Nine News Local

[Nick]

Are those fluro tubes inside that cabinet, or am I just seeing things?

[TV-ACT]

Zoom in & you’ll see they’re metal bars (or more likely square piping).

[nationalnews]

IIRC, those checkered panels and the plasma were used when Nine broadcasted from the Ekka.

[melbournefan]

Can see some wheels for the bench in the corner too.

[NQCQTV2]

I wasn’t recording, but we just had an issue with the local window in Townsville going to a black screen during a studio readout story.

The super appeared on screen as a resident was being interviewed.
Then the super changed and the screen behind went black for 5 seconds, then suddenly jumping ahead to the next story.

[Snoozenooze]

Honestly, how hard would it be for Nine Regional to use a key like the attached image? Not hard to edit in a local image in place of the Opera House if they must have a local photo.

It would look 100% nicer and be much more of the Nine News brand people have come to expect.

[NQCQTV2]

Yes, that would be much better than the current crap!

[Tom_TV7]

Exactly. Use that for the local windows and the shorter stories/filler items, then for the Live sections and bigger stories, use something like this.

Then for statewide segment:

[KICK-IT]

SERIOUSLY.
So easy.

[CTC7-9-10]

@TV-ACT

Yes they really should do the Sthn NSW one from Canberra but if the Darwin change shows us anything it’s we’re more likely to see more centralisation, including the Nthn NSW bulletin production moving to Sydney when TCN’s new studios/facilities are ready and NBN moving to a new (smaller) location

NBN produces news for a bigger audience than Adelaide and it’s a big and complex machine. You really think Nine has much to gain by moving production to Sydney where real estate is 10x the price?

Darwin was an easier economic decision as Brisbane had capacity at no additional cost. A sacrificial lamb if you like.

Depending on the size of the new TCN complex, it could actually be more economical to move production to Canberra or Wollongong where floor space is much cheaper. Nine already has staff in Canberra (at Parliament House), so if they were to move, I’d suggest that would be their target. Though I’d say they would want to acquire CTC first.

The BBC turfed huge swathes of TV staff out of London to Manchester for that very reason - which is why BBC Breakfast and the Sports Centre are now beamed out of the northwest.

[CTC7-9-10]

@Snoozenooze

Honestly, how hard would it be for Nine Regional to use a key like the attached image? Not hard to edit in a local image in place of the Opera House if they must have a local photo.

I’m hopeful the keyed backdrop will eventually disappear in favour of a set like NBN - perfectly acceptable generic set. Though that would require more investment Nine would be hard-pressed to justify right now. Maybe if WIN were actual competition.

[Radiohead]

@CTC7-9-10

NBN produces news for a bigger audience than Adelaide and it’s a big and complex machine. You really think Nine has much to gain by moving production to Sydney where real estate is 10x the price?

The decisions by Prime and WIN to centralise news production are ones that weren’t driven by real estate prices, in fact it was the opposite in that Canberra, Sunshine Coast and Wollongong are all more expensive than Ballarat, Toowoomba, Tamworth, Orange etc.

It is also about harnessimg synergies by having production done from fewer locations eg. shared infrastructure, staff that can do the same work across multiple bulletins.

And Nine isn’t going to move production of its Sydney news to Canberra or a regional centre, so it kind of makes sense to do as much as they can from Sydney.

[TV-ACT]

@Radiohead

…having production done from fewer locations eg. shared infrastructure, staff that can do the same work across multiple bulletins.

Exactly.
Australia is different in having a few large cities, generally one per state, and while a public broadcaster like the BBC or ABC could be pushed to move from an expensive centre to a cheaper alternative (i.e. by questions to justify spending so much on real estate).
Private businesses like Nine don’t have those pressures and so they can internally justify centralisation in a place with plenty of available talent and a heavy concentration of their viewers (overall, not for a particular programme).

Still that number of alternatives to run a show may have been causing problems (9News Canberra still showing Sydney local stories).

