ABC Online


ABC Online, known simply as part of the ABC, is the brand name for the online services of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, managed by the ABC Digital Network Division. It covers a large network of websites including those for ABC News, television, radio, and video-on-demand through ABC iView.
ABC News is one of Australia's largest and most-visited web sites, according to Alexa the eleventh-most popular in the country. It currently contains over 5 million pages.

History

The ABC established its original Multimedia Unit in 1995, to manage the Corporation's website. Although the unit at first relied upon funding allocation to the Corporation's television and radio operations, in subsequent budgets it began to receive its own. The ABC provided live, online election coverage for the first time in 1996, and limited news content began to be provided in 1997.
ABC Online became a part of ABC New Media and Digital Services when the Multimedia division was renamed and changed to an 'output division' similar to Television or Radio. 'Broadband news' services were introduced in 2001.
In 2008, Crikey reported that certain ABC Online mobile sites in development were planned to carry commercial advertising. Screenshots, developed in-house, of an ABC Grandstand sport page include advertising for two private companies. Media Watch later revealed that the websites were to be operated by ABC Commercial and distinguished from the main, advertising-free, mobile website by a distinct logo.
In December 2019, a refreshed ABC homepage was launched as default. It was available for public testing earlier in the year however. It's likely that other ABC sites and pages will be updated to this new style in the near future.