It’s not about money, it’s about execution. If this new bulletin was a secondary service airing at 5pm or 5:30pm with the “national” news at 6pm then it would be a different matter but IMO a 6pm bulletin should look/feel like a 6pm bulletin regardless of whether it is airing in a big city or a small one.
Well, that’s not quite true. We see varying degrees of quality between say Nine’s Perth bulletin and their Gold Coast bulletin. A big market is always going to operate with a larger news budget, and hire more senior people. It’s just not reasonable to expect the same quality of staff or numbers of staff to be doing this bulletins, as the Sydney one. I agree it was rough - but this ia an entire new team, It will get better.
Not difficult at all to get four openers to exactly 30 seconds, you just let the vision roll for an extra second or two before the titlecard kicks in to allow for any slight variations.
If they can put out four separate titlecards (let alone local segments, sport, weather etc) then putting out four separate openers with headlines would be no problem at all.
If it is technically possible - then I am certain they ill do it. I don’t think it will be an editorial choice to not have headlines. Perhaps there was a reason it didn’t happen night 1. I suspect someone high up in Nine will see it, raise concern and if its not changed to a headline opener tonight it will be done in the weeks ahead.
Any way to know ratings? Not that I would expect them to be good - SCA did a terrible jib marketing and launching this in my opinion. One promo for 2 weeks. thats it
I think the comments here show exactly why Nine are staggering the launches - I suspect many of the issues of the first bulletin will be sorted by the time it roles out across the regions, and hopefully that chair will be replaced tomorrow.
It all looks quite good for what it is and it should be remembered that it’s effectively replacing the noodle updates, so even moving pictures is an upgrade.
What surprises me though is how WIN seem to be hanging on the Nine look - you’d have thought they’d have wanted a shiny new look to go head to head with these new Nine bulletins.
Newshub in NZ doesn’t do headlines and while it was a bit weird to begin with, it actually works well and makes long openers on other channels and elsewhere seem laborious.
Not at all. It would be very easy to put it over the top on another layer.
I think the reason for no headlines and OTS would come down to teething issues getting the first bulletin to air. There at many things to contend with in a limited time frame such as reporters lodging stories on time, making sure they’re the correct length etc. The production team might have needed to work with Canberra to get updates done to the stories - thing that wouldn’t need to be done once a crew is experienced with working together. They potentially also don’t have a full crew working in Sydney yet with extra staff working in the regions training staff for new bulletins yet, as well a just not needing the full production crew on deck yet with only one bulletin to produce. It probably got to the point where someone decided to leave them out for it to look more consistent than a half done job. Which may have been the wrong decision, but that can happen with these things need to be decided on the fly.
Hell, it could have even been an automation problem - it’s not like these are uncommon in Sydney!
Having watched the montage (Thanks Abesty! ) I think the new Nine News Canberra turned out OK for a 1st bulletin.
Was it rough around the edges? I’d definitely say yes although I’m sure we’ll see some fine tuning over the coming days and weeks as more regional bulletins are launched. Already I would probably say that the presentation quality is more professional than WIN News. Yes the backdrops are chroma keyed in, but at least there’s a bit of animation happening with Nine’s backdrop unlike those of WIN News.
Are the production values of these new regional bulletins ever going to be the same as Nine News Sydney? Of course not. You cannot fairly compare completely new news bulletins for regional Australia to the most popular and established 6pm news bulletin in Australia’s largest city. But if these new regional editions of Nine News are produced professionally with quality content and presenters, I’m sure viewers in Canberra (and also the Illawarra and so on) will support and enjoy these new services.
It’s absolutely fantastic how the new bulletins are being produced in HD. A pity about the SD-only weather, but I’m sure that will be in HD once NBN eventually moves to their new Newcastle studios.
The use of that repetitive headline bed…heck, even just using Nine’s current news theme on the new regional bulletins further reinforces my opinion that after nearly a decade of using the current version, Nine News desperately needs to update their theme music. I’m sure there are composers out there who can give the “Cool Hand Luke” signature a fresh sound, with a bit of a “story” to the Headline Bed (something a bit like the Headline Bed of Ten’s current news theme, if you get where I’m coming from) so it doesn’t sound too repetitive.
Agree completely, the bulletin last night was average. Production quality was good but certainly elements that can be improved AND WILL BE. As I’ve said before, this is no 2 month, “see how it goes” project.
Nine is in it for the long haul and WIN should be worried.
No way to go but up really. You can’t draw any conclusions from day one, though the lack of promotion is evident in those figures.
For me it’s a huge improvement on just piping the Sydney bulletin through and great to see an investment in local news. I’m sure they’ll give it the time and effort needed to improve and I’ll be watching with interest to see how it develops.
Personally, I would probably wait a few months (especially once the whole Southern NSW/ACT market is covered, the weather cools down, the sun sets earlier and the NRL season gets into full swing) before coming to any conclusions on the ratings of these new regional editions of Nine News.
In the coming weeks and months, I’m sure there will be plenty of tweaks and fine-tuning. I’d also expect both Nine and SCA to do some viewer research to find out what works and what doesn’t with these new regional bulletins.
I still think these new regional editions of Nine News have the potential to eventually become successful in the ratings, but both Nine & SCA need to be patient and in it for the long haul. Remember to keep in mind that it took a good 2-3 years for Nine News Sydney with Peter Overton to go from a ratings basketcase to a very clear #1 in the ratings.
) I think the new Nine News Canberra turned out OK for a 1st bulletin.
