Last night the ABC presented a special edition of the Q&A program from the Queensland township of Toowoomba.

Hosted by Tom Ballard the episode focused on rural Australian issues was widely well received nationally, however some Queensland viewers were left frustrated due the episode not being broadcast live into that state.

It was an issue acknowledged during the episode when a tweet appeared on screen stating,

“#qanda being filmed live in QLD but not broadcast live in QLD. Well, I’m totally offended,”

Earlier this year the ABC made the decision to move Lateline onto ABC News24, meaning that Q&A would no longer be broadcast live on TV into SA, NT, WA, as well as QLD during summer. Q&A has built a strong social media following with many viewers wanting to contribute to the live conversation online.

 

An ABC spokesperson told this website at the time,

“It was a complex decision with competing requirements that a lot of thought went into. It is important to have consistency for viewers and for Lateline as a daily program, so going to air at the same time every night serves our audience better. The earlier timeslot is more viewer-friendly and makes the program accessible to a larger audience. It also works best for the News 24 evening line-up on all nights of the week.

"Q&A will continue to be streamed live nationally on the ABC’s iview service, so viewers in all states can still watch it live-to-air and participate in the social media conversation. People seeking live engagement with Q&A through Twitter are already digitally savvy and accustomed to accessing programming online. The iview service launched in 2008 and is extremely popular and well-used – by far the leading internet TV service in Australia – and growing. People are already taking advantage of being able to watch it this way. It will also continue to be simulcast live on ABC NewsRadio and is live-streamed through the Q&A website.  And those who don’t want to engage live can still watch it on ABC TV at the usual time.”