Combined reach

The ABC’s combined national audience reach across television, radio and online was estimated to be 68.1% over a period of a week in 2021,¹ an increase of 0.6 percentage points compared with the ABC’s net reach in 2020 (67.6%).² This overall improvement was driven by a growth in reach across all platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC digital properties

Use of ABC digital products continued to grow in 2020-21, following strong increases in 2019-20. ABC digital products reported an average of 16.4 million weekly unique users in 2020-21, an increase of 15% on the average in 2019-20.³

Weekly users of the ABC NEWS website and the ABC NEWS mobile app increased substantially in 2019-20, driven by coverage of the summer bushfire season and the COVID-19 pandemic.⁴ In 2020-21, weekly users increased further, driven by ongoing COVID-19 news along with the US election and Capitol riots. Website users increased by 15% year-on-year to 11.1 million, while app users were up 47% to 991,000. The ABC NEWS app experienced strong growth in new users during Facebook’s temporary ban on the sharing of news by Australians in February 2021, setting new records for weekly users in the final two weeks of 2020-21.

The ABC iview suite continued to grow in 2020‑21, averaging 2.2 million unique users each week, up 16% from 2019-20.⁵ Time spent on ABC iview increased 9% year-on-year, from 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 32 minutes. Livestreaming ABC channels via the ABC iview digital service grew exponentially in 2020-21, with average monthly minutes viewed up 117% from 2019-20.

ABC iview achieved record live consumption in June 2021, driven by the news coverage of the latest restrictions and lockdowns across Australia. Video-on-demand viewing on ABC iview also grew in 2020-21, with average monthly minutes increasing 17% on 2019-2021.⁶

Use of the ABC listen app continued to increase in 2020-21 following substantial uplift in the previous year, driven by the pandemic. Weekly users of listen grew by 20% to 409,000, while weekly time per user increased by 8% to 4 hours and 9 minutes per user.⁷ The triple j app increased weekly users by 6% year-on-year to 109,000, while time per user was up by 55% to 2 hours 16 minutes. Users and time per user peaked during the Hottest 100 in January.⁸

ABC on social media

Following strong growth in ABC audiences across social platforms in 2019-20 driven by the summer bushfires and coronavirus pandemic, audiences in 2020-21 remained high, with further growth achieved in some areas.

ABC’s average weekly reach on third-party platforms in 2020-21 was 22.8%, up from 22.1% in 2019-20. Third-party reach was at its highest to date in March 2020 at 24.8%, driven by the interest in the COVID-19 pandemic

Youtube

YouTube provides ABC with a platform to drive discovery and awareness of our content, and to reach younger audiences. For ABC’s non-kids channels on YouTube, monthly unique viewers were down 15% in 2020-21, following a 72% increase the previous year. However, there was a 13% increase in monthly watch hours in 2020-21.⁹

The growth in watch hours was driven largely by the ABC news livestream hosted by the ABC News Australia channel, which accounted for two-thirds of watch time for this channel in 2020‑21. ABC NEWS was among the few ABC channels to increase in watch hours since 2019‑20, up 36%. ABC News Australia accounted for 44% of all ABC non-kids channel watch hours in 2020-21.¹⁰

ABC News In-Depth continued its strong growth since launching on YouTube in September 2019, increasing its subscribers by 92% in 2020-21 to 659,000, and achieving year-on-year growth in views and watch hours. triple j remained ABC’s top YouTube channel based on subscribers, with 1.5 million.¹¹

ABC Kids YouTube channels (ABC Kids, ABC ME Behind the News, Good Game Spawn Point and Giggle & Hoot) had an average of 1.2 million monthly unique viewers in 2020-21, up 36% on the previous year. The most popular video was an October 2020 trailer for new Bluey episodes, which recorded 3.6 million views.¹²

Facebook

Facebook is a key platform for the ABC to reach new audiences, and to engage in conversations about the issues that matter to Australians. Facebook is also a key referral channel driving traffic to ABC websites. In February 2021, in response to the Australian Government’s proposed media bargaining laws, Facebook implemented a ban on the sharing of news content by Australian brands or audiences. This ban was in effect from 18-25 February 2021. All ABC Facebook pages were affected initially, including entertainment-based pages, some of which were reinstated during the ban.

