I still don’t get what Prime wants exactly, or at all….
The govt made it legal for prime and 7 to merge
Then the prime board voted that down…
What does prime want exactly?
To be able to merge with Win or SCA?
The initial offer was a slap in the face to shareholders. The existing offer near double is a lot closer to true value and provides certainty seeing as there won’t be regulatory reform to ensure continuity for regional broadcasters moving forward.
I still don’t know what legislation prime wants…. They’ve never made it clear
Removal of limits on consolidation and owning media instruments within the same market. ACM wanted to run an integrated newspaper/tv media business. Now they’ll take the money from their 23% of Prime we will see what they do next.
The days of having three commercial regional tv operators in regional markets is not sustainable today, particularly with the clout of the metropolitan networks. This has been argued for for eight years with the government, and this is with a pro-business government.
Now Prime will be replaced with a big city voice in Seven, WIN is slowly being enveloped by Nine and Southern Cross has a nearly non-existent voice (I would say as a Ten affiliate, but even with Nine they didn’t produce their own news).
Not really.
Prime only has a voice for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week and in the markets they select - not Canberra, Wollongong or Newcastle. And not 7 days a week like 7 Tasmania or 9 Newcastle.
Seven will keep the local news and may even expand it. They’ve started numerous times how they see primes local news at 6 instrumental to primetime performance. And their commitment to 7 qld shows this too
I don’t see any prime voice changing. Prime got rid of its local news I’m many markets 20 years ago - before Netflix, multi channels and google dominance.
The only bring prime does now is put it’s logo on the PRG
I don’t see much changing.
Likewise win and SCA. SCA axed it’s local news 20 years ago.
I mean local Tv doesn’t really exist anywhere in a Australia anymore.
We have 3 National networks. With one hour of local News at 4 and 6 that’s it
It’s all networked out of Sydney.
Folks in Orange are not going to end up with anything different to those in Adelaide or Perth really. A network brand and schedule. And a local news at 6 with the network brand
It’s not like there is any localism left in Sydney or Melbourne either. It’s all network
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I actually wouldn’t be surprised that that’s what they wanted, or more likely with their part-owners ACM. The main thing regionals had been pushing for was removal of the “minimum number of voices” rules that require four media operators in a market (five in metros). Made, say, an ACM takeover of Prime next to impossible as most markets Prime are in are already on or under that, and most include an ACM newspaper.
Probably a little bit of sulking too that SCA can co-own TV and radio in a market as they got in early (when the original cross media ownership loosening was done a while ago), yet the media diversity rule means Prime can’t co-own TV and newspapers in the same market as SCA is in.
The validity of the 4 voices rule is probably another matter - there’s no way it was going to affect what people actually see on air for 23.5+ hours of the day whether they merged with ACM or with Seven; as you say, that time is long gone. 
i think the only change will be PRIME local news will move to 530. it will rate anywhere they schedule it. 7 will save money in dropping the 630 national prime news and run 7 news in all markets at 6pm, same as WIN and 9 do now.
they would have to wait for 7 years lol
The “Save our Voices” group (which included Prime) wanted the rules regarding regional voices changed so they could consolidate regional resources (television/papers/radio) to achieve better economies of scale to stave off the need to merge with their metro partners.
The group was unsuccessful in getting any traction at a political level - allegedly, the Government dodged meetings
Isn’t the seven acquisition a trigger event that will require additional local content requirements?
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Possibly only in Mildura I think? Trigger events in regional TV only apply to non-aggregated markets from my reading, to bring them up to the aggregated market requirement.
So it could be noodle updates, but Seven would have to do something there if they don’t already.
It’d also apply to the WA markets, have no idea whether GWN currently qualify in every market it’d apply to (or if WA would just be treated as one) but with an evening news they’d be closer to the mark.
Yes I believe so. I think it’s still the “points” system - but I recall it being quite a significant jumó in points needed, I think it will require all markets to have so many points that really 30 mins of local news would be the best way to meet the requirements
In a trigger event local content output increases for all markets except Remote Central/Eastern and Remote WA. In Prime7’s case, the east coast increases from 720 minutes to 900 minutes per six weeks, and Mildura & WA go from no requirements to 320 minutes per six weeks.
Here’s a guide I made way back when the reforms were being proposed. Plus one of the maps.
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If the Seven/Prime merger goes ahead, what will happen to the Bendigo and Wagga Wagga newspapers owned by ACM? Will they become O&O by Seven?
ACM is a completely seperate company to Prime or Seven (apart from the fact that Catalano owns Prime shares). Those newspapers would continue to be run by ACM as they are now
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Say it again, but slower… 
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If Seven does successfully purchased Prime I wonder how long until we see on air changes occur?
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Wondering that myself. I wouldn’t have thought before the new year, considering the extraordinary meeting is set for the 23rd?
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I was wondering New Years day
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I wouldn’t think that fast. Usually restructuring staff behind the scenes take place first. I wouldn’t expect any on air changes until mid 2022.
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