Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

• The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is Australia's national public broadcaster. With a total budget of A$1.13 billion annually the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as overseas through the Australia Network and Radio Australia.
• Founded in 1929 as the Australian Broadcasting Company, it was subsequently made a state-owned corporation on 1 July 1932, as the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
• The Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act of 1983 changed the name of the organisation to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, effective 1 July 1983.
• Although funded and owned by the government, the ABC remains editorially independent as ensured through the ABC Act of 1983

ABC TELEVISION

The commission commenced television broadcasting in Sydney and Melbourne in 1956.

In 1975, colour television was introduced into Australia, and within a decade the ABC had moved into satellite broadcasting, greatly enhancing its ability to distribute content nationally.

ABC Radio was restructured significantly in 1985 – Radio One became the Metropolitan network, while Radio 2 became known as Radio National,while ABC-FM established an Australian Music Unit in 1989.

The ABC Multimedia Unit was established in July, 1995, to manage the new ABC website.

International television service Australia Television International was established in 1993.

Australia Television was sold to the Seven Network in 1998, however the service continued to show ABC news and current affairs programming up until its closure in 2001.

In 2002, the ABC launched ABC Asia Pacific – the replacement for the defunct Australia Television channel operated previously by the Seven Network.

ABC2, a second attempt at a digital-only television channel, launched on 7 March 2005. Unlike its predecessors the new service was not dependent on government funding, instead running on a budget of A$3 million per year.

At midday on 8 February 2008, ABC TV was rebranded as ABC1, complementing the existing ABC2 digital-only channel which was launched on 7 March 2005.

ABC News 24 launched on 22 July 2010 and brought with it both new programming content as well as a collaboration of existing news and current affair productions and resources.The ABC launched the 24-hour news channel to both complement its existing 24-hour ABC News Radio service and compete with commercial offerings on cable TV.

Maurice Lionel Newman  is the current Chairperson of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation wef 01.01.2007 for a term of 5 years.