Partly as a result of the ban, monthly unique users for ABC Facebook pages were down 6% in 2020-21 compared with the previous year, to an average of 6.1 million. The ABC Sydney page had the largest monthly unique users at 864,000, followed by ABC Brisbane (839,000). ABC NEWS ranked third, with 815,000 monthly unique users, down 39% on 2019-20. Strong interest in local COVID-19 news drove increased engagement for ABC capital city and regional pages in 2020-21, and may have diverted some activity from the ABC NEWS page. The monthly unique audience across the eight ABC capital city pages was up 9% in 2020-21 to 3.3 million, while the 41 regional location pages were up 4% to 2.0 million, highlighting the important role these pages play in connecting the ABC with local communities.¹³

Instagram

Instagram provides an opportunity to introduce new and younger audiences to ABC content through engaging and interactive visual storytelling. ABC Instagram accounts saw 31% growth in followers in 2019-20, with 3.5 million followers¹⁴ across all ABC Instagram accounts. The vast majority of followers are Australian and aged under 45, with a skew towards women.

The triple j Instagram account had the largest number of followers in 2019-20, with 816,000, followed by ABC NEWS (698,000), ABC Australia (259,000), Gardening Australia (253,000), and ABC TV (196,000). Almost all ABC accounts experienced year-on-year growth in followers.¹⁵ When Instagram prioritised its IGTV feature in 2019-20, ABC accounts achieved a 95% increase in video views that year, and a further 50% rise in 2020-21, with 110 million video views.¹⁶

Radio

Average weekly reach in the five-city metropolitan markets for ABC Radio (including DAB+ stations) was 5.3 million people aged over 10 years in 2020-21, up 175,000 listeners on the 2019-20 result. Audience share was up 1.1 share points on 2019-20 to 24.6%.¹⁷ The tracking study showed 56% of Australians believed the quality of programming on ABC Radio is ‘very good’ or ‘good’.¹⁸ ABC Radio websites and apps averaged 2.3 million users each week in 2020-21, up 7% on 2019-20.¹⁹

DAB+

ABC’s DAB+ stations include Double J, ABC Jazz, triple j Unearthed, ABC Sport (formerly ABC Grandstand), ABC Country and ABC Kids listen. Average weekly reach in the five-city metropolitan markets for ABC DAB+ stations was 744,000 in 2020-21, up 2.2% from 2019-20. Audience share of total listening was 1.6%, similar to 1.5% in 2019-20.²⁰

Local Radio

ABC Local Radio’s five-city metropolitan average weekly reach was 2.2 million, up 10.5% from 2.0 million in 2019-20. Audience share was 9.6%, up 1.1 points from 2019-20 (8.5%).²¹ There were 1.2 million average monthly unique podcast downloads of ABC Local Radio content in 2020‑21, up 7% compared with 2019-20.²²

triple j

ABC’s national youth network triple j recorded a slight decrease in its five-city metropolitan average weekly reach among people aged 10 and over, to 2.0 million in 2020-21, down 0.3% from 2.1 million in 2019-20. Audience share was 6.0%, below 2019-20 (6.3%).²³ triple j recorded 1.4 million monthly unique podcast downloads in 2020-21, a 2% increase on 2019-20.²⁴

RN

RN’s five-city metropolitan average weekly reach was 699,000 in 2020-21, down 1.2% on the 2019-20 result of 707,000. Audience share was 2.5% in 2020-21, similar to 2.6% in 2019-20.²⁵ Radio National recorded 7.8 million monthly unique podcast downloads in 2020-21, up 16% compared to 2019-20.²⁶

ABC Classic

ABC Classic’s five-city metropolitan average weekly reach was 825,000 in 2020-21, similar to 826,000 in 2019-20. Audience share increased to 3.2% in 2020-21, compared with 3.0% in 2019-20.²⁷

ABC NEWS

ABC NEWS five-city metropolitan average weekly reach was 903,000 in 2020-21, up 16.0% from 778,000 in 2019-20. Audience share remained similar at 1.7% (1.6% in 2019-20).²⁸ There were 4.9 million monthly unique downloads of ABC NEWS podcasts (including news briefings) in 2020-21, up 64% compared with 2019-20.²⁹

