ABC iview is set to become the home of premium Australian documentaries with the launch of a new Australian Features strand showcasing the country’s best contemporary factual storytelling.
The ABC is open to commissioning documentaries ranging in genre and format, including true-crime and investigations, observational access, extraordinary stories of everyday Australians, unknown stories of well-known Australians, and first-person unfolding narratives.
Starting from today, submissions can be made to commissioning editors and development executives in the ABC Factual team.
ABC Head of Factual Susie Jones announced the initiative last night at the opening of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) and says the ambition for Australian Features is to create a world-class strand of contemporary documentaries that speak to a broad audience:
“In a streaming era, feature documentaries are more important than ever, and audiences consistently gravitate towards them,”
she said.
“Australian documentaries are world class and have the ability to entertain, enlighten, move and inspire. We want ABC iview to be the premier destination for the very best Australian documentaries.”
“We’re very open to pitches for this strand, so be ambitious and present us with your biggest and best idea. We expect these documentaries to attract broad audiences and garner critical acclaim.”
The ABC has a strong history of entertaining and educating audiences with distinctive Australian content driven by bold storytelling, with some recent standouts including Harley and Katya, Freeman, The Dark Emu Story, Firestarter and Folau in recent years.
The ABC commissions the highest volume of Australian factual stories, including recently Knowing the Score, Our Dad the Nazi Hunter and This is Going to Be Big.
Since 2020, the ABC has commissioned on average over 100 hours of documentary and factual content per year (excluding the 2021 financial year where production shut down due to COVID).
Last financial year, the ABC commissioned over $24m in documentary and factual content with the production sector, which generated nearly $52m of total production in Australia.
