ABC Me (stylised as ABC ME) is an Australian
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
children's free-to-air television channel owned by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
. It was officially launched by
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
on 4 December 2009 as ABC3.
History
In September 2009, the
Australian government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...
announced a proposal to launch a new digital-only children's channel, ABC3.
A new ABC channel appeared on television receivers in 2008, as a placeholder for the future ABC3 channel. ABC3 was considered by the
Australia 2020 Summit
The Australia 2020 Summit was a convention, referred to in Australian media as a summit, which was held over 18-19 April 2008 at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, aiming to "help shape a long-term strategy for the nation's future". Announ ...
and given as one of the recommendations to the Government. In April 2009, the Government's official response to the Summit approved the idea, and in the 2009–10 Commonwealth Budget $67 million was allocated towards ABC3 as part of the Government's $167 million funding increase to the ABC.
On 18 June 2009, the corporation began its first public ABC3 campaign to scout for new hosting talent. On 22 October 2009, eight presenters were announced.
Amberley Lobo
Amberley "Ambo" Lobo (born 30 October 1990) is an Australian television presenter best known for her role as a host on Australian children's television program '' Studio 3'', which was on ABC 3.
Early life
Lobo was born in Perth, Western Au ...
and
Kayne Tremills
Kayne Tremills (born 23 January 1987) is an Australian television presenter best known for his role as a host on Australian children's television programme Studio 3, which was broadcast on ABC3.
Career
In 2009, the ABC launched a nationwide c ...
would host ''
Studio 3
System 3 Software Limited (known as System 3 Software Ltd. until 1991 and Studio 3 Interactive Entertainment Ltd. from 1999 to 2003) is a British independent video game developer and publisher founded in 1982 by Mark Cale.
They created such ...
'', with Ben Crawley as a roving reporter, he later joined the show What Do You Know? alongside Dr Rhythm.
Scott Tweedie
Scott may refer to:
Places Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sask ...
would host ''
Prank Patrol'', while Hannah Wang and Mitch Tomlinson were named as co-hosts of ''Rush TV'' and
Stephanie Bendixsen
Stephanie Claire Bendixsen (born 31 March 1985) is an Australian video game critic, author, and is best known as one of the former presenters of the video game television programs '' Good Game'' and '' Good Game: Spawn Point'', where she went by ...
and
Steven O'Donnell were hosts of ''
Good Game: Spawn Point'', made for younger gamers, a spin-off of the
ABC2
ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of general entertainment pr ...
TV series ''
Good Game'', made for older gamers.
On 4 December 2009 at 5pm, the hour-long ''Countdown to 3'' special was broadcast on the channel and was simulcast on
ABC1
ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel an ...
. It featured special performances from Australian artists
Cassie Davis
Cassie Davis (born 1987) is an Australian singer and songwriter from Perth. Her debut album, '' Differently,'' was released in 2009.
Biography
Davis was born in Gnangara, Western Australia, the second child of a family of four. Her father, ...
and
Short Stack
Short Stack are an Australian pop punk band. The band consists of members Shaun Diviney (lead vocals, guitar), Andy Clemmensen (bass, backing vocals) and Bradie Webb (drums). Shannon Hotchkins was also a member of Short Stack before any song was ...
, an introduction to various ABC3 presenters and shows and the station's launch around 6pm by then-
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
.
In 2011, James Elmer joined as co-host of ''Studio 3'' along with Kayne and Amberley. On 4 December 2011, the winners from the MeOn3 contest were revealed as Alfie Gledhill and Olivia Phyland. On 14 September 2012, Alfie left ''Studio 3'' to pursue acting dreams. In October 2012, Comedian Khaled Khalafala joined ''Studio 3'', and stayed with the crew until early 2013 before leaving. In March 2013 the Janitor (Dave Cartel) and Bubbles the goldfish supposedly left ''Studio 3'' for Venezuela, with Bubbles being replaced with a new goldfish called Alexis. Tim Matthews, Grace Koh and Ivy Latimer later joined James and Liv in June 2014 after winning ''The 3 Factor'' competition.
In August 2016, it was announced that ABC3 would rebrand as ABC ME on 19 September 2016. The rebranded channel is reported to be "designed to reflect and celebrate the lives, interests and diversity of young Australians" and will increase its focus to primary school children. To mark the rebrand, ABC ME teamed up with 16-year-old Australian singer Angel Tairua to record a new song ''Unique (Me2U)'' to celebrate the launch of ABC ME.
In June 2020, many of the ABC Me staff located in Melbourne lost their jobs after the redundancies at the ABC were announced, include the presenters of the channel at the time; Pip Rasmussen, Drew Parker and Ava Madon.
The network continued to be broadcast without presenters.
Management
ABC ME is operated by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
part of ABC Television. Overall strategic responsibility for all of the ABC's domestic services rests with the Director of Television,
David Anderson (since 2017). The direction of ABC ME itself rests with
Michael Carrington the current Head of Children's and Education responsible for commissioning all ABC ME content across television, online, and
iview IView or iView may refer to:
* ABC iview, a video on demand and catch up TV service run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* IrfanView, an image viewer, editor, organiser and converter program
* iView Media IView or iView may refer to:
* A ...
.