News and current affairs on radio

The news and current affairs programs on Local Radio and RN reached on average, 1.7 million people aged over 10 years each week in the five‑city metropolitan market in 2020-21. This was up 3.2% on 2019-20.³⁰

ABC listen app

The ABC listen app provides access to both live ABC Radio and ABC podcasts. Average weekly visitors to the app increased by 20% to 409,000 in 2020-21.³¹

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News and current affairs

After strong audience growth in 2019-20, ABC NEWS digital platforms experienced further increases in 2020-21. These were driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the US election in November 2020 and Capitol riot in January 2021.

In 2020-21, ABC news and current affairs on ABC TV and ABC NEWS channel reached 6.6 million average weekly metro and regional viewers, similar to 2019-20.³²

News programs

ABC news programs maintained gains made in 2019-20 on weekdays, while weekends softened slightly. The Monday to Friday edition achieved a combined metro and regional average audience of 980,000 (steady), Saturday averaged 861,000 (down 11%) and Sunday averaged 964,000 (down 4%).³³ News Breakfast achieved a combined average audience of 284,000 across the ABC TV and ABC NEWS simulcast, an increase of 5% compared with 2019-20.³⁴

Current affairs programs

The second half of 2020 saw current affairs audiences begin to normalise after the previous year, resulting in modest declines for 2020-21. On ABC TV, audiences were mostly steady for 7.30 (down 1% to a combined metro and regional average audience of 837,000)³⁵ and Insiders (down 1% to 594,000 across the ABC TV and ABC NEWS simulcast).³⁶ All other titles saw declines: Australian Story was down 9% on the previous year with a combined average audience of 905,000,³⁷ and Four Corners experienced a similar drop (9%) to 766,000.³⁸ Foreign Correspondent recorded a combined average audience of 634,000, down 5% on the previous year.³⁹ Q+A, which moved to a new timeslot of Thursday 8.30 pm in 2021, experienced a 16% decline in audience to 445,000.⁴⁰

ABC NEWS

The ABC NEWS channel experienced growth across platforms in 2020-21, driven by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. On broadcast TV, the channel maintained its position as Australia’s leading 24-hour news channel with a metro and regional weekly reach of 3.7 million viewers, an increase of 6% compared with 2019-20.⁴¹ Year-on-year growth was greater on digital platforms. ABC NEWS livestream plays on ABC iview were up by 80% to a monthly average of 2.7 million in 2020-21.⁴² ABC news live views on YouTube (including the news channel stream as well as one-off live events, such as state premiers’ COVID-19 media conferences) were up by 57% to a monthly average of 3.6 million.⁴³

On-demand consumption of ABC news content on ABC iview and YouTube grew strongly in 2020-21. Monthly plays of news and current affairs videos on ABC iview increased by 71% to 3.1 million.⁴⁴ On-demand views across the two ABC News YouTube channels grew by 2% to an average of 22.8 million per month in 2020-21,⁴⁵ driven mainly by current affairs content on the ABC News In-Depth channel.

The ABC NEWS website and app and the current affairs websites recorded an average of 12.2 million weekly users in 2020-21. This was an increase of 16% on the previous year, despite the highest weekly users to date occurring in March 2020 when the national COVID-19 lockdown was announced. Weekly users in 2020-21 were highest during periods of further lockdowns across Australian states.

The ABC NEWS website and app averaged more daily sessions, page views and total time spent than any other online news entity in Australia in the first six months of 2021. This is based on Nielsen Digital Media Ratings, which is the industry standard for reporting traffic volume for digital news brands in Australia. Due to a change in measurement methodology from the start of 2021, the current data set cannot be combined or compared with previous years’ data, which was based on a different system of data collection.

ABC NEWS ranked No 2 among Australian news brands on Facebook based on followers, with 4.4 million, behind Daily Mail Australia with 5.1 million. The ABC News page on Facebook had 815,000 monthly unique users in 2020-21, a decline of 39% compared with the previous year.⁴⁶ This decline was partly driven by Facebook’s ban on the sharing of news content by Australian brands and audiences from 18-25 February 2021, in response in response to the Australian Government’s proposed media bargaining laws.

