Both cities have traditionally favoured Nine over Seven since the 1970s. Seven’s surge to dominance in the mid 2000s was a real breakthrough.
Seven’s best period in Sydney was when two ex-Nine personnel (Peter Meakin and Ian Ross) were brought in to turn their fortunes around in the early noughties; this (indirectly) coincided with the retirement of Brian Henderson at Nine, after which their news ratings dropped south of Seven’s for the first time in decades.
It was after Roscoe retired in 2009 that the viewers would gradually make the switch back to Nine to sample Peter Overton, who by that point had replaced Mark Ferguson in rather ruthless circumstances at the start of that year.
In Melbourne, Seven persisted with Peter Mitchell and after an aggressive marketing and investment campaign it finally overtook Nine in 2007, remaining on top for five years before Nine reclaimed its crown in dominant fashion in 2012 (winning all 40 weeks that year and then not losing another week until mid-2016).
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It was just one night!
I’ve mentioned before that I think the change to Nine’s afternoon line-up in Perth that features 5pm news as a lead in to the 6pm news and Hot Seat at 3pm is not working. 2 hours straight news.
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I’m aware of the history. But in comparison seven or nine have not trailed their competitors by almost 100% (in Sydney or Melbourne) in comparison to Perth. That is what Nine is currently getting over there with a high investment from Nine.
It’s a completely different situation.
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The idea of trying ACA at 6 is an interesting one. Especially considering they have a 5pm news hour. Break for ACA. .
A 6:30 bulletin would at least be an option for people who get home later.
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Nine News Perth is in the best shape it has ever been, at least as far as presentation goes. Full credit to Nine for going all in. At least they tried.
Unfortunately it was a case of too little too late. The damage was done before Nine finally got control of STW. They should have thrown the extra cash at it back in 2007 to stop WIN from buying the station but even then I’m not sure it would have made much difference. WIN definitely didn’t help anything.
Perth is a Seven town. That’s just the way it is.
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I think Michael Thomson has been their longest-serving anchor in the past three or so decades, since Nine News last won the local ratings in 1990. Though happy to be corrected.
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I’m aware, but you said:
Which I challenged and provided examples as to why this isn’t accurate.
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Yes, I’ve seen Nines product in Perth. It’s an excellent well resourced local bulletin.
My thoughts… I think Nine will stay local until the Seven duo retire. If they can’t break through after this time, then Nine will downgrade its operations in Perth to a level of what 10 is currently providing. And do we really blame them if this eventuates in years to come?
Poor example if that was it. But you’re going off topic.
No other regional city in Australia has three commercial bulletins.
Snark aside, I can’t help but feel for the team at Nine (and Ten across the board for that matter). If your drive to get involved in journalism is to tell stories, you generally want to reach as many people as possible: yet, through no fault of your own, you don’t have a chance of the market taking notice.
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I think it is a safe bet that Seven Perth will retain their lead even after Rick and Susannah are gone.
I’m not sure Nine throwing in the towel helps anything though. Some competition is better than none and if they follow the Ten route then Seven will have a field day with promos saying they are the only local news at 6:00pm. Nine will forever ruin any chance of future success by doing that.
I am really impressed with how hard Nine have tried. I really thought they wouldn’t bother but it has been great to see what they have put in to Perth. Now is not the time to give up though. I don’t have the answer but despite what some may think it is possible to change people’s minds in Perth. It just takes more work than it does elsewhere.
I will find it amusing if Tim and Angela end up taking over in a post-Rick and Susannah world since they were the team at Nine for a while.
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Still don’t understand why Nine let Tim McMillan go.
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I agree. That backfired on them big time. I have no idea what they were thinking.
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Last time i check perth was 2.8 million
just a tad bigger then a regional city:rage:
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Someone missed the joke 
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It’s a matter of redeploying money into other areas of the network that’s more warranted.
Currently, the advertising dollar is shrinking and Nines high level investment into the Perth market eventually won’t add up, unless Perth viewers start changing their viewing habits.
IIRC Nine fired Emmy and was going to have Tim host solo, but he left due to a pay dispute.
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Now what if (and idk if it would even happen) Nine threw money at Rick and Sue, and convinced them to move over?
They won’t budge…. As both are already on an insane amount of money. Most likely two of the highest paid presenters in Australia at the moment.
Nine needs to wait until both retire and have one more go at it.
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