The ABC has a unique place in the increasingly fractured Australian media landscape.

Unbeholden to advertising or subscription dollars, the ABC can take creative risks and prioritise uniquely Australian stories.

Like hitting the road with the last of the travelling saddlers on Landline, or cave diving under the Nullarbor on Conversations, or investigating aged care on Four Corners,.

Or delivering lifesaving emergency broadcasting on local radio, or launching another band on triple j Unearthed, or spawning a craze for animated Blue Heelers on ABC Kids.

Free Account:

The iView service remains indispensable and trusted, and to ensure it continues to deliver to all Australians wherever they live and however they choose to use it, ABC iView will soon require people to have an free ABC account to watch.

This may seem counterintuitive for a commercial-free taxpayer-funded broadcaster, but in its nine decades the ABC has always had to move with the times, recognising changing audience habits.

And on this occasion it's hardly an early adopter – commercial media and SBS have already made the move.

Increasingly, Australians expect to pick up where they left off on streaming platforms, they expect to save favourites and receive recommendations, and in this algorithm-enabled world that means asking ABC iView users to share some information about themselves.

So, ABC iView will ask for an email, first name (or pseudonym), year of birth, suburb or postcode, and gender. On gender there will be a "Prefer not to say" option.

How the ABC keeps your details private

The ABC is bound by the Privacy Act and follows the Australian Privacy Principles on managing personal information.

People will be able to access any personal information held by the ABC about them by contacting the ABC's privacy officer.

The ABC will never sell your data.

And nothing about creating a login changes the editorial independence, integrity, or responsibility of the ABC.

There will be an 'Opt out' if a person doesn't want some data shared with third parties (like Facebook and Google — used to personalise ABC recommendations), or if that person doesn't want to receive ABC marketing emails.

Making the case for personalisation last year, ABC managing director David Anderson warned that global streaming platforms would only grow stronger.

"The danger is that our Australian stories get lost in the mix, or don't get told at all, and that our sense of shared national identity is thereby diminished," he told the National Press Club.

Requiring a login on ABC iView, with all the privacy and data protections people expect of the ABC, enables the commercial-free public broadcaster to continue to nurture its relationship with audiences & provide ever improving FREE content.

To read the ABC's 'Privacy Policy' visit : help.abc.net.au/hc/en-us/articles/360001154976-ABC-Privacy-Policy