If they wanted another series related to recent movie, The Garfield Show would have been perfect. Believe or not, none of the series I mentioned above, have ever been show on (free to air) TV.

[@aussiefurbymogwaifan6621]

The quotas are why we mostly get trash reality tv

[@aussiefurbymogwaifan6621]

​@KirbenAU why had round the twist aged poorly??

[@KirbenAU]

@@aussiefurbymogwaifan6621 Actually when the ABC3 first started, the reality TV series were mainly from overseas.

[@MrWarners14]

I’d argue the landscape of Australian TV, let alone worldwide has mostly evolved to streaming. People have a way to choose what they wanna watch and linear TV has become very outdated. I do think reality TV has reached a shocking low (even when it’s inexplicably popular) and just isn’t appropriate for a lot of viewers. ABC iView feels like an evolution of the older channels. I feel like there isn’t any real justification for the older TV channels. They don’t make any sense in a truly digital world. Cable isn’t even logical either. We really are living in a future where TV isn’t the best-all-end-all. It’s Indie Animation and streaming that opened more possibilities.

[@KirbenAU]

The problem is streaming is just as bad in Australia, especially on the cartoon side: Very limited amount of content available, with often only random seasons available, or random seasons missing. On Disney+ we had long waits for seasons to end, to even see new episodes of Amphibia and Owl House, with no other options to see them (Disney Channel closed). And they wonder why piracy continues to get worse and worse... On Binge (No HBO Max locally) almost all the cartoon series from Warner Bros have a channel logo at start, and a large watermark in the middle on the screen! We are literally getting the cable TV masters on streaming, and having to pay for it... Then you have numerous cartoon series in the wrong aspect ratio, due to using older masters, and they can't even be bothered to fix. Good luck trying to find any older cartoon series, more cartoons / seasons get removed over time, than added. And the prices continue to get higher and higher...

[@MrWarners14]

@@KirbenAU I completely agree with you with all of this. The pricing is nonsensical and there are genuine criticisms that have to be addressed. Streaming may be flawed but it’d still in its infancy. It’s still got plenty of room to improve.

[@Rosiepunzel]

Not fully related. But I hate how The Wiggles weren’t brought up at the beginning of the video. Bluey really bugs me because everyone talks about it. But people seem to have forgotten how huge The Wiggles were and still are even though the people behind Bluey clearly have a lot of respect and actually acknowledge The Wiggles for what they did. I enjoy Bluey. But I’ll never forgive it.

[@markysharkboy0261]

ABC3 has to be one of the most nostalgic elements of my childhood alongside Channel GO! and Channel 11. 😌 What I really don’t understand why they couldn’t add the ABC Family channel on channel 23 like they did with ABC3/ABC ME which is pretty much the same thing and then place ABC Entertains right after ABC Kids finishes for the day, which is very illogical if you ask me. 😕🤷‍♂️ Well, tbf kids are not really watching broadcast TV in this day and age but rather watching streaming content including KZbin. (which may not have the best content for kids) I do agree kids deserve to experience good shows as Bluey is the closest thing they’d probably ever had in my opinion.

[@5fifty]

The main kids channel in Aus (ABC Kids, which features Bluey) is still going, ABC Me was the next step up, for older kids while ABC Kids was younger. It became ABC Entertains, which has some of the shows from ABC Me on it, with some imported kids shows, and some shows targeted towards adults, that some children may have an interest in. ABC Entertains focuses more on the whole family rather than the kids like ABC Me did.

[@CatThatIsHere]

I grew up with ABC Kids in the 2010s and I loved Play School and Mister Maker Around the World. I stopped liking ABC's broadcasting when I was the age of ME, as I wasn't interested in the stuff that was airing. I eventually started loving Good Game Spawn Point and Doctor Who, but those were the only things I ever watched on it.

[@darkangel2347]

Australian made TV of all types has been under extreme presssure since the 1970’s. Australia to this day has never made a good version of Sesame Street. And I’ll give a personal account too. In May 1977, when I was in Year 2 at primary school, my parents were attending a parent-teacher interview and I was walking the corridors of the school when I heard a teacher say to a parent on how US culture, especially Sesame Street and Disney was corrupting the minds of her students.

[@kirbykirbykirby.]

*OH GOD NO!!!* 😱😭😰

[@MatchSkyzi]

and here i thought british kids tv was dead

[@Kaiden-q2q]

Abc me is on early morning to about 10 to 11 o’clock and then is abc entertains

[@Sydney_Angelyt]

glad i grew up with ABC 3 and it's originals everyone remember trip for biscuits? lost media alongside many other shorts made by the channel cast

[@nicksullivan4994]

I remember When ABC Family was FOX Family Channel!❤️📺🎶👍🏻

[@smophie6260]

I’m pretty sure he meant the Australian counterpart

[@BasTechAus]

As a Australian, I know ABC Family (Australia) was ABC TV Plus

[@AWittySenpai]

I hate free to air tv but abc 3/me i liked only because they showed animation some i never heard of

[@racheljackson4428]

I Grew Up watching ABC for Kids and Bananas in Pyjamas!

[@Chancherpancher]

Welp, Australian Kids TV is doomed.

[@tomsmart7908]

It’s my birthday today

[@jaylenmorales3861]

You do a good Australian accent.

[@lucymorrison]

Australian children’s TV died with ABC3.

[@JaviSocas2My2ndChannel]

Does this mean Bluey is going to be canceled before the Bluey Movie comes out in 2027? #StandwithAnimation

[@Musicradio77Network]

“Bluey” is on Disney+.

[@JaviSocas2My2ndChannel]

@Musicradio77Network But for how long before it becomes lost media?

[@glassowlie]

No. Bluey is also owned by BBC Studios, so Bluey is fine.

[@jukesy1992]

Bluey was always a joint partnership between Ludo Studio, the BBC, and I am now guessing Disney. It is also a very lucrative franchise for the BBC as well, so even if it's cancelled by ABC it might find a new home at the BBC itself. Joe Brum worked on Charley and Lola, another UK TV show, so he's familiar with the UK landscape, or was.

[@5fifty]

Bluey is completely safe, it mainly streams on the other kids channel, ABC Kids. ABC Me was mainly aimed at kids not yet old enough for other channels, but too old for ABC Kids.