Nine need to ensure they have someone who is in charge of each regional bulletin, the same person night after night, and that person knows the right content for that audience (those audiences really), plus the time to be able to adjust the content accordingly (easier said than done), and that attitude needs to flow on to others involved in making each of those bulletins.
(There’s a difference between an occasional bulletin being a bit sub-par because of someone being off sick versus the constant low quality being seen now.)

[CTC7-9-10]

@Radiohead

The decisions by Prime and WIN to centralise news production are ones that weren’t driven by real estate prices, in fact it was the opposite in that Canberra, Sunshine Coast and Wollongong are all more expensive than Ballarat, Toowoomba, Tamworth, Orange etc.

OK, so I was working at Prime when they closed Wagga so I can tell you for a fact it was about selling off surplus land. The reasons Canberra was chosen as the central facility were:

1. It was the newest studio in the network (purpose built in 1989)
2. It already had up-to-date digital equipment installed
3. It had a HUGE campus with plenty of space for multiple news bulletins
4. Canberra was seen as the best place to retain staff. Believe it or not, it’s not easy to attract journalists to move to Tamworth

When Nine signed a lease for it’s new North Sydney studios, it wasn’t making regional bulletins for NSW. That requires desk space and studio space. How do you know for a fact they have enough space for this production?

[CTC7-9-10]

@TV-ACT

Private businesses like Nine don’t have those pressures and so they can internally justify centralisation in a place with plenty of available talent and a heavy concentration of their viewers (overall, not for a particular programme).

Private business is under HUGE pressures to keep costs down. No one can argue that it wouldn’t be cheaper to house regional production in the regions. Yes, you’d need critical mass to warrant such a move, but if NONE of the Nine Regional staff is working on Nine News Sydney, they may as well not be working in the same building.

Wages and real estate are both lower outside Sydney than within - so there is no denying an financial benefit to keeping production within that city as streamlined as possible.

Of course, Nine may have acres of spare space at the new TCN and force staff to work on Sydney and Regional news simultaneously, in which case they would be daft to move Regional production to the regions.

[NQCQTV2]

SCA having some minor timing issues tonight with 9 News.

They keep cutting off the “coming up next” section, starting the ads about 2 seconds too early on each occasion

[NQCQTV2]

Live cross to one of the cowboys players here in Townsville right now on 9 News Reg. QLD.

Definitely something you won’t see on 7 News or WIN News locally

[bubandbob]

@CTC7-9-10

Wages and real estate are both lower outside Sydney than within - so there is no denying an financial benefit to keeping production within that city as streamlined as possible.

If Nine or any of the cap city networks decided to centralise regional or country NSW news production in Canberra, there’d also be the side benefit of being able to house and support their federal politics journos.

[littlegezzybear]

@CTC7-9-10

When Nine signed a lease for it’s new North Sydney studios, it wasn’t making regional bulletins for NSW. That requires desk space and studio space. How do you know for a fact they have enough space for this production?

I think they knew about the regional news. Nine announced the new regional bulletins in November 2016, they signed the contract for the lease at North Sydney in March 2017 after negotiating for about six months.

[webguy]

@CTC7-9-10

Of course, Nine may have acres of spare space at the new TCN and force staff to work on Sydney and Regional news simultaneously, in which case they would be daft to move Regional production to the regions.

I would expect this to be the case, since they’ll be planning to stay there for 20+ years, so would want to have enough space to make it future proof. It would be foolish for them to have found a space that only catered for their current needs.

I also don’t think it would be any cheaper to move production to a regional area, yes, real estate would be cheaper, but they would also need more staff - as support services such as technicians, fill in presenters/producers would not be able to be shared with the metro services etc. Any saving in cheaper real estate would likely be lost in additional wages, communication costs, maintenance etc.

@bubandbob

If Nine or any of the cap city networks decided to centralise regional or country NSW news production in Canberra, there’d also be the side benefit of being able to house and support their federal politics journos.

They already have sufficient facilities for this in the press gallery at Parliament house. Even if a network were to move to Canberra, it would be more efficient for their federal politics journos to remain based there.