To add onto what Hanrahan said, it's also one of our state-funded broadcasters (along with Special Broadcasting Service, which has a lot of non-English and international content like films and news) so it's a lot less commercialised. There are plenty of good shows started there and it's sometimes a lot closer to indie content.

It was one of the original commissioners of Bluey.

I highly recommend trying to find episodes of You Can't Ask That (even if you have to torrent it), and if you like mockumentaries like The Office, I recommend Utopia (not to be confused with other shows elsewhere called Utopia), many clips are on YouTube to sample.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 day ago

It's ok but I'd regard it as center right after years of fuckery from the LNP. You just have to look at the Lattouf incident

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-24/antoinette-lattouf-costs-decision-in-abc-unlawful-termination/105810052

and its coverage if our left party The Greens is appalling, while a lot of sucking up to the loony ONP

It's closest to the PBS in the US and the BBC in the UK I guess, and certainly not dissimilar to the BBC and their similar fawning obsequiesness to Reform.

[–] DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The ABC in Australia was the original ABC before the Americans copied us. Kind of like the Office.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 0 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Er... The Office was from the UK. The Aussie version is a spinoff of that, as are the French, Czech, Brazilian, American, Swedish, South African, [...] versions.

[–] DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I meant that Americans think their copy is the original in both cases. I only really know the UK office. I forgot we even had an Aussie spin off tbh. It was in the news for one week and then forgotten about.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 0 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Yeah, like the rest of the spinoffs I've seen (very much US included to be clear here) it wasn't... very... good.

NBC regularly aired the entire UK series in the lulls between Office (American) episodes before they lost the rights. Maybe some people think that it was the OG now, but they were not subtle about it at the start (possibly because Gervais is an attention whore who craves credit). These days I can't honestly think of anyone I've encountered who cares about that show enough to still remember it, yet is somehow unaware of the UK version. Even the subreddit is explicit about it:

This subreddit is for fans of the US version of the TV show, The Office. The show ran from 2005-2013 but is still watched just as much today. Join us as we discuss the show!