Despite being sister cities… CHCH is a about a third of the size of Adelaide.
Back in the 80’s each of the four regions had their own little half hour show after the news…
Our’s was the mainland touch - it was a news/current affairs type operation…
Cantabrians would always tune in for the smog reports during the winter.
Novel idea.
TV3 has always been seen as a JAFA station.
Broadening the idea that they actually care about anyone south of the Bombay Hills would be a first.
In Timaru we had a local freelance cameraman who would provide footage to TV3 if ever there was anything happening… similar arrangements may need to be formalised… but it could be worth a shot…
Truth is however - it would probably only appeal to Canterbury and Otago.
The Westcoasters are a law unto themselves and the Nelson/Marlborough types aren’t mainlanders.
Treating the South Island as a separate entity wouldn’t work either. You’d either need to go region or nothing at all. No different showing a Dunedin story to Cantabrians on a South Island bulletin than it is on a national bulletin.
Adding to that, the TV advertising market isn’t really there for regionals. Almost everything now is a network/nationwide ad, bar a few exceptions. TV2 doesn’t even do regional breakouts for ads anymore.
I had to google that, but I get the idea.
I understand New Zealand isn’t a large market, but surly the issues that face the South Island are completely different to what’s happening in Auckland etc.
When I compare the state of Victoria, which has over 6.5 million people, OK a little bit bigger than New Zealand’s current population, but look at the local news content that’s produced there.
As a commercial sense, I cant understand why Newshub isn’t capitalizing on this region. I’m also mystified that TVNZ - a government owned station isn’t filling this requirement?
To keep costs done, the presentation/production of the south bulletin could still be based in Auckland, but transmitted to the South Island. Similar to what Nine News (local), WIN News and Prime7 News do in regional Australia.
It’s not to say the appetite isn’t there its simply that the networks haven’t wanted to spend the money to do it. With the decrease in audience these days its an idea that would be well and truly dead.
I would argue that because New Zealand very early on in its TV days had a national news bulletin as the main evening bulletin (unlike Australia) we have simply accepted that a national news bulletin is what we get on our screens. From the looks of it the local news was an offshoot and TVNZ felt it was something it could cut while still keeping a full national news bulletin in tact.
In the early stages of TV3 they were meant to operate with about 4 hubs (3 in the North Island and 1 for the South Island) each hub would have a local news bulletin. This of course never happened and TV3 is almost entirely based in Auckland.
The South Island isn’t a region though its made up of separate regions and cities that aren’t any different to the ones in the North Island. A local government story in Canterbury has about as much interest to someone in Dunedin as a local Auckland story - very little!
Not really. Unlike Australia, a murder in Dunedin for example is nationwide news across the country or flooding in Palmerston North or in sport… an injury to the Chiefs in Super Rugby.
Smaller things can get missed but in reality, most stories are presented on a national scale. And even when a local council story is presented, it’s done in a way to be relevant to the local and national scale.
Newshub barely survived a tumultuous cost-cutting period a few years ago. It will never happen.
Prime News (NZ) used to be done out of Sky Australia so not totally foreign. But a ‘South Island’ bulletin done from Auckland wouldn’t be overly palatable anyway.
No doubt @BJT2 you have some positive ideas but as @Reece pointed out, not only has the horse bolted on regional TV news, it’s died of old age on a farm in Auckland.
And I’ll disagree with @Reece in one aspect, the demand/appetite isn’t there. If it was, someone would be doing it.
Local news and sport seems to be keeping the Australian/American TV stations afloat these days. Its something other platforms still can’t offer.
I’m just focusing on the south island as an example, but how many separate editions would be required to cater per region? Could you not do a central presentation (in one city) and transmit separate editions to each market? A good example for this would be Nine News (Local).
There is a difference between doing something and doing something you can afford to do. TV news in NZ is very much the latter.
Very true.
When I went to school at Timaru Boys High School I was the only Maori in my class.
I was the only Maori in my form.
At one stage I was the only Maori at the entire school (of over 770 students).
Don’t tell me the Mainland isn’t any different to the North.
I was more making the point that the South Island isn’t a single unified region that exists alongside the regions that are in the North Island.
I still have a ‘South Island Passport’ that I picked up from Whitcoulls a couple of years ago (OK… maybe a few decades ago)…
Back then us South Islanders were listening to:
We’re gonna cut the cable now, we’re gonna do it soon… we’re gonna cut the cable now - tough titty Rob Muldoon!
We’re much more united than you JAFAs give us credit.
Even though we are clearly going off topic…
I was born in Dunedin and and have lived in the South Island my entire life.
United sure, but when it comes to local news coverage a South Island wide approach won’t please everybody and would probably become Christchurch heavy. Which would no doubt bring the same complaints that people think the news can be Auckland-centric.
Cantabrians have been made to make the trek to Dunedin for the big events in recent years… AB tests, concerts… since the quake… CHCH is no longer the be-all and end-all of the mainland…
What used to be Auckland-Wellington-Christchurch has now become Auckland-Wellington-Dunedin…
So not sure what your point is…
what have I started? 
Your idea is great.
CTV had quite a good little local news service (as Channel 39 does now)…
I think most Mainlanders would find a South Island bulletin refreshing and valuable.
Over 1 million people with something in common - we all share an Island together.
As for news - it’s ridiculous to suggest most Cantabrians couldn’t care less what happens in Otago.
It’s the South Island FFS. Most of us have relatives there and vice versa.
Lol, I know. Over a nonexistent local news service.
I still think it could be done. The people need to demand it and government needs to push it.
My Dad’s sister worked for TVNZ in Dunedin for 20 years… Primarily in children’s TV (Dunedin was the hub in that for many years)… she worked on the South Tonight for a long time…
It’s not really non-existent… it has a history.
Agreed it has a history and sadly it ended prematurely.
My comments were more about the hypothetical South Island news service BJT2 was proposing.
It could be done. And if needed the government could cough up the bucks.
BUT…
As a Mainlander (born in Blenheim) I’d much rather that money be spent on Te Reo.
Aotearoa is a world leader in the preservation of indigenous language.
Australia took the lead from Maori TV to create NITV (and not the other way 'round).
Other countries look to what Aotearoa is doing in relation to the preservation of culture.
We should continue to be at the forefront of this internationally…
And any suggestion from Australia that we should be more like them (and adopt local regionalised news), though quaint…
Is not what we are about as New Zealanders.