Unless the regional networks don’t want to share channels for whatever reason, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be logical to give each region it’s own VAST News Channel to make the service a little more user friendly.
With the addition of three more VAST Regional Channels, perhaps something like this could work…
401: Cairns News Channel (Seven, Nine, WIN)
402: Townsville News Channel (Seven, Nine, WIN)
403: Mackay News Channel (Seven, Nine)
404: Rockhampton News Channel (Seven, Nine, WIN)
405: Bundaberg/Wide Bay News Channel (Seven, Nine, WIN)
406: Sunshine Coast News Channel (Seven, Nine, WIN)
407: Toowoomba News Channel (Seven, Nine, WIN)
408: Gold Coast News Channel (Seven*, Nine*, NBN)
409: NSW North Coast News Channel (Prime7, NBN - both Mid North Coast & Far North Coast variants of NBN News would air between Prime7 News)
410: Tamworth News Channel (Prime7, NBN)
411: Newcastle/Central Coast News Channel (NBN, the Newcastle version of the news would air followed by the Central Coast version and so on)
412: Wollongong News Channel (Nine, WIN)
413: Canberra News Channel (Nine, WIN)
414: Orange News Channel (Prime7, Nine, WIN)
415: Wagga News Channel (Prime7, Nine, WIN)
416: Albury News Channel (Prime7, Nine, WIN)
417: Shepparton News Channel (Nine, WIN)
418: Bendigo News Channel (Nine, WIN)
419: Ballarat News Channel (Nine, WIN)
420: Gippsland News Channel (Nine, WIN)
421: Tasmania News Channel (Southern Cross, WIN)
422: Regional SA & Broken Hill News Channel (Southern Cross)
423: Darwin News Channel (Nine)
*Proposed new/additional bulletins.
I was thinking about omitting Nine News Darwin because it’s shown on 9Gem via Imparja, but thought it would be best to still include a Darwin channel for fairness.
Depending on bandwidth/interest, I’d probably also do the following later down the track:
- Add a further four capital city news channels, so everyone has access to their most relevant version of the bulletins from Seven, Nine & Ten.
- Maybe come to a deal with the ABC so their bulletins could be repeated on the VAST News Service. Obviously under such a proposal, the Canberra bulletin would be shown on the Canberra News Channel, the Darwin bulletin on the Darwin News Channel, the Tasmania bulletin on the Tasmania News Channel and the other state versions on the most relevant capital city news channel.