Finance show which began as Lateline Business in 2006 has been culled as ABC looks to evolve covering business news.
ABC has axed The Business its late night business and finance program hosted by Alicia Barry and Kirsten Aiken on ABC and ABC News channels.
Announced just 2 days after the ABC Showcase, it will cease at the end of its current season.
It launched as Lateline Business in 2006 before being rebranded as The Business in 2012, with previous hosts including Ali Moore, Ticky Fullerton, Elysse Morgan.
Staff were advisesdby ABC this morning, “Business is a crucial reporting round and we’re committed to finding ways for the team to do more of the original and impactful journalism it’s known for. To enable us to focus our resources on delivering that we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue The Business TV program at the end of its current season.
“This decision is no reflection on the quality of the program or the dedication of the people who work on it. The Business has been a valuable part of our offering since it started originally as Lateline Business and has a loyal audience we value.
“However, we believe the time and resources invested in this 15-minute program would be better deployed producing even more distinctive and impactful business journalism across all our platforms – the website and app, News Channel, our podcasts and our YouTube channels, as well as in our broadcast radio and TV programs.
“The team will continue to produce reported pieces and go after the most important and interesting interviews, and these will be made available across our platforms throughout the day. We know the business audience is increasingly turning to our continuous and digital platforms to access news as it happens and we want to make our outstanding daily business news reporting and analysis available on demand to the broadest audience.
“We’re working on a range of ideas which we’ll further develop in the new year. Among them, we’ll be launching a visualised format for the ABC Business Daily podcast and are looking into producing a daily afternoon wrap of the latest markets news.”
ABC recently announced David Chau as its new 7pm ABC News finance presenter to succeed Alan Kohler, with Jessica Irvine is ABC’s new Money Correspondent.
1: I’m a little sad to say that after 20 years, The Business (which started off as Lateline Business) has been cancelled. The final episode will air on 10 December. I had a lot of fun filing TV stories for this program, guest-hosting it over the years…
— David Chau (@ChauDave) October 22, 2026