Some sad news today, it looks like The CheckOut has been cancelled.
From CHOICE CEO @AlanKirkland, “We have loved collaborating with The Checkout over the past 5 years. Great example of public broadcasting at its innovative best. Very, very sorry to hear its time has ended.”
The Checkout was tops!
It will probably be replaced with another embarrassing low budget reality show managed by the same calibre of people who brought us the coalition’s version of the NBN.
The Checkout is one of the best not to be missed shows on TV, a real shame budget cuts have caused its demise. It is always educational and entertaining
While we also enjoyed the program immensely, we did find the last series a little too comical and also tended to repeat some information in earlier series.
Hopefully they remain on iView for anyone to watch at any time as much of the content won’t age.
They are on youtube 
One of only two programs each week that were a must watch.
There are many other ABC funded programs that could go that provide less return to the community. Some of these programs that could go compete like for like with other networks. The ‘Checkout’ has no peers. The program content better meets the ABC charter more than many other programs.
What were the ABC thinking?
Will Gruen be next?
What a shame! I had hoped that they were going to branch out into some broader consumer issues. The program was well made and funny. Probably the only recent Australian program that made me laugh. It also fitted well with the remit of a national broadcaster, given that it was educational.
Although probably an indirect reaction to management of the times, “Yes Minister” was most likely.
There is no charter for the ABC to provide quality educational community serving domestic content of world standard.
I’ll bet they caused too many ‘problems’ - I’m sure ABC is not immune from industry meddling and lawyers (rightly so) scare people. Will be interesting to see how long it stays ‘online’.
Sadly it probably will be replaced by some show less interesting than blank wallpaper - ‘entertainment’ they call it. Excrement might be a better name.
Another good reason to consign the television set to to the circular filing cabinet…As id you’d need a good reason to stop watching the fatuous drivel that passes for entertainment these days
Many forecast that FTA TV will be replaced by internet delivered programming. Now about the NBN, especially when everyone has to use it for everything… but that is another thread 
This was an excellent non-legal mechanism for consumers. It was used again and again as an education tool ( schools etc.) and online. Education is so important re making our consumer laws effective.
I encourage everyone to write to the ABC so it can review this decision.
Surely our ABC needs to be supporting consumers in our ever changing and complex marketplace.
I hope the episodes will remain online - ideally with an index for the different areas of consumer laws the program covered.
FWIW I did send ‘feedback’ to the ABC extolling The Checkout’s virtues and asking them to reconsider. The snowball has already melted as best I can tell, but nothing ventured…
This is really terrible news. This was on my list of the few things worth watching on free to air tv. Typical of the ABC to cut a worthwhile and informative broadcast. Very disappointed…
I agree. The last season with its supposed funny presentation put me off watching.
I had really appreciated the informative previous presentation.
Still a sad loss.
There are some petitions on Change.org about saving “The Checkout”. Hopefully this search query will bring them up for any interested in signing them https://www.change.org/search?q=ABC%20The%20Checkout
You’ve excelled yourself, BBG. In one sentence you’ve very effectively dealt with two dire consumer issues!
And I don’t really think we should complain that the The Checkout was too simplistic, or repeated things. Considering it was meant for a wider audience, not just consumer representatives, it needed to cover that.
Totally agree - Checkout was brilliant - very very clever.
I agree with your comments. While I absolutely LOVED The Checkout and tried to never miss an episode, I also felt that the last series was becoming rather stupid in its presentation. The earlier episodes were funny and educational but perhaps there was a change of writers. Almost as if they were trying too hard to be funny and as a result, just turned people off.
I and my daughter loved the Checkout and yes last season may not have been as good, ,I seem to remember that had to be careful about not upsetting certain corporations that the government had ties including certain vitamin companies. I imagine this required some creative rewriting and also limited what they could report on. You may also know that the government isn’t all that keen on our current consumer laws and as they see the ABC as an extension of themselves now and continue to cut funding and put pressure on programming they would prefer that most consumers not know their consumer rights. The checkout was so great at reminding people in s fun, entertaining way that anyone could easily learn their rights and I used mine quite a few times in stores and with PayPal purchases that went wrong.
