The more people write about it, the more people will talk about it. If you don’t want people to talk about it, don’t write about it.
If you ignore something, it will go away. And as for Hugh Marks, if she wasn’t a journalist of some calibre, why offer her $1.8 million. I am sure we would all love to be on that sort of money for being nothing special…
Anyone disagree??
Well I guess the argument would be the 6:30 timeslot is working with good demographics and the 7pm portion often wins all important demographics.
The 6pm timeslot on Ten has probably been a major problem for (at least) the last 25 years or so.
As it’s already been pointed out, news is really the only thing that works on TV at 6pm but unless Ten were to really spend big on poaching Seven/Nine News staff including their top tier newsreaders, Ten will never get anywhere in the ratings with a 6pm news bulletin even if it’s a particularly well produced news service.
I agree, although I do wish the now largely resolved issue of Lisa Wilkinson would go away soon because there’s more important news happening at the moment.
It’s important to remember that The Project (particularly the 7pm half hour) and Ten Eyewitness News are among the best consistent performers for Ten. Yes, they could both be better, but making rash changes to them risk doing more harm that good. It’s unlikely that something else in those slots will attract similar number straight away, and given the lack of brand-loyalty Ten currently have they are also unlikely to follow the programs to new times.
There is undeniably a problem with 6pm. Viewers drop like flies for the 6pm hour - it is the most competitive hour on TV, and clearly once people get settled into Seven or Nine’s news they don’t switch off until 7. Obviously people change back to The Project at 7pm. At least some of these would also tune in at 6:30 if Ten had something to get their attention at 6:00, removing the need to go to Nine or Seven.
Family Feud is hands down the wrong show for the 6pm half hour. I’m not going to debate it’s merits - but the sticking point is that it goes after a different audience to what they’re aiming at for The Project - causing yet another turn off at 6:30.
TENFAF has to stay. It is the flagship bulletin that the network is known for. It the #1 news bulletin at 5pm. It is also the #1 program for 5:00-5:30pm weekdays. (Note that The Chase has different coding for the 5pm half hour that does not usually make it into the top 20). Dropping the 5pm bulletin will only cause viewers to switch earlier, and have even less chance of being there at 6pm.
Whatever Ten do at 6pm has to be news related, and it has to fit between their existing brands. Whether it become a 1 hour at 6pm and a 30minute project at 7pm, or 30 mins at 6 followed by 1 hour of The Project is less important. The formats can work that out.
Clearly, people will tune into the Project at 7pm regardless - they’re doing it now, so tuning in mid-show obviously works. Those viewers would know no different if the show started at 7pm.
The Project should also finish no later that 7:30. 7:30 is a switch over time for all networks - any deviation from this would set Ten back and encourage viewers to not switch to Ten at 7:30.
I would personally got a 30 minutes at 6pm, and keep the project as is. The effort that’s goes into The Project warrants it to be 1 hour rather than a short, sharp 30 minutes. It would also given their new 6pm program a point of difference - being shorter, sharper and potentially more fast-paced than Seven and Nine’s offering.
The aim isn’t to be Seven and Nine. That’s too hard (but might happen with the right formula). The aim is to draw in some of their viewers, through retaining their own viewers from 5pm, and giving an option for people who want to watch The Project, but also want to get news at 6pm.
Local or national could also be debated. Pros and cons for both - but ultimately whatever they show has to be relevant, and different enough from the other 2 programs to prevent it becoming repetitive.
I agree about keeping First at Five News for the time being, and like a 6pm bulletin, i would favour a 5pm News program, both being half an hour.
Perhaps they could do a weekday format of something like Have You Being Paying Attention, where contestants are asked news related trivia. Alternatively, Ten could do something completely different and do a On This Day style tv show at 5:30pm, showing big stories from that day in history. Anything they didnt have footage for, pre Network 10 era, they could have the host reading out those events. That kind of show could have someone like Rove McManus or Peter Hellier host it, should they go to another news oriented show.
Ultimately, they need to show something that is either news related or a game show at 5:30pm to bolster viewer numbers from 5pm til 7:30pm
Personally, and although might cost a bit, I would do a local Project at 6pm - ironically called The Local Project.
maybe at 5:30pm between Ten News at 5 and Ten News at 6…??
