Interesting article, especially with the omition that NZ Idol could of potentially gone to Prime which seems crazy looking back. Imagine if Nine was more aggressive and actually went after the CBS deal and pushed for the warriors games to be LIVE only on Prime. The speculation that Holmes would get $20 million dollars to help his programme seems over the top and if true that money should of went to strengthen Prime News or better yet a NZ version of the Today show. So much nostalgia looking back on Prime’s pivot towards becoming a major player in this market. The joy of seeing 3 networks compete for the 7pm slot with current affairs was such a unique era in NZ broadcasting.
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They talked up a big game with Paul Holmes didn’t they. It was a bit of an embarrassing example of perceived star power failing to fire in the end. Ultimately the viewers were channel loyal and remained for Close up and Susan Wood. I also can’t imagine his lead in programme was appealing either, probably an old US or UK sitcom.
Looking at Three’s varying success over the years, its hard to say whether Prime would have succeeded with the programming they attempted to line up. The TVNZ stranglehold was too strong then.
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It was stupid of Prime to put him on at 7pm, up against Susan Wood on 1 and John Campbell on 3 (not to mention Shorty!). In fact I think the whole thing was an exercise in futility. I reckon it might have made more sense for them to, as you say @Leotv, have put that money towards Prime News, put that on at 7pm and make a big deal of it being just half an hour (‘news at the speed of light!’), and use that as a lead in to prime time. Of course this is all ancient history now.
One would argue it still is…
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Stronghold alright! I wouldnt be surprised if they end up pushing for the contract for prime news sooner or later. TVNZ are starting to turn into a monopoly
The market is hardly a monopoly, there are many players, not just one.
Are TVNZ in a position to produce a bulletin for Prime? Would they be interested?
Is she filling for Janika for this weekend since she is away?
Janika ter Ellen, who normally anchors Prime News on weekends, may be on assignment for Newshub’s 6pm bulletin as a reporter or popped up in various other programmes within the Newshub brand, so the weekend edition of Prime News is read by various Newshub journalists as anchors (e.g. Heather Keats, Michael O’Keeffe, Karen Rutherford, Lucy Warhurst, Alice Wilkins etc).
Eric Young is hosting Prime / Sky’s COM22 games from Sky studios, it would be great if he hosted prime news from there
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@Michael_Eccles Prime News is produced by the same team as Newshub at its Flower Street studios and Sky’s own studios, where Eric Young introduces Prime’s early morning coverage of the Commonwealth Games, do not produce Prime News. I wish Newshub and Sky would merge, as I said earlier…
I think it’s good that there are more than 2 media players but I think Sky should produce the news or at lest have a “sky sport” segment
Generating news and employing journalists is incredibly costly. It makes no sense for SKY to produce its own news bulletins for a low-rating channel when it can get a well-put-together product from Newshub for just a fraction of the cost.
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This is entirely different to the promo I saw this morning around 7am.
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A bit of a retro capture from 7th February 2005. Includes a breakdown from broadcast
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I may be vastly exaggerating this - but it felt like in the Sydney transmission days there were a lot of breakdowns - also when it was being controlled out of Sydney when Eric Young was reading from Albany.
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Rather embarrassing considering it was the debut night for Paul Holmes on Prime.
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I didn’t watch it by choice but did occasionally get to witness Prime News back then, so many little errors and just sloppiness. There really hasn’t been any major negatives with Newshub producing the bulletin when it replaced such an inferior product. Also goes to show that Sky didn’t really care either.
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Looks like a complete gfx and autocue failure. Jeez
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