This January, Victoria saw some of the most destructive bushfires in its history, ravaging 400,000 hectares across the state and destroying more than 250 homes, including that of an ABC Alumni colleague’s elderly relatives in Harcourt, a devastating loss of a home built three generations ago and of scores of ancient fruit trees. 

This same colleague raced to escape the January fires herself along the Great Ocean Road, in the southwest, in the Otways, having received a “Catastrophic” bushfire warning. She, and hundreds of others, tuned in to ABC emergency services radio. 

The ABC is Australia’s primary, trusted source of immediate and timely emergency information during bushfires and other extreme weather events, now increasingly severe and common in Australia. ABC emergency bushfire services are broadcast on AM and FM, depending on your part of regional Victoria.

The same fire that burnt the Harcourt cottage to the ground (and many other homes) also took out the Mount Alexander TV and FM broadcast transmitters. Where Peter Marks lives, this meant no broadcast TV. In nearby Castlemaine, a resident told us that they lost TV, FM, internet and mobile phone services.

When there’s no raging bushfire, Peter can cope, for a bit, without broadcast TV. Normally, he watches the 7pm news bulletin, then turns to streaming content, like so many others in regional Victoria.

But when there’s a dangerous, swiftly moving bushfire around, the loss of FM, internet and phone data is a big safety issue. People rely on the ABC for instantaneous and current information, and on government emergency apps for notifications of how close and how fast the bushfire is travelling- and what they should do.

This time, a crisis was averted by a local community FM station in Castlemaine, Phoenix FM. They took ABC Radio - which they are free to do - who used it to help with emergency communication.

It’s a warning for those relying on ABC FM emergency radio during bushfires — look out for AM radios that can pick up the big AM stations across each state when all else fails. It’s worth checking that you have a battery AM radio in the house somewhere and know how to operate it.

Streaming success

In December the ABC reported that they were the number one screen network in 2025, with an average of 12.34 million viewers (or 45 percent of Australians) tuning in every week.

Streaming is a big part of this success. In an increasingly competitive media landscape, average audiences across ABC iview and broadcast increased by 2.6 per cent in 2025. The ABC also recorded audience growth in key demographics, attracting more viewers aged 18–39 while maintaining strong engagement among audiences aged 65 and over.

The ABC right now is Australia’s number one digital news site, with over 12 million unique users. It is also the lead digital live streaming network and has consistently held the top spot for 21 consecutive surveys, at 28.8% of share with 3.4 million Australians watching content on the platform on average each week. November 2025 was ABC iview’s best month on record with 44.8 million hours of content watched on the platform, which equates to around 1.5 million hours watched every day.

More to be done

The fires in Victoria and the impact on TV and FM transmissions serve to illustrate the ongoing importance of the role of ABC emergency media services.

ABC Alumni has made a pre-budget submission to Federal Treasury, arguing:

• Additional ABC funding for emergency media services
• Additional ABC funding to extend regional and local media
• Adjust the formula and increase the rate of indexation applied to ABC operational funding
• Extend international media funding for the ABC at a rate of $20 million annually, plus indexation.

Read the full submission

— Peter Marks and Dr Gael Jennings, Victorian members of the Board of ABC Alumni