ABC Family (Australian TV channel)

ABC Family is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of family and teen entertainment programming. The channel operates between the hours of 7:30pm and 4:00am AEST/AEDT daily. The channel's bandwidth is used for the ABC Kids channel for young children during the remaining hours of the day.

The channel was launched on 7 March 2005 as ABC2. It was rebranded as ABC Comedy on 4 December 2017, with a format focused on comedy programming. On 1 January 2021, it was rebranded as ABC TV Plus and returned to a general entertainment format. In May 2024, it was announced that the channel would rebrand as ABC Family on 3 June 2024, general entertainment was moved to the new ABC Entertains.

The history of the channel can be traced back to 1998 when the Australian Broadcasting Authority released a report, titled Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting, recommending that the Australian Government support the early introduction of digital broadcasting as a free-to-air service with the loan of a 7 MHz channel for each broadcaster. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation stated that it wished to run up to four multichannels at different times of the day or alternatively offer a high-definition television channel. The corporation claimed that up to A$100 million would be needed to prepare for these services, half of which would need to be government-funded.

In August 2001 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched the ABC Kids channel, with Fly TV following in November 2001. The two multichannels, available only through digital terrestrial television, broadcast a range of programming targeted at younger and teenage viewers. Funding issues meant that, in June 2003, ABC Television closed ABC Kids and Fly TV.

Unlike its predecessors, ABC2 launched on 7 March 2005 on channel 21, independent of government funding, instead running on a budget of A$3 million per year. The first programme in the launch schedule was an episode of Landline – although scheduled to begin at 6.25am, the programme was delayed ten minutes. The channel was officially inaugurated by former Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan, at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra on 10 March 2005.

Weekly video gaming and technology programme Good Game was launched on 19 September 2006, becoming one of the first programmes in its genre to be broadcast on free-to-air television in Australia. Similarly in the same year, programmes produced included Australia Wide, Short and Curly, dig tv and Late Night Legends.

Genre restrictions imposed by the Australian government on digital multichanneling were lifted along with the media ownership laws passed through the Australian parliament on 18 October 2006. Previously limited in the subjects it could cover, ABC2 was henceforth able to carry shows identified as comedy, drama, national news, sport or entertainment.

On 1 January 2008 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation announced the introduction of live coverage and programme content on ABC2 from the Australian Film Commission, Opera Australia, and the Australian Ballet.