COVID-19: Impact on Australian TV Industry

Here’s one. How are networks going to go about producing content for next year? eg Shows like the block, Masterchef, Lego masters, Ninger Worrier as well as drama content? How are they going to make all this content in what could be way less than 6 months?

I doubt the networks would allow these channels to go off-air completely. There is probably re-negotiations of contracts occurring as we speak or temporary solutions until further notice.

just stuff about covid-19

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If regional gets bailed out, so should community tv.

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Their license is running out at the end of June - many people will probably be out of a job if that happens and (if that happens) it couldn’t be at a worse time.

Community television is being shutdown, so that would be pointless.

You missed my point.

His point is if the government provides a lifeline for regional TV, they should reverse the decision to shut down Community TV.

It’s a fair call I guess.

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“Cassidy recorded six episodes of an intended eight-part season, focusing on leadership in modern Australia, before the coronavirus pandemic halted filming.”

I guess this means such shows will need to have a shorter season if they’re going ahead with playing the episodes they already have in the can.

Jamie Durie told the Herald Sun that the new season of House Rules, which began tonight, was extremely lucky to have wrapped production just days before new government guidelines shut down production on fellow reality TV shows such as The Block and The Voice. That means we are assured of a result.

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I noticed that The Lego Masters S2 starts on the 19 Apr on Nine. I believe that this show will run for about 3-5 weeks or so. GIven that the production of The Voice was halted due to the coronavirus concerns, I guess that Australia Ninja Warrior will start in mid to late May. (Australia Ninja Warrior has finished production at the end of last month). Given that The production of The Block was delayed, I think Nine will probably have to run repeats of shows in July.

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this is what i meant when i said about win tv news had a go at the communications minister

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ABC’s bigger issue with regional news would be actually being able to broadcast it - they don’t have enough unique feeds in place to be able to insert a local bulletin - same reason they need to air the metro ABC Local Radio feed rather than the local region ones.

Restoring that ability would be a worthwhile investment, but not something viable as a short term fix. Go yell at the Nationals if you want that…

Yep - this was handled well in the UK - both STV and UTV (prior to them being bought out) provided their own variant of the ITV player, including providing their own local channels to stream.

Problem is that there’s no incentive for the metro networks to play nice - they get 100% of revenue if the regional broadcasters don’t co-operate.

Plus, you already see the lack of care from the metro networks - NBN News and Seven Local News in Queensland both aren’t on their respective catch up players - they absolutely should be. No regional operator regardless of ownership has made a good digital strategy, and that’s part of their failures here.


The main thing being discussed broadcast wise would be the three regional operators shutting down two of the three transmitters in each market and broadcasting a combined service, perhaps of just the main channel - in order to slash their transmission costs and reduce their dilution of ad revenue. That would have competition and licensing issues, but could be waived if the alternative is being shut down without that.

I think the bigger issue might be councils needing to turn off local self-help sites, as they see defaults on rate payments and the like.

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No I didn’t.

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@TV-ACT SCA agreed to that 50% without a gun to their head. And I suspect the pulling of their 3 regional news bulletins was decided by SCA together with Nine to save BOTH parties money.

Basically SCA spends 50% of their revenue to program their 4 channels 24/7 52 weeks a year. And get all marketing, promo and publicity done for them.

I wonder what % Of their revenue Nine spends on the same. I suspect it’s far more than 50%

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Why should the tax-payer bail our these companies. First ask the owners (Billionaire Bruce) and shareholders to provide funds

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Thats probably unlikely - most Councils arent solely reliant on rate revenue for funding, state and federal funding makes up a large portion of their income

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Apparently Plate of Origin has now completed filming. Seven seem to now be in the best position for fresh new content to complete the year.

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I’d be very hesitant if I were a network to rush out content. I’d be sitting on some as we don’t know how long this will all last.

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