Need to contact

ABC

and make sure they reply?

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia's national public broadcaster, so its support model differs from a commercial retailer — there are no products to refund and no paid subscriptions to cancel. Audience help is delivered through ABC Audience Services and the specialist Audience and Consumer Affairs (A&CA) unit, with an independent ABC Ombudsman providing additional editorial review.

• Audience services phone: 13 99 94, Monday to Friday, 8am–8pm AEST/AEDT (closed Good Friday and Christmas Day)
• Make a Complaint form: the official online intake via the ABC Help Centre
• ABC Help Centre: self-service technical support for ABC iview, ABC listen and ABC Account at support.abc.com
• ABC Ombudsman: independent internal review of editorial complaints since September 2022
• Postal address: ABC Audience Support, GPO Box 9994, Sydney NSW 2001
• Volume: the Australian National Audit Office reports the ABC handles around 23,767 audience contacts a year, with 85% general feedback and 15% formal editorial-standards complaints

Editorial bias and impartiality

• The single largest editorial-standards category, accounting for roughly 42% of formal complaints in ABC Ombudsman quarterly reports.
• Most relate to news and current affairs coverage that audiences perceive as politically or ideologically slanted.

Factual inaccuracy and misleading headlines

• Around 25% of editorial complaints concern reporting errors, mislabelled images, or out-of-date statistics.
• A growing sub-category is clickbait headlines that strip context such as location, time, or attribution.

ABC iview technical issues

• App crashes, playback stalling, buffering and "black screen" timeouts on smart TVs, especially older Samsung 2012–2013 and LG webOS sets after security-protocol upgrades.
• DRM error codes appear repeatedly in support tickets — error 246007 on Linux/Raspberry Pi and error 225650 on Safari/macOS are the most reported.

ABC Account and login problems

• Forgotten passwords, social-login failures, and email-change errors since the mandatory ABC iview login was rolled out from March 2022.
• Users also report difficulty managing newsletter and email preferences, which can only be updated via web browser, not the app.

ABC listen issues

• Podcast download failures and live radio drop-outs on the ABC listen app.
• Geo-blocking frustration from Australians travelling overseas trying to access content.

Accessibility and content takedown

• Captioning gaps, audio-description availability, and screen-reader compatibility on abc.net.au — sometimes escalated to ACMA.
• Privacy-driven takedown requests for personal information appearing in older ABC News articles or archive content.

Phone — ABC Audience Services

• Number: 13 99 94 (national switchboard and Audience Services line)
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 8am–8pm AEST/AEDT, excluding Good Friday and Christmas Day
• Tip: if literacy, language or accessibility is a barrier, staff will take a written summary on your behalf and forward it to the right team

Online — Make a Complaint form

1. Open the ABC Contact page and click Make a Complaint, or go directly to the online complaint form.

2. Identify the program, article, presenter, ABC platform, episode, date and time so the team can locate the content quickly.

3. Provide your email address — you will receive an automatic acknowledgement and a tracking reference.

4. ABC Audience Services aims to respond within 30 days and almost always within 60 days.

Technical — ABC iview, ABC listen and ABC Account

• Self-service: browse device-specific articles at the ABC Help Centre for Samsung TV, LG webOS, Apple TV, iPhone, Android and Chromecast.
• Submit a request: if unresolved, lodge a ticket via support.abc.com and select Playback, Account or App.
• Tip: include device model, OS version, browser and the exact error code — tickets with this detail get faster real-person replies.

Postal mail

• GPO box: ABC Audience Support, GPO Box 9994, Sydney NSW 2001
• Street address: 700 Harris St, Ultimo NSW 2007
• Use postal mail when you need a paper trail for a sensitive complaint or accessibility request.

News tips and corrections

• News tips: submit story leads via the ABC News tip-off page or the contact details listed on each program page.
• Corrections: use the Make a Complaint form and clearly mark the issue as a factual correction request.

ABC Ombudsman — independent editorial review

1. Lodge with Audience Services first — the ABC Ombudsman generally reviews matters that have already been through internal handling.

2. Editorial complaints should be lodged within three months of broadcast or publication.

3. The Ombudsman publishes a quarterly Complaints Upheld register, providing public transparency on findings.

External escalation — ACMA

• If you remain unsatisfied with the ABC's handling of a Code of Practice complaint, escalate to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
• Captioning issues can be escalated separately via the ACMA captioning complaint page.

For full step-by-step guidance on lodging editorial and technical issues, see the ABC complaints process.

> ABC is a publicly funded broadcaster, not a retailer. Refund, return, price-match, warranty and shipping policies do not apply. The policies below are the ones most relevant to ABC audiences.

Editorial Policies and Code of Practice

• The ABC Code of Practice (2024) and the more detailed ABC Editorial Policies are set by the ABC Board under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983.
• They cover accuracy, impartiality, fair dealing, privacy, harm and offence, and content involving children.
• These standards are the benchmark used by Audience and Consumer Affairs (A&CA) and the ABC Ombudsman when investigating editorial complaints.

Complaint Handling Process

• The ABC Complaint Handling Process (September 2025) is the published procedure followed for every formal complaint.
• A&CA's Audience Liaison Team handles general feedback; the Investigations Team handles editorial-breach matters.
• For escalation steps and timeframes, see the dedicated ABC complaints guide.

Corrections and Clarifications

• Significant editorial errors are publicly acknowledged on the ABC Corrections & Clarifications register.
• Audiences can request a correction through the same Make a Complaint form by flagging the issue as a factual correction.

Accessibility

• Section 11.15 of the Editorial Policies covers captioning, audio description and online accessibility for users who are blind or have low vision.
• Persistent captioning issues can be escalated to ACMA after internal review.

Privacy and content takedown

• The ABC Privacy Policy explains how personal information is handled for news subjects and ABC Account holders.
• It also outlines the process for requesting takedown or de-identification of older archive content.

ABC Account, iview and listen — closure and preferences

• ABC Accounts are free to create and free to close — there is nothing to cancel commercially.
• Account closure and email-newsletter preferences are managed under Manage Account on the ABC website (web browser only, not via the app). See the Managing my account guide.