NBN News

I think it’s a good move to not change the look and feel and the name at the same time. Might freak the locals out. Be better to introduce the new look and feel and then change the brand in the new year.

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Interestingly, it looks like there’s farmland in the background of the title card, rather than a cityscape.

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I agree. Complete the rollout of the new news branding first, change the name in Northern NSW later.

On or around March 4 next year (NBN’s 55th anniversary) would probably be the most ideal time to pull the trigger on any Nine News Northern NSW branding, coinciding with a major promotional campaign of course.

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Looks very slick. Love it!

I still think it’s weird that it’s “NBN News”, but it’s on “Channel Nine”.
Same goes for that lineup ID.

I’d be surpised if that is still the case by Feb/Mar 2017, even if they have just launched a new opener based on the network one… it would be very easy to replace that with a generic looking “Nine News” branded one.

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It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if a Nine News version of the NBN News titlecards/transition graphics has already been made, so it can be quietly introduced when the time comes.

Afterall, look at how polished the new NBN News titlecards/transition graphics look compared to the last versions!

More titlecards:

Feature graphic:

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At the very least they should add “Northern NSW” or “Newcastle & Northern NSW” to a red bar under NBN News where the city name appears on 9 News openers.

Let’s hope the switch happens on Jan 1. I feel it’s a low viewed day of TV - and the change could sneak on without too much negative feedback from the audience.

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I think you’d have to add “Northern NSW & Gold Coast” on the red strip under the NBN News logo, since NBN News does broadcast into the Gold Coast (even though probably not many there watch it).

Does NBN do a local Gold Coast window in the news?

QTQ does a full 30 minute Gold Coast News so I would
Think Nine and locals see QTQ’s effort as the Gold Coast bulletin over NBNs

Yes they have a local Gold Coast window, some reporters from 9GC also report for the bulletin.

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It shouldn’t be too hard to do a seperate opener for each region, with just the region names changed, and that goes straight to the generic headlines?

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As far as I’m aware, a generic Opener is used on NBN News because all regions get the same Opener (which explains why you only see ever statewide/national/international content in the headlines segment) and first few stories before going to the local windows.

If NBN News wanted a local Opener with a different location name and local imagery, they’d probably have to change the way they record the local windows. I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

They could just have pre-recorded headlines for each region.

New titlecard on set

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Still wish that set had imagery of the Northern NSW area

Again I ask the question: To use the most extreme example, how do you implement local imagery on NBN News that viewers in both Tamworth and the Gold Coast (two distinctively different regions, both of which NBN News can be seen in) can identify with?

While it would be nice to see local imagery and backdrops in the On-Air Presentation of NBN News, it’s possibly not practical unless the way the local windows are recorded get changed as I’ve pointed out before. At the moment, I’d probably prefer NBN News to do a full rollout of the new network-wide graphics and possibly even a new set (rather than yet another heavy modification of a set which dates back to 2002!) sometime down the track.

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@SydneyCityTV

Easy. Like this. Take a look 50 seconds in

3 images of Local Imagery 1000km apart on one backdrop

It just takes some design, and some thinking.

Also it doesn’t need to be one backdrop, there can be various monitors and panels around the set with 3-5 local images on them

Traveling around the smaller stations in the US I’ve seen this done dozens of times. Where a small city skyline, suburban, rural and forrest images are all placed on one local set

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A farm? a generic coast? That’s the problem with pan regional bulletins/ sets, they have to be versatile- otherwise you have Newcastle on the background for the Gold Coast viewers.

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2 posts above you’ll see how ABC News managed to put a city skyline, a rural and a coastal image all on one backdrop and make it work together. That is just one example how it could be done.

There are many ways NBN could achieve this

  • Similar to ABC News - where a coastal, hinterland, Newcastle skyline image could stack horizontal on 1 backdrop
  • There could be various screens on set showing different local imagery (I’ve seen this on many US stations)
  • Throughout the broadcast they could alter the backdrop between images. Again we see multiple backdrops throughout a normal broadcast as it is anyways

If NBN when to a design house and said - “we want a Newcastle skyline, A Gold Coast skyline, and a coastal and inland image to all work together on a backdrop as our main shot” - a good design firm could come up with many creative solutions to make it work. The creative brief is not that much of a challenge.

As a side note, I suspect having a Gold Coast skyline is not that essential. I am pretty certain that between 9 News Gold Coast and 7 News Gold Coast - not many Gold Coast homes actually tune in to NBN News. After all, it;s focus os another state. They have 2 local Gold Coats news services,3 local Brisbane news services and ABC News Queensland to choose from. I suspect NBN News at 6 is way down the list. And although we never see Gold Coast ratings broken out I am certain QTQ Brisbane/Gold Coast out rates NBN Newcastle/Gold Coast in the city by a margin of 10 to 1.

Yes, Gold Coast is a broadcast area of NBN - but I suspect NBN News on the Gold Coast gets fewer than 5000 viewers (7 News Gold Coast gets about 30,000)

So in short - I don’t think it is that essential to have Gold Coast as part of backdrop - although it is certainly possible.

Another idea would be to have a generic backdrop - and use local images on backdrop for the local window.

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