Didn’t Adelaide’s News move back to SA with this relaunch?
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The promo’s came out while the news was being produced in Melbourne.
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But studio presentation moved back to Adelaide at this time.
Loved the Sunrise set from 2010-2016. Wished it lasted longer
Maybe he was still living in Sydney at the time of his appointment (also take into account he was hosting It’s Academic at the time), and then moved to Queensland when Million Dollar Minute was axed, commuting to Sydney each weekend for Weekend Sunrise before he left Seven in mid-2020.
Others have had the same arrangement over the years:
- Between 2008-10, when Sharyn Ghidella was the news presenter on Weekend Sunrise, she would present the Saturday edition of Seven News Brisbane, fly south to Sydney that evening, present the news on WS on the Sunday and then fly back to Brisbane for that night’s news. This ended in 2010 or 2011, when WS extended to Saturdays, on which day they had Sarah Cumming read the news.
- When Ian Ross was presenter of Seven News Sydney, he would commute between Sydney and the Gold Coast, where he was living at the time, flying south on either Sunday or Monday and then returning north on Thursday, Friday or Saturday (he presented on Mondays-Fridays between 2004-05, Mondays-Thursdays between 2006-08 and Sundays-Wednesdays in 2009, his final year).
- More recently, David Brown was commuting between Melbourne and Sydney during his time as weather presenter on Seven News Sydney. This ended when Brown left the bulletin in November 2020, citing COVID-19 border restrictions and a desire to spend more time with family in Melbourne.
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30 January 2006 Nine refreshed its brand ahead of the 2006 television season and the 50th anniversary of Australian TV. Gone were the dots replaced with the numeral 9 in a blue box as well as the “Seven Colours for Seven Day” being replaced with the warehouse look.
National Nine News, Today, Wide World of Sports, Sunday and A Current Affair all had makeovers too. Jessica Rowe also commenced co-hosting with Karl Stefanovic on Today but lasted until May 2007.
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The 2006 refresh was a terrible out come across the network, with the balls returning a year later.
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That came at a crucial time in TV history as Nine was starting to be seriously challenged by Seven in the ratings war.
If I remember correctly, this relaunch proved quite polarising and just less than two years later the dots returned to the Nine logo full-time (after it was slowly reintroduced in some way in 2007).
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Also GTV viewers didn’t liked the new remix of Cool Hand Luke and went back to the Cowbell theme before the Comm Games began
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what is the “cowbell” theme?
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To this day it’s still used by WIN News and of the five metro markets for Nine, it lasted the longest at QTQ, which stopped using it in 2012 (though between 2008-11 they used the standard ending theme you now hear across all bulletins).
I always mark the 2004 Athens Olympic Games as the beginning of Seven’s dominance over Nine with Sunrise, Today Tonight, Deal or No Deal and the Seven News brand all turning around in the ratings, along with the launch of Border Security and Dancing with the Stars. The beginning of 2005 saw the Australian Open, LOST and Desperate Housewives add even more momentum to the Seven Network, leading Nine to go into a panic.
2004/5 also saw the launch of Seven’s successful promotion of “Tim the TV man”. This all resulted in Nine refreshing its network brand a year later on this day in 2006.
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It must be remembered that up until then, Seven was enduring a horror period having lost the AFL rights, leaving them without any regular domestic sport to broadcast in that time period (apart from Wallabies internationals, the 2002 Winter Olympics, the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 Rugby World Cup).
This impact was felt worst in Melbourne where it regularly languished in third place behind Nine and Ten (both of whom shared the AFL FTA rights).
Another major turning point was Lleyton Hewitt reaching the Australian Open final in 2005, which remains one of the most watched sporting events outside of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games this century.
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I remember it well. Nine flew a helicopter around Sydney on the morning of the relaunch towing a huge flag with the logo on it. There had been speculation for months that Nine were going to have a new logo. I was expecting to see a whole new logo and not a half baked one, which is what it was.
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They was panic from Nine in 2005 that a relaunch was necessary with 7 challenging in the ratings since Q4 2004
The one with the cowbell, durh… 
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Yes, even Seven News Melbourne struggled. Sometimes finishing 4th place behind The ABC in 2002-4.
Also helped promote Home & Away with Bec Hewitt sitting in the stand.
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I did read somewhere that HSV were considering replacing Peter Mitchell with Sandy Roberts at the end of 2004 (he instead replaced Beverly O’Connor in presenting sport) but they persisted with him and by 2007 he would just lead them to a narrow ratings win against the powerhouse Nine News.
But then by 2012 it started falling apart again and after 2011 Seven News would not win another ratings week until 2016. Melbourne was always going to be a tough market for Seven given their loyalty to Nine and Hitch.
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Nine then went from winning all but six weeks between 2002-04 to only two in 2007. How the mighty had fallen.
Seven’s “Seven in 07” promo proved a major success for them.