‘Tens of people watched’: Staff pop champagne as ABC channel is turned off for good

Its own staff called it a “deceased TV channel that tens of people watched” – now, this ABC channel has been switched off for good.

Staff at the ABC have popped a bottle of champagne to mark the occasion as one of the national broadcaster’s lesser-known channels was wound up.

“RIP ABC TV Plus. We hardly watched ye,” one producer at the network captioned a video on TikTok, which showed staff cheering as a voice over artist made the channel’s final announcement.

“POV: recording the last voice over ever for a deceased TV channel that tens of people watched,” the producer wrote on the video, which has since been deleted.

“Goodbye ABC … what was it called?” the announcer joked from the audio booth.

The ABC announced last month that several of its digital channels would be finishing up, to be replaced with new, rebranded channels.

Staff mark the occasion as ABC TV channel finishes.

ABC TV Plus has now switched to ABC Family.

ABC TV Plus has now been rebranded as ABC Family, and will incorporate ABC Kids during the daytime and content aimed at teens during the evenings.

The channel had earlier been rebranded in 2021 from ABC Comedy, with ABC TV Plus heralded at the time as “a place to feed the mind, the heart and the funny bone.”

Also replaced is ABC ME, which TV Tonight reports had launched in 2016 “as a joint broadcast / digital service with an app for school-aged children.”

It has now been replaced by ABC Entertains, which the network said last month “will build on the ABC’s extensive catalogue of comedy and entertainment.”