Australia gets free-to-air 24-hour TV news
Last Updated: Thursday, July 22, 2010 | 1:23 PM ET
CBC News
Australia's public broadcaster has launched a 24-hour news channel that is the first free-to-air news channel in the country.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. launched its ABC News 24 service in Sydney on Wednesday evening.
It is expected to provide stiff competition to existing cable news channel Sky, which is jointly owned by PBL Media, Seven Media Group and Rupert Murdoch's Sky Broadcasting.
News 24's managing director Mark Scott said the news channel is a natural extension of ABC's news services, which include a website, TV and radio news available across Australia.
"There should be a 24/7 news channel that is on free-to-air television and a commitment that given our history, given our experience, given our resources, given our integrity, given our independence, that that free-to-air news channel should be delivered to our audiences by the ABC," he said.
ABC News director Kate Torney said the new service would meet the changing expectations of audiences.
"Audiences now expect to see news when it happens and they also expect to be able to tap into news when it suits them," she said.
The service, to feature existing ABC programs and rolling coverage of breaking news, is being funded through production savings, not new public money, she said.
The ABC, which has 60 newsrooms in Australia and 12 international bureaus, plans to keep the service commercial-free.
The launch has drawn criticism from Sky News chief Angelos Frangopoulos who said in January that ABC News 24 would drain funding from the ABC's existing services.
"What we have now is a channel at substantial cost to taxpayers that will duplicate services already available," he said.
With files from the Australian Broadcasting Corp.Share Tools
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