On YouTube, ABC news channels remained competitive despite strong growth among competitors including 60 Minutes, 9News Australia and Sky News Australia. ABC News Australia increased its subscriber count by 25% in 2020-21 to 1.4 million, while subscribers to ABC News In-Depth grew by 92% to 659,000.⁴⁷

ABC NEWS remained the leading Australian news brand on Instagram by a large margin with 687,000 followers in 2020-21. This was up 32% on the previous year, a higher rate of growth than most top Australian competitors on Instagram.

Total ABC viewing

The digital acceleration experienced in response to the transformative events of the past year saw more Australians than ever using video-on-demand services to view video content. Across the Australian broadcast video-on-demand services, viewing increased to its highest levels, with ABC iview also experiencing record viewing. With more viewers than ever turning to digital platforms to consume video, Total TV broadcast reach experienced decline in 2020-21, when compared to 2019-20.

Metro

Total ABC Network metro average weekly reach in 2020-21 was 7.9 million people, or 44.6% of the five-city metro population. This is slightly down compared with 2019-20 (8.1 million; 46.0%).⁴⁸

Total ABC metropolitan Total TV share during daytime increased once again in 2020-21. Across the four channels, ABC Television achieved a metro day-time Total TV share of 20.8%, up from 19.7% in 2019-20.⁴⁹

Total ABC metropolitan share during prime time also increased in 2020-21 compared with the previous year. Prime-time Total TV share for Total ABC across the five metropolitan cities was 14.8% in 2020-21 (14.3% in 2019-20).⁵⁰

Regional

In the combined aggregated regional markets including Tasmania, Total ABC average weekly reach in 2020-21 was 3.4 million people or 46.7% of the regional population. This is down compared with 2019-20 (3.6 million; 49.5%).⁵¹

In 2020-21, Total ABC regional Total TV share during the day was steady at 19.5%, (19.4% in 2019-20). Total ABC regional share during prime time was 15.0% in 2020-21, an increase from 14.5% in 2019-20.⁵²

ABC iview

In 2020-21, there were 1.1 billion⁵³ average monthly minutes across ABC iview, which is a 20% increase on the 2019-20 monthly average (901 million mins).⁵⁴

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International

For more than 80 years, Australia has been broadcasting to audiences overseas. In 2020, the ABC, through owned and operated platforms ABC Australia, ABC Radio Australia and ABC websites and apps, reached an estimated 15,206,000 unique monthly overseas audiences.

ABC Australia, the ABC’s international television service available in more than 38 markets across Asia and the Pacific, has a monthly viewership of at least 2,553,000. ABC Radio Australia, our international radio service available via FM in the Pacific and Timor-Leste, has a monthly listenership of at least 474,000. ABC websites and apps have a monthly usership of 12,180,000, including 10,000 monthly users of ABC Australia iview.

Our audiences come from across the world. Each month, we reach 1,470,000 audiences in Oceania through ABC Australia, ABC Radio Australia and ABC websites and apps, 4,854,000 audiences in Asia through ABC Australia and ABC websites and apps, 8,882,000 audiences in the Americas, Europe and Africa through ABC websites and apps.⁵⁵

The ABC also reaches overseas audiences through social media, video sharing platforms, and syndication partners. In 2020-2021 there were:

• 18,389,000 overseas followers of the ABC on Facebook (20% increase on 2019-20), including 279,000 followers of ABC Radio Australia and 5,552,000 (10% increase on 2019-20) followers of ABC Education Learn English on Facebook (6% increase on 2019-20)
• 1,489,000 overseas followers of the ABC on Instagram (140% increase on 2019-20)⁵⁶
• 21,000 followers of ABC Australia on WeChat (20% increase on 2019-20)⁵⁷
• 197,000 followers of ABC Australia on Weibo (5% increase on 2019-20).⁵⁸

Additionally, there were 336,390,000 overseas views of all ABC content on YouTube (21% decrease on 2019-20).⁵⁹