That doesn’t look like a viz generated graphic - the gradient on the top line is very odd… Perhaps an old post-production template?
This is odd:
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Part of the ‘Gridlocked’ series of special reports in Melbourne starting tonight. There was a live cross to Reid Butler travelling on the Monash Freeway towards Pakenham.
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Airlie Walsh was due to present the Early News this morning however her plane from Ballina was diverted to Melbourne due to inclement weather.
Much prefer the Early News presented from the Today set.
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No, it’s smart.
Using the 4pm bulletin to provide some in-depth local coverage is a great promotional vehicle and shows how GTV is prepared to get to the issues that affect Melbourne.
Everyone in Melbourne complains about traffic; this will have great social cut through, you’d imagine.
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I’m not opposed to the 4pm News being different to 6pm and them doing more special reports or even more OBs. I just think the subject was strange and not sure if it required that level of coverage.
They led with that story and long-piece interviews (as far as I could tell via social media) and pushed the news of the day back. Different if the state government had announced a new investment in roads today or there was an accident that caused congestion for hours. I just can’t see this helping them against 7.
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You’re not from Melbourne, are you?
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Eww
Nine News Perth had its first in-studio weather segment today under the new graphics package.
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Wha? When did this happen? And how? I always thought 7 was dominant in every way shape and form in the west.
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Yes once upon a time Nine dominated each of the 5 major capital cities all at the same time. This happened in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. And if Wikipedia is to be believed, the last time that National Nine News in Perth could claim the title of the most watched news service would have been in 1991.
Nine had greater success in Adelaide however, but Seven has consistently been stronger since the early 2000’s.
Lots of factors contribute to Nine never being able to claim back those 2 cities in regards to news. Ownership changes, less funding (compared to their east coast counterparts), and presenter changes (particularly in Perth).
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Actually, 1990.
Only God knows what the Perth ratings landscape would have been like if they were lucky enough to have the services of Brian Henderson or Brian Naylor, for example.
And when Nine News did briefly reclaim the title as the most-watched news service last decade (in particular 2013-15), Nine Perth did nothing to convince viewers to switch to, or watch, “Australia’s number one news hour”.
What they could’ve done was end their promos with “Perth is watching Australia’s number one news hour” or “Perth is watching Australia’s most watched news hour” or something among those lines.
It is why Perth’s figures have been dragging down Nine’s averages in the past few years.
At least when Seven News was struggling in Sydney and Melbourne (and still is), those two markets had the guts to end their promos with the tagline “Australia’s No.1” between mid-2016 and late last year.
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What a bizarre thing to say.
Perth’s equivalent of those two is Rick and Sue. They just happen to be on Seven.
And Nine did have a similarly popular anchor just after they started, in Peter Waltham.
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As a bit of history on Nine Perth around the time they gained supremacy in the news.
In the mid 80’s there was basically an open checkbook for anyone who wanted to defect from the seven Perth newsroom. Nine had managed to get several key senior people. From memory, I think they managed to get the head of the news dept, senior producer or director (can’t remember which) and senior editor. The biggest poaching was Peter Waltham, Seven’s Mon-Fri presenter who had been with Seven for over 15 years at the time and was the doyen of Perth news.
It still took a year or so for Peter Waltham & Anne Conti to change the long standing habits of the parochial Perth viewers to get Nine the top spot in Perth news. Nine held the number one position for only a few years until Rick & Sue (who replaced Waltham) regained the number one spot for Seven.
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Similar story in Sydney with Ian Ross, who within some 18 months of joining Seven News in December 2003 took the bulletin past Nine News in the ratings for the first time in mid-2005.
The glory didn’t last long, however - after Roscoe retired in 2009, Sydneysiders were soon switching back to Nine News, whose anchor Peter Overton was only getting started.
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Nine didn’t help their own cause when they axed Hendo’s replacement (Jim Waley). That didn’t sit well with some viewers, making the replacement anchor’s (Mark Ferguson) job very difficult. Nine only regained supremacy after installing Peter Overton, so 3rd time lucky for them.
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And even with Peter Overton, it took a good 2-3 years (with the help of some decent PR along the way, as I’m sure @blackbox could tell you) to truly convince Sydneysiders they should make Nine their #1 choice for 6pm news again.
Those with long Sydney TV news memories might recall there was actually some backlash when Nine replaced Mark Ferguson with Peter Overton in 2009. But of course with the benefit of hindsight, it’s fair to say that move to replace Fergo with Pete 11 years ago was made with the long term future of Nine News Sydney in mind.
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After Jim Waley took over from Brian Henderson, Nine News maintained a large ratings gap of some 100,000 viewers ahead of Ten News, Seven News and the ABC.
But when Roscoe switched to Seven, that’s when problems started arising at Nine, as viewers started to “make the switch” (that being Seven News’ promo tagline at the time). The tipping point came when Mark Ferguson presented Nine News during the time in which the Asian tsunami occurred, and his coverage brought about high ratings, thus resulting in his promotion to weeknights in early-2005.
It must also be remembered, Ferguson was only 38 when he was promoted - probably young enough to even be Ian Ross’ son (though I know in reality this is NOT the case). However, in what was a period of change for Sydney television viewers still probably missing having their news read by Brian Henderson, it was Roscoe who prevailed until his retirement in 2009.
This saw a domino effect take place around the rest of the country with Seven News later overtaking the long-dominant Nine News in Melbourne and Brisbane.
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From memory, Ferguson and Overton didn’t really get along in the first half of 2009 and it wasn’t long before the former jumped ship to Seven, whose view at the time was to have him as back-up to Chris Bath, who eventually replaced the retired (and now deceased) Ian Ross on weeknights.
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It might also be worth adding that 2 years into Rick and Sue starting at 7 their news director left to 9 and wanted to take them with him and had it all planned out. However, when the time did come to offer contracts Rick and Sue declined and here we are now.
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