John Rudd was news director at Channel 7 Perth and went down the hill to Channel 9 and later Waltham followed him.
Interesting interview I heard on 720 ABC Perth a few years ago where Peter Waltham said when he had resigned from Seven and announced he was heading to Nine and walked up the corridor of Seven, by the time he got to reception his photo was taken down. Then over night all the billboards in Perth were replaced.
10 have nothing to fear, 9 is a constant 3rd among the commercials in Perth and Adelaideā¦ and thatāll continue.
They have, as others have said, given some free kicks to 7 with thisā¦
Thatās true for Perth where 10 News First beat Nine News 6:00pm and 6:30pm this past week Monday to Thursday, but Nine News was ahead of 10 News First in Adelaide.
Edit: And Nine News 6:30pm is well ahead of The Project 6:30pm in both cities.
When the tea time game shows regularly rate better than prime time product, theyād be fools to dispense with the genre. They just need to find a fresh format. It has been demonstrated time and again what the right game show can do as a lead in to the 6pm news. One hour of news is more than enough.
Itās interesting. Was this decision made at a local station level in Adelaide purely to help 5/6pm in that market? Or was it made on a network level to test something new.
Either way, the network would have to sign off on this move.
A few things
Yes, the right game show at 5 can have a massive effect on ratings at 6. And the chase regularly out rates dozens of primetime options. TheSe game shows can be powerhouses
But they could also be expensive. Annual licensing cost. Studio and production cost. Taping and editing one hour studio shows in expensive and itās 5 hours week. Prize and cash give away costs.
Live news with crew studio and content that is already there would cost 1/10th of a game show.
So the question becomes - is the big benefit these games shows can give, worth the hefty costs. Maybe Nine is trialing in one smaller market what programming 1/10th of the cost does. Maybe ratings go up. Maybe they drop by just 5%.
It may (or May Not) make a lot of economic sense
Eddies studio based 5 nights a week millionaire format licensing rights canāt be cheap TV
Local news isā¦
Yes good point, but if cost is such an issue for everything why not turn the whole station into a news channelā¦ They have to be willing to dedicate money in short term for long term gain.
Personally donāt think 2 hours in a row of local news is a strategy to boost viewership I mean whats next, do they want to combine the ratings figures of that 2 hours to make themselves look betterā¦
Especially since I actually thought Nine was actually doing relatively ok against 7 (even though they werenāt winning) compared to the situation going on in Perth
Combination of the two, Iād say.
What about
5.30pm Nine News
6.30pm A Current Affair
7pm Hot Seat.
What goes in at 5?
Hey what about this āA New Game Showā???
Bring back Sale!!!
Local magazine style show? Adelaide Today or Adelaide Extra with a preview of a couple of big stories coming up in the news.
This is a test / trial in a smaller market. Ratings at 5/6 may go up a little May go down a little. The evidence is there there is huge appetite for news at 4, 5 and 6 in Australia. If ratings go up a little itās worth it. If ratings go down a little it may also be worth it (as costs will go WAAAAAY DOWN) but I donāt think there is any evidence nor is it logical that ratings would go up If nine become a 24/7 news station. ABC news and sky news show that with under 2% shares.
Back to back News works in the mornings. Itās working for 10 at 6 (up 55%) and it works for about 600 local stations in the US. Itās worth a test to see if it works here.
People said one hour news at 5 on 10
Would
Not work. People said 1 hour news on 7 and 9 would not work. People said 90 minute news on 10 would not work. All have.
Letās see what happens
Ive always said 10 should try 930pm local news in Adelaide or Perth for a few months as a test.
And seven should trial the latest 10 930 or 10 in one market for a while.
This one market test is smart. I donāt see it being a runaway success but also I donāt see it producing massive viewership drops either
Expensive
No
Well said.
Just like all those other experiements you mentioned (5pm news, hour long 6pm news, 90 minute news), Nine probably has the future in mind with this trial of 2 straight hours of news a day in Adelaide. The way we consume our news has changed rapidly over the last twenty, fifteen, ten, even five years that in the 2020s itās no longer good enough for traditional broadcasters just to stick with what works. Weāre probably at the point in television history that sooner rather than later, everyone including the news services will have to completely re-invent themselves in order to survive.
Yea. The idea of en entire staff and newsroom
And studio being used to produced just one hour of content a day are long gone.
Newsrooms need to justify themselves. Itās why in the US they pump out morning news 4pm News 5pm News 6pm news and 11pm news
And the same staff producing content 24/7 for the web and social. They work like a machine to produce content 24/7. Aussie newsrooms still work to produce content for 6pm. Itās not sustainable
Itās economics. Iām surprised in particular 10 newsrooms can justify their existence doing just one hour a day of content and almost no online / digital content
Doesnāt have to be expensive. Just use existing presenters reporters and crew to cover it. Nine News Lite.
To only produce 12 hours of news a week is not great economically. I really believe 9 has the resources to go full local news throughout the day and make a difference in how viewers consume local, national and international news.
5-7 Local Today show with local news on the 7-10 national show.
11:30 local morning news
5pm local afternoon
6pm local evening news
10:30pm local Late Local News
Weekends
Local morning and afternoon news
Potentially having local sports shows and even having political interviews on the afternoon news or evening news or even local political show.
Nine have the resources of Radio (4BC, 6PR, 2GB & 3AW) Print (The Age & SMH) Online (WA Today & Brisbane Times), they could use all of these to produce content for the news bulletins and potentially launch a channel similar to CBSN locals.
The fact that small regions in the USA have local news channels show people can have an appetite for local news.
If news is so cost effective you have to wonder why Nine have seemingly axed Nine News Now and replaced it with an imported quiz show.