The commercial arm of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has struck an international distribution deal with smart TV maker LG to offer four new free streaming channels on its platforms.
The new content streams include ABC Entertains and ABC Kids, which will be made available via the free LG Channels service on LG smart TVs in the United States. The same two channels will also be available in Canada, where LG users will have access to a third stream called ABC Factual. In other parts of the world, the channels will join a fourth stream called ABC Everyday.
ABC Entertains will offer comedies and dramas that originate from the ABC, which operates as the main public service broadcaster in Australia. ABC Everyday will include lifestyle and factual content, while ABC Factual focused mainly on documentaries. ABC Kids will live up to its name by providing children’s entertainment and educational programming.
“FAST is a significant and growing area of business for ABC Commercial,” Brian Lee, the Sales Manager for Digital at ABC Commercial, said in a statement, using the acronym for free, ad-supported streaming TV. “his launch on LG Channels encompasses a hybrid strategy that combines the best of linear FAST streams with curated on-demand libraries, giving viewers flexibility and choice in how they engage with ABC’s content.”
Public service broadcasters have increasingly turned to free streaming channels launched internationally as one way to generate revenue that can support their domestic and global operations alike.
In addition the ABC, the BBC in the United Kingdom has also looked to distributing its dramas, comedies, game shows, documentaries and lifestyle programming on FAST platforms in the United States and elsewhere, one part of a broader strategy to super-serve digital television consumers around the world while simultaneously generating much-needed advertising revenue.
The BBC in the United Kingdom and the ABC in Australia do not air typical commercial advertisements on their domestic channels. Both broadcasters are supported by taxpayers: In Britain, television viewers pay for a yearly license to legally watch live TV programming, while in Australia, the federal government includes funding for the broadcaster through annual appropriations.
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