ABC News 24 – Lose the future of broadcasting, gain outdated news service.
We are just a few hours away from the launch of Australia’s first free-to-air 24 hour news channel. ABC News 24 is now looping a promotional trailer on digital TV channel 24.
Only one question remains. Why?
Similar channels have been launched, CNN (1980), Sky news UK (1989), BBC news 24(UK) (1997), Sky News Australia (1996). All these channels launched between 10 to 30 years ago.
A 24 hour news channel can’t offer the levels of instant gratification that modern news consumers have come to expect. Turn on BBC News 24 at any given time of the day and the likelihood that you would get to see anything aligned with your areas of interest is minimal, except that is for occasions of major news coverage such as the attacks of September 11th 2001. And in such a case the main TV channels interrupted regular broadcasts anyway.
Modern news consumers already have access to the news they want, when they want, from online sources such as the ABC, BBC and countless others. Immediate, focused, mobile – it’s hard to imagine much wrong with the level of access to news that we have.
Lets flip the question. Why not?
When BBC News 24 launched in the UK, the corporation was at pains to point out how the launch of the channel would be a fraction of the total spend on news. The new channel was simply a glossy veneer providing a fresh view of one of the worlds premier news organisations. Such rhetoric was important as the majority of BBC funding is from the highly visible TV licence fee.
So what’s the cost of ABC News 24 for Australians? That was answered a week or so ago, when ABC News 24 test transmissions started we lost ABC 1 High Definition. I assumed that this was simply an issue with the tuning of my digital set-top box, however when I set to the task of re-ordering my stations I was at a loss for where ABC 1 HD had gone.
Referring to the ‘ABC’s Reception Advice Website’, we are told that ‘ABC HD on Channel 20 has been removed’ and that ‘ABC 1 is still available on Channels 2 and 21, in standard definition.’
I’m incensed by this move. I value news and current affairs highly, more so than pure entertainment, but now I can have neither in high-definition. Large screen TVs ‘need’ high definition broadcasts so that the picture quality remains high at the larger scales*.
With the introduction ABC News 24 we lose the ability to watch many truly stunning high-definition broadcasts into the future, and gain an outdated news channel (from a frankly out ranked news organisation). Thanks ABC.
(* I am happy to debate this in a more technical manner, I am just making a point here without getting bogged down in detail.)
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
i always thought that ABC news is even better than CNN when delivering up to date news`”‘