Th problem for me isn’t so much the NBN name itself …
It’s the inconsistent branding WITHIN the bulletin…
It is not uncommon for a network report to have:
An intro where the NBN newsreader says something like “the network has investigated”
The report appears with a"First on NBN News" logo cover up
The reporter says something like “Nine News can reveal”
The reporter appears on screen holding a Nine branded microphone
The report ends with a pre-recorded “NBN News” reporter sign off right where the “Nine News” sign off would be heard otherwise.
It’s just a mess.
Nine probably doesn’t want to want to alienate viewers in NBN-land with too many changes at once so while such a slow burn approach might be a bit painful for us media enthusiasts who want to see sweeping changes and full network branding, you can understand why Nine are carefully introducing the new branding to NBN viewers on the news which is at/near #1 in the ratings the last I checked.
Really…people complained when the nightly Big Dog segment was changed recently, could you imagine the screams of anger if NBN News suddenly became Nine News without any warning?!
It’s also worth remembering that it has only been about a month and a half since Nine started to really make it’s mark on Northern NSW TV with “9NBN” branding. If the experience of Nine Adelaide/Perth becoming network O&O stations in 2013 was anything to go by, it will probably take around 6 months before 9NBN becomes fully integrated with the rest of the Nine Network.
But the difference in Adelaide was changed pretty much changed overnight lol. Something like July 3rd 2013 we received a Matthew O’Sullivan voiced promo and I almost fell off my chair hearing his booming voice in my living room haha.
Anyway getting a bit sidetracked there, NBN is a different beast to NWS. NWS, although owned previously by WIN was already branded as Nine Adelaide and it had been from the get go back in 1959, under ownership of Clive Palmers favourite media magnate - Rupert Murdoch. So I can fully understand NEC easing into this, however it would have made more sense to start making these sort of changes back when the station was purchased
The Big Dog situation is a bit different, it’s only still there because parents use it to put kids to bed.
And I dare say it will still be there when the NBN brand is gone.
I don’t think what the station or news bulletin is called will matter much to people, just as long as there is still local news in it.
Would be great to introduce big dog to the rest of the nine network as well. Great concept that just doesn’t really exist elsewhere anymore. (Except Perth where you need a time machine to travel there )
Crazy the inconsistent use of the logos across the network. I remember when Sunshine Television became Seven in Townsville. We only had the local paper TV guide had the Seven logo mid week and then on the weekend following, it was just seven overnight. No inconsistencies. No logo slipups. No continued use of the Sunshine brand. Even in the lead up to the change all the advertising for shows the week following was still with sunshine logos and vo until changeover. I am unsure why nine find it so hard to just switch the branding. What backlash is it really gonna cause? People will still want to watch the NRL and their favourite Nine shows.
For the community billboard…just use the Nine lineup background. Where the word Tonight is…have community billboard stacked there. In that space where the lineup is normally listed, list the information about the community event. Simples.
9NBN should have used the promos announcing 9HD and 9Life back in February as an opportunity to advise viewers of a straight rebrand to Nine from 1st March.
All they had to do was explain that all the programming including local news and Big Dog etc would remain unchanged.
I’m sure there would not have been any issues had they been clear about this from the start.
All of this “inching” towards a rebrand is just likely to confuse viewers more.
There was none of this nonsense of having to contend with Digital TV LCNs, secondary digital channels, motion blur, pixelation, trying to work out if you were REALLY getting HD, or trying to watch via a third party box (other than your VCR).
Has NBN ever done local coverage of Newcastle’s ANZAC Day dawn service before? If not, I wonder if it’s yet another Kylie Blucher initiative as part of the slow and steady Nine-ification of NBN Television?
In any case, it’s pretty good to see a regional station doing coverage of the local ANZAC Day dawn service in this day and age!
Channel Nine Sydney will just run coverage of Sydney’s main ANZAC Day dawn service at Martin Place on Monday morning at 4.30am, if the EPG (no references to Newcastle as far as I can tell) is anything to go by.
So I’d probably say that NBN is providing local coverage and considering that NBN’s coverage starts at 5am (judging by the pics of the promo above) while Nine Sydney’s coverage starts at 4.30am, the transition to the local coverage could be very interesting!
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