Family Fued is obviously staying for the foreseeable future if Ten are going to the trouble to cut the cost of making it.
Personally I wouldn’t change the news and the schedule would look something similar to this:
4:00 Neighbours
4:30 Bold & the Beautiful
5:00 Ten Eye Witness News
6:00 The Local Project
6:30 The Project
7:30 Reality
8:30 Light Entertainment/Drama
9:30 Late Night News
“Local” Project… seems unlikely as Ten don’t even have local news on the weekend. Any change would have to be national, at least initially.
Yeah I was just suggesting what I would do. But yes there is obviously a need for a local news as well.
I think most agree keep ten 5pm news and its just the 5:30pm to 7:30pm time slot is where we vary in our opinions .
I think a 6pm News would be produced in the state it airs (except NT, ACT and Tasmania), where as a 5pm bulletin would be a national edition. That is why I think 5pm news should go back to 30 minutes.
The 5pm bulletin would be the biggest national stories, where as a 6pm bulletin would have some of the national stories But also include state based stories. QLD viewers would say who cares if an accident occurred on Pennant Hills Road in Pennant Hills NSW, as in NSW viewers would say who cares if who cares if toll road fees went up in Melbourne…
State relevant issues at 6pm is what Ten would need in a news broadcast and be state produced with a state focus in mind
One other option, only it might not be financially viable would be to extend The Project to 90 minutes or 2 hours and present it like one of the Breakfast television shows, but instead of having a national news update every half hour, alternate between national news and state based news eg insert state news windows
Say for example it ran 5:30pm til 7:30pm insert national news at 5:30pm and 6:30pm for 10 mins whilst at 6pm and 7pm insert state based news for 10 minutes. Then the rest would take on the current format of The Project
I think it would probably be quite cost effective. Obviously it might cost more than Family Feud but Studio 10 didn’t cost ten a lot to extend. The reason for a local version was simply to bring a local news bulletin without it being a typical news program. News is changing and I think The Project is a nice different way of delivering news and is extremely successful on Facebook and Twitter.
Perhaps inserting local windows into a breakfast show could be an option for Ten as well, assuming they want a breakfast show.
In the late 1980s, Ten had a motto, Ten where news comes FIRST!!!.. maybe they need to show some leadership and show that news doesn’t stop after 7:30pm and start up again at 5am… its a 24 hour news cycle. Perhaps as i said put local windows into a breakfast show as well as during the evening news programs
Thinking about how would that work in regional areas which currently have WIN local news at 18:00…
Obviously that’s WIN’s problem, and it’s Bermuda-based Bruce who’d most likely refuse to change the local-only bulletin to a combination local/national/international bulletin (at 18:00), and would certainly not do local/regional versions of The Project… I suppose the local-only news could move to 17:30, with the state capital bulletin at 18:00…
Well maybe they could do what Seven used to do for Prime in regional areas with the morning show, have an edited start eg regionals that have local news could come in at 6pm. And as for promotions, maybe have a second advertisement for whats on The Project for regional areas
The Two Kates at 6, live. I’d watch that.
It could allow WIN to put its own local windows also. Have any local station make its own stories and cut to other stories from other locations… so Wollongong could show the Sydney stories they wanted.
As above, if there’s a Sydney Eyewitness News at 6pm, you could have a Wollongong Eyewitness News with some local stories and half to 2/3 of the Sydney stories.
Perhaps we could bypass all this and move to Interactive News on connected STBs and TVs. What’s CBS doing in that space?
By that I mean our News could be tailored to us specifically, which likely includes local stories but could also add stories from our home town, and our own interests. And press the Red button to see more about a story. News doesn’t have to be live or linear.
Is there any reason to assume CBS will be focused on one main channel? I mean, I know that’s traditionally the way it’s been (here and in the US) with everything else an afterthought. But there is ONE and 11, and another if they want.
If they build around their online presence, it shifts things.
Start with the TenPlay portal with free / ad supported content. Live local shows and immediate fast tracked US material. Catchup the last few weeks. Interactive News.
My real question is - is there a big advantage to sticking to one channel, with everything else an afterthought.