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Australia plus
The web portal was launched in partnership with Shanghai Media Group. Photograph: ABC
The web portal was launched in partnership with Shanghai Media Group. Photograph: ABC

ABC launches web portal in China called Australia Plus

This article is more than 8 years old

Public broadcaster becomes the first mainstream media organisation to have such an online presence in China

The ABC has partnered with a Chinese media company to open a web portal for Australian content in that country, becoming the first mainstream media organisation to launch a registered web portal in China.

The managing director of the ABC, Mark Scott, and its chairman, Jim Spigelman, opened the portal in China on Wednesday and were congratulated by Tony Abbott for strengthening Australia’s ties with China.

Abbott said: “The launch tonight is a testament to the high degree of respect for Australia and for the ABC within China.”

It comes almost a year after the Coalition withdrew the ABC’s funding for the Australia Network, forcing the ABC to close the international broadcaster and make 80 staff redundant.

While the portal – a partnership with Shanghai Media Group – will not replace the Australia Network, it does go some way to restoring the soft diplomacy referred to by Scott as a powerful reason to keep it going.

“When it comes to international media, soft power – the power of attraction – is not just about projecting positive images of nation,” Scott said in 2014 in a speech which was seen as a plea to the Coalition to maintain its funding.

The former Labor government awarded the $223m Australia Network contract to the ABC for 10 years in 2011, infuriating a competitor for the tender, Sky News Australia, and Murdoch’s News Corp which had lobbied the Coalition to have the ABC’s contract dumped.

Sky is part-owned by BSkyB, a British company controlled by 21st Century Fox, a sister company to Australia’s News Corp.

Abbott made it clear he was no fan of the way the contract was awarded, calling it a “particularly dodgy piece of work by the former government”.

The China portal, called Australia Plus.cn, will offer a mix of Australian stories including business, education and travel aimed at a mainland Chinese audience as well as Chinese people living in Australia.

It is aimed at Chinese people seeking to know more about Australia or wanting to work, study, do business or holiday in Australia. It also offers ABC English-language programs such as documentary, drama and children’s programs.

Lynley Marshall , the chief executive of ABC International, said: “From today Australia has an important new gateway through which to connect to millions of Chinese. We now have the ability to engage directly with our Chinese audiences from within China supported by our valued Chinese partners.”

Marshall said Abbott’s visit to China in 2014 and the free trade agreement with China had laid “the ideal foundation” to enable the ABC to establish its portal.

Sky News Australia failed to get the contract to launch an international broadcaster but it did launch an internet broadcasting service called Australia Channel this year. The Australia Channel offers five channels of Australian programming in 180 countries.

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