ABC’s flagship news program, the 7pm bulletin, has a staggering majority of viewers aged over 65, according to internal data circulated among the broadcaster’s executives.
The Australian Financial Review has revealed two-thirds of the ABC’s flagship 7pm News audience is older than 65 and less than 8 per cent under 40, the broadcaster faces the challenge of an ageing viewership, dubbed as “the grey-BC” by one senior manager.
This predicament is not unique to ABC, as the shift in young viewers towards streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube is a widespread industry trend. To cater to this shift, broadcasters are investing heavily in streaming platforms and establishing channels on YouTube and TikTok.
However, even with the inclusion of viewers from ABC’s iView video-on-demand service, the numbers reflect a familiar pattern – 70 per cent of viewers are aged over 55.
Justin Stevens, ABC’s head of news and current affairs, led the response to this urgent need for younger audiences. Some changes included cutting roles, most notably, political editor Andrew Probyn.
These measures have caused turmoil among staff, as Mr Stevens referred to an “outdated, top-heavy structure” focused on linear television broadcasting in the ABC’s Parliament House bureau.
In documents distributed during the redundancy round, Mr Stevens suggested a realignment of resources to strengthen digital and social story production and distribution. This would allow ABC News to engage more with underserved demographics, namely young people, women, and residents in outer suburbs.
Documents detailing viewership information for a week in late June indicated that viewership amongst younger demographics for ABC’s main news programs remains low. For instance, on June 26, only 6 per cent of the over 902,000 viewers for the state-by-state bulletin were between the ages of 18 and 39.
The demographics for ABC’s two leading news panel programs, Q&A and Insiders, are similarly skewed towards older viewers. Both shows have over 70 per cent of their average audience aged over 55. One anonymous senior ABC manager acknowledged the broadcaster’s traditional emphasis on the 7pm bulletin and expressed relief over the ongoing shift towards digital.
This shift was reinforced by Mr Stevens, who recently suggested that ABC’s digital audience reach is set to outdo its broadcast TV and radio reach for the first time this year. He, however, acknowledged the ambiguity of reach as a metric.
The broadcaster has dealt with such issues before. In 1975, to address concerns over an ageing audience, ABC, under a directive from the Whitlam government, launched youth radio station 2JJ (later Triple J). As former 2JJ presenter Gayle Austin later recounted, ABC aimed to cultivate a younger generation of listeners who would mature into ABC’s audience.
SOURCE: AFR
Everyone has turned off The ABC