While WINs model has always been to show full bulletins, I just don’t see them coughing up the money to start up a bunch of new bulletins for Northern NSW.
Yes, I tend to agree that WIN would want to have something set up to “show off”, but realistically, everything revolves around money for Bruce and WIN, and given their current Ten affiliation, the cost of setting up and running new bulletins is not going to be a viable return, and hence not working the outset cost.
I’m not familiar with the markets of NNSW, but I think there would be 4 markets WIN would need bulletins/updates for?
I could see them producing 2 markets worth of updates from Maroochydore, and the other 2 markets worth of updates from Wollongong.
Given Bruce is about to buy Ten, presumably with a goal of making a network that is viable, it would be odd if their plan is to run a network so bad that they can’t afford regional production.
Plus, if the state of NRN’s profitability is so horrible that the ~$5 million extra a year to produce local news would ruin them - why’d they buy it?
As for studios - it would make a lot of sense to do production in Tasmania - they’ve got all they need in place and presenting the extra bulletins down there would help make keeping a studio there viable. Though ideally they would shift Victoria back to Victoria and reuse the space in Wollongong for NNSW.
I agree with those who are saying that WIN are unlikely to establish full local news services in Northern NSW.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for increased local news competition. Especially in the Newcastle & Central Coast markets, where your options are currently either NBN News or Sydney news.
But establishing full local bulletins on a 4th placed Network Ten affiliate against stronger, more established local news competition? Yeah, I can’t see that being financially viable in the long run.
…although NBN would probably be a Network Ten affiliate right now if that happened!
Do WIN currently produce a full regional bulletin for the QLD markets (one live, the rest recorded) as opposed to a pan-regional bulletin with local branding and opts (like SC9)? If that’s the case then most bulletins must be recorded “well” in advance. Is the SC9/NBN model something worth doing as a compromise, or would it be seen as a half-arsed attempt and nothing viewers couldn’t get from NBN. Go the whole hog, or don’t bother at all?
EDIT: I appreciate the SC9/NBN bulletins are composite national/international/regional/local - obviously I mean a half-hour bulletin only covering regional and local news. Maybe first half market specific, second half live and shared across NNSW/GC.
Yes, WIN produce a full 30-minute market specific local news bulletin to 6 of the 7 QLD markets (all, except Mackay).
They have two seperate studios in their facility in Maroochydore.
One studio presents the Sunshine Coast bulletin live and pre-records 2 others.
The other studio presents the Townsville bulletin live and pre-records 2 others.
