ABC2

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ABC2
Launched	March 7, 2005
Owned by	Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Slogan	"More Choice, More Often"
Replaced	ABC Kids Channel Fly TV
Website	abc.net.au/abc2
Availability
Terrestrial
SD Digital	Channel 21
Satellite
Foxtel Digital	Channel 126
Austar Digital	Channel 126
Cable
Foxtel Digital	Channel 126
Optus Digital	Channel 126

This Australian channel is not related to ABC1 in the United Kingdom.

For other uses, see ABC2 (disambiguation).

ABC2 is an ABC television channel available to digital television viewers in Australia. Launched on March 7, 2005, with the first program beginning at 6:25am, the channel broadcasts time-shifted repeats from ABC TV and new content, notably children's programs, magazine shows, and local sport. Its motto is "More choice, more often."

Genre restrictions imposed by the Australian government on digital multichanneling were lifted along with the media ownership laws passed through Parliament on October 18 2006. ABC2 was previously limited in the subjects it could cover. They were not allowed to show comedy, drama, national news/sport or entertainment. However, it is speculated that in early 2007, ABC2 will premiere new programs that were previously restricted, and also television programs from the ABC archives. [1]

1 Programming
- 1.1 News & Current Affairs
- 1.2 Sport on ABC2
2 Identity
3 Logos
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Programming

ABC2 runs many exclusive, archival, and time-shifted programming - most notably, Good Game, Dig TV, and JTV XL. The bulk of programming on ABC2 consists of time-shifted and archival television shows that originally air on ABC TV. ABC TV programs including At The Movies, The Chaser's War on Everything, The New Inventors, The Glass House, Gardening Australia, Catalyst, Second Opinion, Beat The Chef, Collectors, How the Quest Was Won, are timeshifted onto ABC2 allowing for increased viewership.

ABC2 also airs many exclusive Entertainment, Music, Comedy and Documentary series including Good Game, Short & Curly, Dig TV, JTV XL, Monkey Dust, Pacific Stories, Late Night Legends, and Chaser News Alerts. Many exclusive programs that air on ABC2 are produced inexpensively, and are targeted at a young adult audience.

Between 10am - 3pm weekdays, 9am - midday Saturday and 2.30pm - 4.00pm Sundays, ABC2 broadcasts ABC Kids and Rollercoaster. This allows for viewers to view uninterrupted childrens programming for 13 hours each day, as ABC TV airs childrens programming from 6am-10am, and 3pm-6pm each day. Most childrens programming is time-shifted and archival programming, however exclusive childrens programming such as The Tribe, The New Captain Scarlet, and 11 Somerset, are also broadcasted.

Late Night programming on ABC2 consists mainly of timeshifted ABC2 programming, and archival programming such as Studio 22, and Late Night Legends.

[edit] News & Current Affairs

ABC2 features an updated news bulletin at exactly every hour. This was adopted so that operation of the channel could be completely automated, without the complication of dealing with variable length live news broadcasts. ABC2 also airs exclusive news broadcasts that are targeted at specific genres - for instance, ABC Sports News, ABC Business News, and Rural Watch.

Australia Wide is ABC2's major news bulletin aimed at broadcasting news related to regional Australia. The program airs at 5:00pm and 8:00pm each weekday, and also available via Video On Demand on ABC Online. Each weekday Australia Wide airs different segments - Monday: Video Lives, Tuesday: Gen Next, Wednesday: Earth Works, Thursday: Arts About, Friday: Outta Here.

Hemispheres, a news and current affairs program, co-produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), focuses on foreign events and international issues. The program, which originally aired on Australia Network, is broadcasted every week on ABC2.

Flagship ABC TV News & Current Affair programs are also timeshifted on ABC2. These include Lateline, Lateline Business, Australian Story, 4 Corners, Foreign Correspondent, and Behind The News.

All eight editions of Stateline - including the NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, and NT editions, air back-to-back in thier respective order every Saturday and Sunday afternoon on ABC2. This allows for all Australian's to view the major issues regarding all states and territories news.

[edit] Sport on ABC2

ABC2 broadcasts many sport - including the NSWRU, QRL, VFL, SANFL, WAFL, NTFL and the WNBL. Regional sport is mainly shown on ABC2, due to the previous genre restictions, which disallowed ABC2 from showing mainstream sport.

Late Night Legends, an exclusive program on ABC2, also shows major sporting events from the ABC archives. The program is hosted by Lex Marinos, who has worked extensively in public, on radio, television and on stage.

Australian Womens Netball is shown live on ABC2 every week in primetime. This is the first time that Netball has been shown live on Australian Free-To-Air Television.

[edit] Identity

The "Big 2"

ABC Kids on ABC2

The channel's current idents were produced by Amanda Dennis and have been used since July 2006. Amanda Dennis is best known for her work on designing Australia Wide, and Good Game. ABC2's identity is based on the "Big 2", which has gone through many transformations over the years.

On July 29 2006 ABC2 relaunched it's identity package. This was shortly followed by ABC2's official website relaunching as well. Although the "Big 2" remains, the designs now follow a Green and Blue theme.

All promos feature the "Big 2" placed in famous, and iconic Australian landscapes. These include the Sydney Harbour, and the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. The "Big 2" is somewhat similar to BBC2's onair mascot, in design.

ABC2's logo was modified for the promotion of the channels launch, and for various sporting events. One of the most noticable versions of the ABC2 logo was when the channel launched, where the logo appeared under-construction. Also during the promotion of Australians Womens Netball the ABC2 logo is modified featuring the sport's colours.

ABC Kids, on ABC2, also carries a unique brand. The identity features the "Big 2" as a green flexible object. The logo is featured on all promos and idents duruing the day when ABC2 airs children programming.