It was. Probably helped explain all the stories from that area.
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Of interest to me was the council mergers story because I have relatives and friends who work for Wollongong and Shellharbour Councils. The Sydney story on the mergers included a mention that a decision is expected at a cabinet meeting tomorrow. I donât remember that information being imparted in the Illawarra story (already deleted the bulletin). A lot of people in the area are hanging on this decision.
I think Iâll be streaming the Sydney bulletin when Iâm on the south coast in future.
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Big thanks to @Bort and @NewsWeary for the rundowns.
There was clearly a local window during Sport⌠which I believe should have been at the start of the sport block, rather than the end (others may disagree).
It looks as though the last 2 stories after the âGrammy Awardsâ story in the first block might have been a local window, maybe. But weird that both markets aired the ANZAC Test Match stories given that itâs highlighted here that it was mostly a Canberra story, it would be weird to feature in an Illawarra local window.
However, given the different orders of the stories, it had to have been a part of a local window.
It seems based on the list that all up to the Grammy Awards story were live in both, with the local windows then starting featuring:
CANBERRA: Man sentenced / ILLAWARRA: ANZAC Test Match
CANBERRA: ANZAC Test Match / ILLAWARRA: Disabled Parking
Back to live for the ACT Baby Burn and throw to break?
If so, an incredibly small local window, that again I think should be right up the front of the bulletin, maybe after the first ânationalâ opening story.
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I think the local sport window is fine where it is. At least you get a local flavour with some local scenery as they throw to the break after sport. Iâm hoping the second half of the first block is intended to be purely local content for the various sub markets.
Even if they get the structure right the presentation leaves a lot to be desired. It really does look second rate compared to the Sydney bulletin. This will only be emphasised with SCA Nine retaining the metro weekend bulletin.
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Iâve tabulated the rundown from each market to make it a bit easier to compare.
Both markets received 20 stories from Sydney/National bulletins.
The Canberra market received:
7 Canberra based stories, and
5 Illawarra based stories.
The Illawarra market received:
8 Illawarra based stories, and
4 Canberra based stories.
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Thanks @NQCQTV2 for compiling that; awesome!
It really does clearly show that how little was different between the two versions, and thatâs really not good enough from Nine.
I (and it seems many others) expected larger local windows from 9News Canberra, 9News Illawarra, etc., as well as better presentation (not the full-on awesome sets in Sydney/Melbourne/Perth, but presentation comparable to the national 9News programmes such as the 11:30 weekday bulletin).
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Iâd like to see how this compares to NBN.
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No doubt it is better than what SCA offered before, but is it any better than what WIN has been doing in these areas for decades?
Not really, no. At least the WIN bulletins are properly local with Ten handling the bigger national/international stories at 5pm.
The only explanation apart from this being poorly launched is that theyâre still trying to figure out how to opt all the bulletins properly. Maybe Nine is worried about it going awry too often, and so theyâre only doing it a few times per bulletin until theyâre sure they wonât fuck things up.
Without wanting to sound like an apologist for what is quite obviously a bungled launch, perhaps in a few months, once theyâve got every NSW region up and running, they will have more confidence in opting to local stories more often? A staggered launch suggests theyâre not 100% sure about things yet.
Part of me wondered how this would work from the beginning. If thereâs a major local story in precisely one market, but some other national story needs top billing in every other market, does that mean they have to record two intros? That means Vanessa needs to record another take for the national story which doesnât introduce viewers to the bulletin in that one special region as well.
Further, if thereâs late-breaking news at 5.30pm I can imagine things getting very tense. I can see the logic behind them opting not to have headlines before the title card. There isnât enough time in the day for poor Vanessa to do local variations of headlines and introductions to all of NSWâs local stories as well as rehearsing and then presenting a live bulletin.
All in all, this sounds like a fucking technical and logistical nightmare, especially when there isnât an unlimited amount of time between getting the story rundown ready and going to air.
