Absolutely, a real set and a monitor that can be turned on to “Channel Green” when necessary for local inserts. I am very anti CGI sets.
The fix for all of this (if they had a decent set) would be to turn the back monitor to a generic 9 News graphic for the opener and selected parts of the bulletin, then flick to “Channel Green” for local imagery as required.
BBC in the UK does this all the time.
This is what Nine needs to adopt to, but they need to spend millions (incl. from SCA’s 50% revenue) installing a new set and improved manpower in all three East Coast metro cities before this thing can happen.
They’ll get a new set when they move to North Sydney in a couple of years. 
I never suggested a CGI set, merely a plain local landscape/cityscape keyed in for each region on a full-length green screen. A plain photograph (even better would be a looped recording), nothing more, just like we end up seeing on the metro bulletins for tight presenter shots.
A full length green screen with a simple backdrop would also hide the fact that the current screen is not big enough, especially for RQLD set.
OK, if we’re being picky let me clarify. Whether it’s a CGI set or a keyed graphic, photo or moving pictures, chromakey backdrops look cheap and awful. You can’t get the same effect as having something real behind the talking head. Part of it is the depth-of-field problem, the other problem I have is fraying around the presenter where a halo becomes evident.
If it looked good - all the nationals would use green-screen as it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than sets.
Well regional viewers are already getting this, so little is lost. Nine seem to be doing ok.
Thing is, metro stations have the revenue to splash out on flashy (and sometimes not so flashy) sets. Regional news is done on more of a budget, even the Nine-produced bulletins.
The major metropolitan news services (especially those serving the massive and ultra-competitive Sydney & Melbourne media markets) cover larger populations across reasonably small but concentrated areas. The local news services for regional Australia generally cover smaller populations across large areas.
When you take all of that into mind, it’s probably fairly reasonable to expect Nine to give their metropolitan news services larger budgets and more resources than their regional news services.
That and the fact that metro advertising is worth many, many times that of regional areas.
Advertising dollars received per viewer is FAR, FAR higher in metro areas than in regional areas.
You are right, but Prime7 doesn’t use CGI and neither does 7Sunshine nor SC7 Tasmania. They are all leading in the ratings. I’m not saying there is necessarily a causal link, but good readouts are definitely correlated with higher viewer figures.
Yes, I understand all of this. I first started working in regional television in the late 90s - there was no money then and it has only got worse.
The solutions I’ve outlined are not expensive. Yes there are examples of flash new studio sets with large wrap plasma screens (such as 9 Perth) - however 9 made some initial decisions to use green screen on the regional bulletins to create a sense of ‘localisation’.
This is a “metro” person’s idea of how local news should be done (aka Mike Dalton). He confessed he had no idea how to put these bulletins together initially.
Of course there were other considerations such as studio space in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney that create obvious constraints.
However, I can point to numerous clips from television news produced on a shoe-string budget 30 years ago that look more visually appealing than the current 9 regional offer.
Were these all outside of the local window?
Yes, in the live portion that goes out to all markets.
Very nice to see, 9 is pushing its technical capabilities! Prime and WIN aren’t able to do this, so playing to the only strength they have.
By way of comparison, I’ve never seen NBN do a LIVE cross from anywhere but the local Newcastle region in the entire bulletin.
Gary Youngberry (previous weather presenter) once did his weather report on location from Tamworth but that was it.
Clearly markets with smaller populations and smaller ad revenue have smaller news budgets.
That said, all 3 of Nine/SCA’s new bulletins go out to markets well over a million people.
SNSW is 1.4 million.
Those are markets and revenues large enough to support SOME investment in presentation and sets.
Not to mention the large cost (design) could have been shared across 3 sets. A simple set up with a glass desk, backdrops and and key able plasma as others have suggested could be done easily. Space seems the issue at some locations (MEL)
Hopefully in a year or two - once these bulletins are established - Nine will invest in sets.
It’s not just less revenue, there are higher costs as well.
As S.NSW has 12 reporters based out of 4 or maybe more offices, thus would need more vehicles to consistently cover a bigger area vs what Adelaide would, which probably has half that number of reporters based in 1 location.
What?
Nine News had an odd start this evening in QLD.
The cricket was airing, and while the commentator was mid-sentence talking about something happening in the match, SCA cut straight out to an ad before the 9 News logo appeared on screen with no opening headlines.
SNSW Bulletin - 30 minutes due to cricket:
After a story about Heatwave conditions they told viewers there would be local information in the Illawarra and Central West windows:
There was an issue with the finance/weather segment - the start of finance was missed then there was black before weather.
Has Vanessa had a day off this year? I’ve been keeping an eye on this topic to see who would fill in for her during an absence. She must be going for the perfect attendance award for 2017.
