Nine News Local

I strongly suspect Sam will be used more for Nine News regional. They scored well with her. Hope all is well for Mike Lorgian. He is a great talent.

I’d imagine that Mike Lorigan is going just fine, if the fact he’ll be filling in for Vanessa O’Hanlon (and IIRC, presented sport on the Morning News last week) is anything to go by.

Lorigan’s media career has definitely come a long way since I first saw him reporting in Taree for Prime7 a few years ago, that’s for sure! :slight_smile:

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He has been since September/October as far as I know…

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As mentioned on the metro thread, the Saturday 24th Melbourne bulletin was presented from the regional studio due to election coverage in the main studio.

The Melbourne team have proved that fluffing about with fake set guff splattered across the screen won’t cut it for metro standards. Yes, Melbourne used the live feed versus a key, but stripping the regional keys down to a clean backdrop would cost them nothing.


Capped from 9Now, apologies for quality.

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Regarding the situation of the Darwin bulletin being merged with the RQLD bulletin, and Darwin viewers being subjected to RQLD and even Brisbane stories not relevant to them, I’ve been wondering if they would be better served by a joint Darwin/Central news service?

At the moment the Brisbane/SEQ and Darwin bulletins are both shown on Imparja (the latter being simulcast on 9Gem in that market) and viewers in Remote Australia have no dedicated news service covering towns and areas like Alice, Katharine, Mount Isa, extreme Far North Queensland and remote SA. Incorporating stories from these places into a Darwin/NT bulletin would fill the gap only serviced by SCA noodles on 7 Central and also give Darwin viewers on 9’s O&O station NTD a news service more accurately reflecting the one they had became accustomed to. Stories from remote NT and remote QLD would surely sit better in a Darwin bulletin than those from Brisbane, Sunny Coast, Townsville etc.

I haven’t considered how feasible this would be when considering the legalities related to station ownership, or costs and logistics (where to produce it if Darwin isn’t an option, or having reporters on the ground in remote places) but surely it could work in theory?

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What’s the incentive for Nine to do this?

There’s no commercial news competitors in either Darwin or the Central coverage area.

They cut costs in Darwin because they could and because they were n no danger of loosing commercial revenue.

Paying for resources in remote areas adds nothing to bulletins in markets that generate revenue.

The only way they’ll do as you suggest is if Southern Cross or Imparja pay them to do it.

I like your ideas because they’re based on providing a good service, but unfortunately that’s no longer the motivating factor and the regulator really isn’t interested or it’s not in the government’s interest to enforce a higher standard.

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Plus, you have to look at population statistics with this idea. The overwhelming majority of people within 7 Central and Imparja’s northern footprint live in Queensland. There simply isn’t enough people in the NT to warrant a TV news service. They don’t even schedule their normal programming in Central Standard Time. It’s a bit backwards as they are NT-based, but that’s just how it is. No one lives in the NT.

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I know the programming has been in EST for quite some time now, but do you know when each channel changed over to airing programming based on EST instead of CST?

I can remember years ago, I stayed with family in the remote viewing area and all programming on Imparja was scheduled based on CST. So anything advertised for 7:30pm, didn’t actually air until 8:00pm in QLD

The following info was supplied by @WAtvVideos:

Remote NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and SA channels:

Channel Source Timezone
SCTV Central - South 7 Melbourne AEDT
7TWO Central - South 7TWO Melbourne AEDT
7mate Central 7mate Melbourne AEDT
Imparja South Nine Sydney AEDT
GO! South 9Go! Sydney AEDT
GEM 9Gem Sydney AEDT
TEN Central - South TEN Melbourne AEDT
ELEVEN - South ELEVEN Melbourne AEDT
ONE Central ONE Melbourne AEDT

Remote Queensland and NT channels:

Channel Source Timezone
SCTV Central - North 7 Brisbane AEST
7TWO Central - North 7TWO Brisbane AEST
7mate Central 7mate Melbourne AEDT
Imparja North Nine Brisbane AEST
GO! North 9Go! Brisbane AEST
GEM 9Gem Sydney AEDT
TEN Central - North TEN Brisbane AEST
ELEVEN - North ELEVEN Brisbane AEST
ONE Central ONE Melbourne AEDT

I think the implication here is that every station in the Remote and Central market plays out in the time zone of the station that’s feeding it. So Imparja North would be “on delay” during DST, because it’s a relay of Nine Brisbane, which is “on delay”. So Nine News Queensland (Brisbane) goes out at 5.30pm on Imparja in the NT, and “on time” at 6pm in QLD. Nine News Darwin goes out “live” on Imparja Gem at 6pm CST, but it’s hard to get my head around what time it’s shown in the various states due to IMP Gem North being run on Sydney time, not Brisbane time. I’m assuming it’s seen at 6pm in the NT, 6.30 in QLD - and if it’s also shown on Imparja Gem South, SA would see it at 7pm and the other states at 7.30pm. Can anyone confirm this?

