While I agree that ABC News should focus more on the content of their bulletins rather than the presenters of them, at the same time I do think it’d be nice to see the presenters of ABC News NSW express just a little bit more of their personality on-air at the appropriate moments.
I also think the ABC should be running as much promotion for the 7pm bulletin as they can. A single update at 6pm doesn’t cut it these days when viewers of the commercial networks (particularly Seven & Nine) are bombarded with promos & updates for their news services.
Brian Henderson did express a little bit of his personality during bulletins though, particularly when things went wrong (eg, the lights out incident of 1993) and during the crosses to/from Sport. It’s a trait which I think to at least some extent, Peter Overton has picked up.
One would imagine that the ABC would offer the feed to other networks (as they have in the past for things like ANZAC Day ceremonies) to broadcast if they wished.
Local News is important in places like the NT where media presence is lower and they have their own government etc, and when there is no local stories it’s painful to watch.
I personally would’ve said that local news is important everywhere, but I definitely take you’re point.
The ABC’s commitment to live, local, seven day a week TV news in Australia’s two mainland territories is to be commended overall, but it must be frustrating when there’s no (or very little) local TV news on weekends! A pity when Nine News seemed to provide a decent service for Darwin on weekends it was “streamlined” into the Regional QLD product 20 months ago…
