ABC News suddenly goes off air across Australia
Viewers were left stunned when ABC’s national news bulletin went off air shortly before midday on Monday.
The image switched to a standard landscape image at about 11:25 a.m. with the message: “ABC News will soon return to scheduled programming.”
The broadcast was paused for about eight minutes, causing concern among viewers.
‘Channel 24 has died??? Not a good look,” one person wrote on social media.
More than twenty people reported the power outage on the Down Detector website, which started at 11.22 am.
Anyone watching the news during the eight-minute outage period was treated to images of the Australian landscape.
Viewers were watching the ABC news bulletin when it suddenly stopped (pictured)
People at home first saw a black screen with time code (photo) before they were shown the photos of the Australian landscape
When the bulletin returned, a weather forecaster completed his forecast for the day.
“It remains good,” he concluded, before the program continued in the headlines.
ABC presenter Gemma Veness apologized to viewers affected by the mysterious interruption.
‘We would like to apologize for some of the technical issues that have affected our news bulletin. It’s good to have you back with us,” she told viewers.
A spokesperson for the ABC said the disruption was caused by a ‘brief interruption in the connection between our studios and the presentation service’.
They said the food was “recovered quickly.”
ABC 24 programming has since resumed normally.