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They had months to get this shit working though, its just so unprofessional that they seem to be happy to use the first few regions that they launch in as guinea pigs to getting their product in shape. As much as I feel theyâre thinking long term, theyâre perhaps ignoring the short term issues that come with a bulletin that is obviously still in beta test mode.
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With NBN, on weeknights, the local windows are longer, the first local news window is about 6 minutes long and (for most markets), thereâs 2 local reports, 1 âout of areaâ report, and 3 voiceover items (usually with footage), again probably one 1 of these isnât local. Newcastle is the only market where this is usually close to 100% local.
The Sport window is about 4 minutes long, 2 reports and 1 or maybe 2 voiceover items, again in most markets sometimes 1 of these reports and voiceover items wonât be local, and Newcastle is the most likely to be fully local.
For News and Sport windows, there are 6 of them, Newcastle (live), Central Coast, Mid North Coast, North West Slopes, Far North Coast and Gold Coast.
In the âliveâ section of the bulletin, there is another 2 or so Newcastle items that are aired across Nth NSW and the Gold Coast.
Weather is composite local/national, thereâs only 4 of these, Newcastle/Central Coast is combined, as is Mid North/Far North, and North West and Gold Coast get their own. Itâs about 4 minutes.
The other difference is that the local Windows each throw to the ad break, and each of the pre recorded ones use a different music piece, which is like a âextended mixâ as its dependent on when the live Newcastle window finishes so they all go to the ad break at the same time. I have seen these pieces run for 30 seconds or more at times.
And oddly, one night I saw the Central Coast window cut off mid report because (for some reason) the Newcastle live window had finished early.
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What a mess.
Itâs really not that hard:
-
HEADLINES: Add opener w/ headlines. Every other newscast in the nation does it
-
SET: lose the white swirls backdrop and add a stunning local skyline image that evokes local pride and looks gorgeous on the screen
-
GEOGRAPHY: act like locals. A cross to Quenbeayan should be Quenbeayan - not Canberra. a cross to sydney should be labelled just that - not Randwick. Terms like âNSW South coastâ should be just âsouth coastâ - and âsouth of Wollongongâ - no - give the suburb name.
-
CONTENT. Simply select the most interesting / newsworthy stories of the day that matter to all people
Across SNSW. Itâs not that hard. That means no local Canberra stories in the marketwide section. That also means no irrelevant local sydney items. There is a difference with a story of national significance (bushfires) or broad enough interest (say. A massive factory fire with stunning pictures in Canberra) to a purely local one (council mergers) those should be saved for the local windows
6 days in there really hasnât been a big enough local story in Canberra or Wollongong that you would
Lead the bulletin with. So I think itâs wage to say we can open with national stories.
- RUNDOWN
- Localized opens
- Two marketwide / national stories
- Local window with 3 local stories
- Back to marketwide / national
1st Break
Why is this so hard for these folks?
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How much more local stories do you want? To have 7 and 8 stories local to each market respectively means that their 3 reporters have worked very hard.
Just because some of these were also shown in the other area doesnât devalue how local the story was.
I think the local window was only so short because a lot of their content was showed in both areas so it was easier to read it live than prerecord.
As more bulletins are launched, they will have more choice for the out of region stories and will therefore have more differences for each bulletin, and therefore longer windows. For example Canberraâs 7 local and 5 Illawarra stories would likely turn into something like 7 local, 2 Illawarra, 1 central west and 1 Wagga.
It would appear that their format is flexible enough the the exact length and position of the local window can vary from night to night based on the stories available.
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Are you new to this thread?
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How did they get a gorgeous backdrop shot so right in the promo:
Then so wrong on the actual broadcast:
The local shot should be stunning, and evoke a sense of local pride âwe love our cityâ, not some washed out white shot with a a half dozen graphic elements covering the whole purpose of the shot
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Totally agreed,
the image used in the actual bulletin (for both Canberra and Illawarra looks soo dull and boring. And I donât think they are liveshots which is a bit disappointing
It will be interesting to see who fills in for Vanessa if she ever has to have a day off.
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gee that doesnât look clunky at all.
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