With ALL of the promotional material for the regional bulletins (noodle updates, buses, billboards, TV adverts, etc.), Nine and SCA should have crucially blended in the NineOn5 branding. Something like “Nine News, Weeknights at 6pm on Number 5”. Ensure that viewers go to the right channel. Breaking a 27 year habit will take way longer than just 7 months.
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According to a Canberra Times article from Thursday, Nine News Canberra managed to outrate WIN News on Wednesday night at 6-6:30pm, although it was still beaten by Seven News Sydney. In the 6:30-7pm half hour that same night, Nine News Canberra was narrowly behind Seven News Sydney.
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From The Canberra Times this afternoon.
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9 NEWS SNSW should swing into action and be on air this Saturday and Sunday with the unprecendeded bushfire emergency across SNSW
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Interesting article.
The surprising thing to me is ABC News absolutely dominates with more than double the audience of WIN News.
The other interetsing thing is Prime7’s relay of the sydney news jumped a massive 40% week on week when 9 News arrived In town - obviously a LOT of people prefer a true slick sydney bulletin
And Nine actually shed a lot of viewers by dumping the sydney relay of 9 News and launching a local one.
Clearly 9 is going to work hard here. Looks like Canberra viewers want a slicker larger more professional bulletin. To me - when you tune in and see no headlines and that terrible set - it instantly looks and feels cheap. Huge turn off.
Nine needs to work hard here. They ended the week a distant #4
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Out of interest here are the numbers from the first night of the 5.30pm fully local Seven Gold Coast News
On the Gold Coast market, the launch of the new Seven Gold Coast News attracted an audience of 49,000 while the established bulletin from Nine managed 34,000.
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I thought Nine’s model for local news was a stupid idea when it was announced and forecast Seven would be the beneficiary of the folly. You don’t replace a trusted, established product with something else and expect viewers to stay tuned. 90% of the product might be the same but it has been packaged in a cheap, no frills manner and it’s being presented by someone very unfamiliar to commercial television audiences. I predict Illawarra viewers will be livid when Overton fails to appear on their screens next week.
If Nine was intent on giving regional viewers a token local news service they could have opted out of afternoon news early, started Hot Seat ten minutes earlier and had purely local news as a lead in to Nine News at 5.50. Another, less appealing option would’ve been to repackage ACA for regional audiences to start at 7:10. The current model is a waste of resources and doesn’t provide audiences with the best possible product.
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Not surprising at all. It’s the national capital.
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I think the biggest problem with the new bulletin is it is promoted as local news but when viewers tune in they are presented with a series of national and state stories, with a sub-par presentation. What’s the point; if they don’t mind sub par presentation they can get a full 30 minute local bulletin they gives them local news up front on WIN or they can choose a metro-quality bulletin on Prime.
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Yes - it’s the only radio market where ABC RN and ABC FM can get 9-10% market shares.
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With so many people being incredibly negative about a bulletin that is only 1 week old and none of the other regions have started yet, would airing 9 News Sydney on 9Gem or 9GO be a good way of offering the product everyone knows but also offering local news on 9.
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Look at those ratings for the first week of Nine News Canberra, they better forget about those 14 other bulletins and just run Nine News Sydney with “Local News Headlines” updates again!
But seriously, it’s going to take time to change viewer habits. Yes, the metro editions of Nine News are/were familiar with regional audiences but again it has to be said that Nine News Sydney is produced primarily with a Sydney audience in mind. TV audiences in the Canberra, Illawarra, Central West and Riverina markets just happen(ed) to receive the Sydney version of Nine News.
Whichever way you look at it, regional TV news services on any network will never be quite the same as metropolitan TV news services. But with some tweaking and fine tuning to make these new regional editions of Nine News polished and professional productions, I think that they can be successful in the ratings. In the long run, regional viewers will probably be better off with a composite news service which is tailored to a regional TV audience rather than a metropolitan TV audience.
When Seven News snatched the crown from Nine on the East Coast markets back in the day, Nine didn’t give up and just let Seven be #1 in news forever…they took their time to make Nine News a better news service. I’m sure (or at least like to hope) that the same will happen with these new regional editions.
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I think this is the right model.
An hour of local, state and national news at 6 is the model that works perfectly in other major cities including smaller markets like Darwin and Newcastle.
The problem is not the format. The problems are:
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The lousy marketing campaign and communication to launch the product .The failure to explain to viewers that Peter Overton was going away and Vanessa was coming. The weak launch and marketing campaign.
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First impressions - the terrible lack of headlines opener, rigid Vanessa and terrible set made a terrible first impression that will last for a while
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News habits takes years to change
Nine sure has its work cut out.
They need to fix the open, add headlines, Fix the set and improve the overall quality and feel. The awkwardness of all the edited together pieces needs to be fixed. They need to promote with daily topical promos and run heavily in Today and during g the day and primetime. They need to become active on social
Media and promote that on air
Vanessa and the news director need to spend the next few months on the road learning about the areas they broadcast into
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The fact that WIN went from
1st to 3rd between Monday and Wednesday tells a lot. It’s up and down. WIN was last Wednesday as they didn’t cover the big fed politics story as it was “national” - and people wanted to see that. On those days 7 and 9 will
Do better.
It’s safe to say Prime7 won’t be jumping into the fray with local news in Canberra now
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They should have replicated the successful Gold Coast model. Local news at 5:30pm (pre-record most of them, do Canberra live) and then the “national” news at 6pm.
It’s not as if Hot Seat ratings are through the roof at the moment.
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Why put your only local programme outside of primetime when TV viewership is half that of 6pm? (huge switch on)
Only 1 market (Gold Coast) has 530 news. It’s failed in a few other markets.
I think it’s better to replicate the ADL/BNE/DAR/MEL/NEW/PER/SYD Model
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But they aren’t really replicating those models. They are making a faux version of those that gives an illusion of a locally produced composite bulletin when what they are making is a state bulletin with fixed-time windows that doesn’t allow the flexibility of a full bulletin tailored to a market.
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Because maybe that’s where it works best?
Firstly, the switch on time in regional areas will be much earlier than in the big cities.
Secondly, Nine is not WIN or Prime7 and their strategy should reflect that. Instead of acting like just another regional broadcaster there is an opportunity for Nine to use local news to feed their existing 6pm bulletins just like they do in SE Queensland and just like they are doing all over the country with the new 4pm format.
Nine’s focus should be bigger picture. It is disappointing to see them just fall in line with what already exists given their overall market power and eagerness to innovate in metro areas. Regional news is long overdue for a shakeup and Nine are the right people to do it.
Exactly. Either do a proper 6pm bulletin or leave 6pm alone and create something that compliments it.
For all its shortcomings, NBN News at least looks and feels like a proper 6pm news bulletin.
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Have you seen data that supports that theory?
Prime7 trailed news at 530 in a few areas leading into a metro bulletin at 6. It was dumped very quickly.
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What I have been saying from the start. I still think a local window into Nine News Sydney would be the best option. However, this is what we have got/getting.
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