History

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC, began on 17 May, 1932 under the Australian Broadcasting Commission Act. (Barr, 2000, p. 61) The ABCs legislation is now under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983, which changed under the Hawke government. (Cunningham, 2006, p. 48)

 

The first television broadcast in Australia was by TCN 9 on 16 September 1956, in Sydney; the ABC however, first broadcast on the 5 November 1956. (Flew and Gilmour, 2006, p. 177) Two weeks later, Melbourne audiences were watching the Olympic Games opening ceremony as it happened, while Sydney audiences had to wait until the following day to see the action. Unfortunately for the other states, television took much longer, with Darwin receiving television as late as 1971. (‘Historical Facts- Did you Know- 50 Years of ABC TV- ABC TV’, 2009, n.p.)

 

In the beginning, television programs were broadcast for a few hours each day, similarly to radio, which saw a variety of live sports broadcast. News programs and bulletins featured few moving images during the early days of television, while ‘Four Corners’ was created in the 1960s as the first current affairs show to be broadcast on the ABC. (‘Historical Facts- Did you Know- 50 Years of ABC TV- ABC TV’, 2009, n.p.) Four Corners is now the ABCs longest running television programme and the second longest running current affairs program in the world. (‘ABC TV Trivia- Did You Know- 50 Years of ABC TV- ABC TV’, 2009, n.p.) Colour television began on March 1, 1975 in Australia and 1993 saw the ABC start transmitting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

 

James Dibble presented the first ABC TV News bulletin on November 5, 1956. (‘Key Stories- 1956’, 2006, n.p.)  To begin with, only two minutes of film were allowed in a 15-minute news bulletin, as it was thought pictures would trivialise the stories.

 

Currently the ABC has bureaus in 13 countries overseas and reaches 98.19% of the Australian population through analogue television and 95.82% through digital television. ('Historical Facts- Did you Know- 50 years of ABC TV- ABC TV', 2009, n.p.)

 

Here are some useful links from the ABCs website:

 

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/50years/didyouknow/facts.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/corp/history/75years/timeline/

http://www.abc.net.au/50years/news/key_stories_nat/ksn_1956.htm