The ABC or Australian Broadcasting Corporation is the national, public broadcaster in Australia. It is government-funded and provides radio, television and online services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia and overseas via Radio Australia.
There is also a chain of ABC Shops selling books, audio and video recordings related to ABC programming.
The ABC commenced operation in 1932 as a collection of 12 radio stations operating as the Australian Broadcasting Commission but changed its name to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1983 with the passage of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 (ABC Act).
The ABC is run by a government-appointed board, but programming and editorial decisions are made at arm's length from the government of the day. The political bias of the ABC's news and current affairs coverage is endlessly debated. Conservatives claim that the ABC tends towards the political left wing; those towards the left of the political spectrum contend that the opposite is true.
Unlike the BBC in Britain, the ABC has been funded through a government grant-in-aid, since licence feess were abolished in 1974. In recent years there has been turmoil on the administrative front, with successive Boards of Directors under pressure from the conservative Howard Government. Despite government funding, the ABC is largely independent.
It has influenced many aspects of the national culture:
The ABC is a legendary radio presenter of sport at all levels. Television was introduced to Australia in 1956, in time to cover the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. The ABC had exclusive Australian television and radio broadcasting rights to the Games. (A commercial TV station, GTV-9Melbourne, hosted the first Australian TV broadcast, on xxx September1956, introduced by Bruce Gyngell.)
The ABC has been a leader in presenting music in all its forms, studio-recorded and live: including classical, popular, jazz, world music, electronic, minimalist and folk through state symphony orchestras, live concerts, FM radio (ABC Classic FM, Triple-J), AM (Radio National), in programs such as Countdown, Rage, JazzTrack, Lonely Planet, Singers of Renown; TV-FM simulcasts, and generally involvement and sponsorship of live instrumental and vocal music-making
ABC Local Radio, a succession of stations broadcasting light entertainment, talkback, and some current affairs and most popular with older audiences;
Triple J, a national youth radio network;
Radio National, a nationwide network devoted to intellectual discussion of politics, science, philosophy, the arts, literature, and the like.
ABC Classic FM, another nationwide classical-music station;
and ABC NewsRadio, a 24-hour news station that also broadcasts the proceedings of federal Parliament when in session.
The ABC's latest radio station, is internet and digital television only. Called DiG, the station has no announcers and is all music.
A new satellite television service for East Asia and the Pacific Islands, ABC Asia Pacific, was launched by the ABC in 2002. Commercially funded and carrying advertising, ABC Asia Pacific broadcasts a mixture of news, current affairs, entetainment, lifestyle and sport. This includes tailor-made news bulletins for the region, general entertainment, including the soap opera Home and Away, and also Australian Rules and Rugby League matches. The channel is received either directly via satellite, or on local cable networks.
Earlier in 1993, the ABC had launched a service for the region called Australia Television International (known as AusTV or ATVI). This was sold to the Seven Network in 1997, and later folded.
It is a persistent urban myth that '9994' is in memory of the life-time test average cricket score (99.94, being 6996 in 80 innings) of Sir Donald Bradman, the great Australian cricketer. Supposedly, a one-time Chairman of the ABC, Sir Charles Moses arranged for this number to be used, however this has been denied by the ABC.
