My thoughts are each regional bulletin will have it’s own static backdrop (or similar to how other WIN bulletins are done) as none of the bulletins will be live.
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I seem to remember that WIN used to do that once in 2006 when it showed a static background of the region it represented
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Win use a generic backdrop so stories can be shared across markets
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Anything in the old NRN area would be replaced by Hunter region stories. Stories from the old ECN8 area Port Macquarie to Bulahdelah would be filler stories in the interim until they build up enough of a following to justify a full bulletin. If successful, Central Coast stories would be added to the mix.
I supposed noodle updates will suffice for Seven
It’s really not possible to do the bulletin like that. A complete logistical nightmare with timing and also the fact that Newcastle audiences aren’t gonna give a rat’s about anything in Taree etc. The same deal if the Gold Coast was added to the bulletin. Nobody cares about much south of the border in that city.
You would need a full dedicated bulletin to Newcastle and the Hunter or forget it, but I’ve outlined reasons why it won’t happen in another post.
Going back in topic, I know NBN/WIN News will most likely have filler stories based on every other WIN bulletin. It looks cheap and nasty so I suspect audiences may be in for a shock come late June.
If that’s the case, the bulletin would need to branded as ‘WIN News’, otherwise it would be odd seeing/hearing WIN News mic socks and signs off in an ‘NBN News’ branded bulletin.
I don’t necessarily see it that way… By pre-recording everything, you just have eg.
10 x presenter intros @ 20 seconds each
10 x reports @ 1:40 m:s seach
weather @ 2:30 m:s
Total 22:30 (and 7.5 minutes of ads to fill up the half hour) and you just change the order of intros/reports to suit each market? That’s probably how they do it now for S.NSW, VIC, QLD ?
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That comment was in relation to a truncated Seven Coast News Bulletin. Replacing a 1:30 Lismore package with a 1:15 Newcastle package. Just no. Also timings can change for breaking news/lvos/other unspecified reasons.
Weather isn’t always on a fixed time either (a default time yes). Means everything else must be on accurate timing, which means read rates are correct and editors haven’t made any timing errors or other issues during the bulletin are timed out to the second. WIN, because they pre-rec have time to edit out longer packages if they’re overtime if they use fixed weather timings.
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The whole NNSW ad market is worth around $55-$60m annually.
just 1-2 % points of lost revenue for Win by this boneheaded move could be $1.2 million.
Any savings made could be wiped out quickly.
If seven were to take advantage and so something that loss could accelerate.
And it goes beyond 6pm. If NBN looses its 6-7pm advantage over the next 12 months - that flows onto 7pm and primetime. In a market of 2.4 million (1.8 if you strip out Gold Coast) win is playing with fire. I’m hoping they get burned badly
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Remember, Nine has a vested interest in this too, since they get 50% of the revenue.
I doubt they would just let WIN do something ‘boneheaded’.
I still think Nine/WIN have calculated that the savings from foregoing local weekends etc will more than offset the lost revenue.
WIN is probably the least savvy broadcaster in Australia. We’ve seen this pattern many times (being on the wrong side of history fighting streaming, removing nine programming, losing the nine affiliation) history shows they have taken big swings and gotten things wrong.
My position is they’ve calculated incorrectly here
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Nine is a business too. They had 19 years to axe weekends and blowup the weeknight bulletin. They chose not to. We don’t know their motives - but we do know businesses are motivated by money and revenue.
Nine sees the ratings of cities and markets with taped region wide news at 5.30, and out of market news at 6. And it chose not to implement that at NBN for 2 decades.
Aussie tv networks do boneheaded things regularly 
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Could they potentially lean towards Jane to keep her?
I don’t see why not… depends if/how long she’s on contract for, whether there’s any clause in them about what happens if the business is sold etc (as just happened).
But if they keep Natasha as their 5.30pm presenter, she’ll most likely just be a full time reporter and maybe as a back up presenter and (most likely) no national exposure as she has been getting via the Late News etc.
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The market is contracting anyway so any reduction isn’t just a result of whatever moves are made here.
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Yet it insisted on increases in affiliation fees (now 50% but they wanted 60% back in 2007) that forced WIN to continue cutting back its News division resources, cut bulletins from smaller markets and also forced WIN into a simulcast prime time schedule in its latest agreement. Clearly they don’t see it as clearly as you think they do.
Admittedly, there would still have to have been some cuts over the years because of deteriorating market conditions but not to the level it has been pushed into doing where there is a skeleton operation remaining.
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Those affiliation fee disputes and WIN’s cost pressures are real, but that’s a different point, and that does not really address the point about whether a 5:30pm bulletin and axed weekend news is the most commercially sound model.
Nine has had more than 20 years of ratings data showing how Newcastle responds to different local news formats, yet it never moved NBN down that path. If Nine genuinely believed a 5:30pm regional bulletin, followed by out-of-market news at 6pm and a complete removal of weekend news, was the optimal way to maximise margins, it had every opportunity to implement that model itself.
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Nine doesn’t have the economies of scale with regional news that WIN has in order to be able to produce half hour bulletins cost effectively. So going to a 30 minute local bulletin wasn’t going to save them any money.
Nine tried to sell NBN to Southern Cross when they were the Nine affiliate about 5-6 years ago, so that tells me NBN was not beneficial to them anymore back then either.
And Nine seemingly didn’t want to cut NBN weekend news only because it didn’t want its brand associated with cutting news bulletins,
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Most of WIN’s more savage cuts were surviving the Ten affiliation era, but then it destroyed the product and has created a vicious cycle ever since.
NBN in their current format are an established success, but WIN are turfing that in favour of their unproven structure because that’s how they do it, not because of any actual issue, this announcement would have been 2 years in to their ownership if it were actually motivated by trying and failing to cost down the operations.
The NBN News structure better hides the lack of actual local news reporting - as you sandwich it in with state and national news and sport, you’re not seeing story after story of irrelevant local stories from other regions, and at worst it’s the local window being padded, not a full half hour.
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Which is usually in the first block of news on NBN News, so you risk losing viewers early, whereas in a half hour bulletin, you can push the lesson relevant items back further into the bulletin.