Former ABC personality Andy Muirhead's sentencing hearing has been adjourned until the court can hear argument as to whether he had any sexual interest in the child pornography he viewed, or was just curious.

The former host of Collectors and Hobart breakfast radio has admitted downloading 12,409 images and 24 videos over a 14-month period from early 2009.

They were recovered from his hard drive after attempts to delete them. A further 876 child pornography files were found on his computer when it was seized by police.

Australian Federal Police officers estimated 2173 children were depicted in the images.