A little off-topic for this thread, but the fact that Imparja North follows Nine Brisbane’s schedule and Imparja Gem North follows Sydney’s must make a mockery of cross-promotion during DST. How is this handled? The program advertised on a menu as “starting now over on Gem” will have been shown an hour ago! (I think that’s right - this is hurting my head! Why did I even bring it up? :crazy_face:)

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There is only one channel for Imparja GEM, which is run off GEM Sydney for both North and South markets.

So if you are watching in remote Queensland, you see programs an hour earlier than Brisbane/Regional Queensland (via SC Nine) sees them.

That means during daylight savings, the program that plays on GEM Sydney at 7.30-8.30pm is cut out for Nine News Darwin (playing at 6pm NT, 6.30pm Qld, 7pm SA, 7.30pm NSW/VIC/TAS time).

During non-daylight saving the cutout is 6.30pm-7.30pm (and Queensland on the same timezone then).

It is the same for 7mate and Boss (previously ONE) in VAST Markets, only one channel for both North & South, both feed from the Melbourne source.

This is probably due to these channels being HD, limited space for more HD feeds over satellite.

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Thanks @Abesty for the additional info and clarification. I can’t believe I actually worked the TX times out correctly!

I believe that on-air everything is advertised in Queensland time on Imparja North and in Sydney time on Imparja South (and of course outside of DST these times will be the same). As for Imparja Gem, they seem to promote programs in Sydney time throughout the year (I’ve seen their custom menus advertising the “NT News” at 7.30pm). I’m not familiar with VAST - if it features an EPG, does this or similar recognise a viewer’s state or postcode and adjust listings accordingly?

Very interesting info. But my question was related to when exactly Imparja changed from using CST for all broadcasts to EST on their QLD feed.
Years ago, probably about 10 years, I remember being in Central West QLD and all programming was advertised in CST.

My post wasn’t meant as a direct answer to your question, just to give a little more insight generally. I seem to remember Seven/SC Darwin operating in AEST when it was a rebroadcast of Seven/SC Central and by default a rebroadcast of BTQ7. I wonder if this changed (with a broadcast delay put in place for Darwin) at a similar time to Imparja moving from CST to AEST? Possibly Imparja changed when the north and south feeds were established (around 2010), and Seven/SC Darwin changed when it became a sole Seven affiliate with the launch of DDT/Ten Darwin in 2008.

How does all of this impact on program classifications?

If NT viewers are seeing an AEDT feed that would mean 2030 programming showing from 1900 in summer.

That’s going to get them into trouble unless there’s a waiver of some sort?

Northern NSW stations broadcasting into the Gold Coast were initially running an AEDT schedule meaning programming was an hour ahead of local time (if you get what I mean). Complaints and regulator action led to NBN, NRTV/Southern Cross/WIN and Prime delaying the Gold Coast signal by an hour to comply with classifications, something that I believe continues to this day.

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The classification restrictions are probably based on the timezone that the channel is licensed in and/or where the largest population is. So with Queensland/NSW having higher population than NT there is no issue with NT viewers seeing things earlier than they should.

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Yes it does. When you buy a VAST set-top box, you register it with your home address. VAST then activates the services relevant to your state. For example, if I live in SA, my VAST box will show only ABC/SBS SA in the 2x/3x range and only show the South variants of the commercial channels. The EPG on the box would show accurate times relevant to my timezone, despite advertised times on air being out by half an hour.

It’s something a new VAST viewer would have to get used to, trusting the EPG and ignoring newspaper TV guides and on-air promos. But it’s not uncommon. Foxtel channels are all AEDT and viewers in every other state have had to adjust advertised times for years.

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Would you be able to do a montage some day this or next week?

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I’ll do a montage of tomorrows Illawarra bulletin.

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Caps of tonight’s Illawarra bulletin:

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Nine News Illawarra Montage 28/11/2018:

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