ABC Asks Viewers If Its Coverage Of The Queen Was Overbearing Or Bang On

Sydney, Australia - March 24, 2015: People entering and leaving the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Centre in Ultimo.

The ABC is asking viewers if it covered The Queen’s death too extensively.

On Friday, Yourspace, an online ABC community, asked members various questions based on ABC’s coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death and funeral.

Viewers were asked what their overall impression of the coverage was surrounding the Queen’s death. They were also asked if the public broadcaster spent, “just enough time”, “didn’t spend enough time,” or “too much time.”

The questions come after the ABC received backlash for covering the Queen’s death so diligently.

The ABC's decision to cover the Queen for 10 straight days has produced the worst television of my lifetime
The ABC is at its worst when it programs to appease its haters rather than to please its actual audience.
— Media Analyst (@MediaAnalystOz) September 19, 2022

Joining the critics was former Insiders host, Barrie Cassidy, who slammed ABC’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Queen’s death.

In a tweet that has received over 13,000 likes, Cassidy casts a critical eye on his former network’s coverage and wrote, “I suspect the ABC has misread its audience.

“If you want wall-to-wall royalty, you can get it elsewhere in spades. The ABC is better when it offers an alternative to populism.”

I suspect the ABC has misread its audience. If you want wall to wall royalty you can get it elsewhere in spades. The ABC is better when it offers an alternative to populism.
— Barrie Cassidy (@barriecassidy) September 12, 2022

It is no secret that Queen Elizabeth’s death eclipsed the news cycle. She’d had a 70-year reign, and her death brought up everything from intense mourning to important conversations about colonisation.

It also meant that almost every television network dedicated extensive resources and coverage to reporting on the fallout from her death. Seven and Nine went hard and got solid eyeballs to prove the interest, while Network 10 stepped back and didn’t cover the Queen’s funeral.

However, some people were surprised that the ABC went so hard in the Queen’s coverage. The network sent two teams to The United Kingdom to cover the funeral and offered plenty of specials.

Chairman Ita Buttrose didn’t comment on any significant network about the Queen’s death and instead stuck to her network.

It was a Queen coverage bonanza, but the criticism seems to be that The ABC usually offers an alternative to mainstream viewing and this time, it followed a similar pathway to Seven and Nine. It’ll be interesting to see what the results are.

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