Programming
The channel's programming runs from 6:00 am to around 10:30 pm everyday, and targets the 7-18-year-old age group. During the station's off hours, the station displays a signpost saying "returns at 6:00 am" with audio from the digital radio station
ABC Jazz
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Televisio ...
before reopening again the next day. It broadcasts a range of genres, including comedy, drama, music, animation, extreme sports, wildlife and news-based programmes.
The channel aims to feature at least 50% Australian-produced content.
''News To Me'' was a show that was hosted by the channel's presenters, which premiered on Monday 19 September 2016 at 5:10 pm and aired its last episode on New Year's Eve 2018. It was replaced with a new show called Stacked, airing a new episode every weekday at 4:25 pm and is produced by the in-house Children's production team, alongside ''
Good Game: Spawn Point'', and ''Let's Go''. Other programs which air on the channel include the historical drama ''
My Place'', sitcom ''
Mal.com'', animation series ''
Little J & Big Cuz'', a news and current affairs show produced by the team from ''
Behind the News
''Behind the News'' (frequently abbreviated as ''BtN'') is a long-running news program broadcast on Australia's ABC TV made in Adelaide and aimed at school-aged children (8–13 years of age). ''BtN'' is aimed at upper primary and lower second ...
'' (the longest running program on ABC ME) and a sketch comedy ''
You're Skitting Me
In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
History
''You'' comes from the Proto- ...
''.
ABC3 created ''Pet Superstars'' which also aired on
ABC 4 Kids
ABC Kids is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's part-time channel, broadcasting shows between the hours of 5am and 7:30pm for children under 6 years old in each local Australian channel. It shares the same bandwidth as ABC TV Plus which b ...
.
Program playout for ABC ME is controlled from
ABQ
ABC Television in Brisbane comprises national programming on the ABC television network in or from Brisbane, Queensland which broadcasts on a number of channels under the ABC call sign. There is some local programming from the Brisbane studio ...
, the ABC's Brisbane station via the ABC's playout facility, MediaHub. Programmes such as ''
Studio 3
System 3 Software Limited (known as System 3 Software Ltd. until 1991 and Studio 3 Interactive Entertainment Ltd. from 1999 to 2003) is a British independent video game developer and publisher founded in 1982 by Mark Cale.
They created such ...
'' and ''
Prank Patrol'' were filmed and produced at
ABV
Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...
in Melbourne.
Unlike commercial channels, ABC ME is not constrained by a local content quota
and portions of its programming are sourced from foreign broadcasters such as
CBBC
CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
(as Children's BBC),
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
,
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
, and
Yoopa
Yoopa (stylized YOOPA) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by Groupe TVA, a division of Quebecor Media. Initially aimed at preschoolers, Yoopa now broadcasts programming targeted toward children, aged 2–11.
A magazine for p ...
. In 2017, ABC Me became an associate member of the EBU and earned the contract from SBS and Blink TV to start to select participants and it first broadcast the
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was the fifteenth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It took place on 26 November 2017 at th ...
as well as the
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the sixteenth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the Belarusian Television and Radio Company (BTRC) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It took place in the Bela ...
and
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the seventeenth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by Telewizja Polska (TVP) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was held on 24 November 2019, at the Gliwice Ar ...
.
Presenters
*
Stephanie "Hex" Bendixsen (2009–2016)
* Dave Cartel ("The Janitor") (2009–2013)
* Ben Crawley (2009–2011)
* Gemma "Gem" Driscoll (2018–present)
*
Amberley Lobo
Amberley "Ambo" Lobo (born 30 October 1990) is an Australian television presenter best known for her role as a host on Australian children's television program '' Studio 3'', which was on ABC 3.
Early life
Lobo was born in Perth, Western Au ...
(2009–2015)
* Ava Madon (2019–2020)
*
Steven "Bajo" O'Donnell (2009–2017)
* Drew Parker (2019–2020)
* Pip Rasmussen (2016–2020)
* Mitch Tomlinson (2009–2012)
*
Kayne Tremills
Kayne Tremills (born 23 January 1987) is an Australian television presenter best known for his role as a host on Australian children's television programme Studio 3, which was broadcast on ABC3.
Career
In 2009, the ABC launched a nationwide c ...
(2009–2015)
*
Scott Tweedie
Scott may refer to:
Places Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sask ...
(2009–2013)
* Hannah Wang (2009–2012)
* Gus "Goose" Ronald (2011–2018)
* James Elmer (2011–2016)
* Alfie Gledhill (2011–2012)
* Olivia Phyland (2011–2015)
* Khaled Khalafalla (2012–2013)
* Grace Koh (2014–2018, 2020)
*
Ivy Latimer
Ivy Latimer (born 1 December 1994) is an Australian actor best known for portraying the mermaid Nixie on the television series '' Mako: Island of Secrets''.
Early life and education
Latimer was born on 1 December 1994 in Ventura, California, ...
(2014–2015)
* Tim Matthews (2014–2017)
* Lawrence Gunatilaka (2018–2019)
* Dallas Reedman (2018–2019)
* Ilai Swindells (2018)
* Jael Wena (2019)
* William Yates (2019–2020)
* Angharad "Rad" Yeo (2017–present)
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:ABC Me
Australian Broadcasting Corporation television
Digital terrestrial television in Australia
English-language television stations in Australia
Television channels and stations established in 2009
Commercial-free television networks in Australia
Children's television networks
Children's television channels in Australia
2009 establishments in Australia