Prime Media Group

Would it be feasible for them to run dirty feeds to the regional stations with local ads inserted WIN-style? At least until they can change everything over to do it properly? Then at least the channels are metro-branded.

News branding would naturally time to transition though.

this would be interesting. I think alot is being done in the background right now. Alot of staff will take leave over the Christmas break, meaning they would leave as a PRIME employee but return as a 7 employee on Jan 1 (or there after) . If the deal goes through, and my mail is that it will, maybe PRIME will cease or dissolve at midnight December 31. OR there could be an arrangement in place that PRIME would ā€œhireā€ staff to 7 until the transition goes through? As far as on air changes, probably the watermark with change and the ident would change straight away, the PRIME NEWS may change soon after, to the ā€œall new timeā€ of 530pm.

There will be a handover date for completion of the transaction. It is up to Seven and their abilities as to when any changes to Prime will be made, but will be either on or after that handover date. I wouldnā€™t be surprised if that date is sometime in January, in time for the start of the new survey season.

Two days I would like Seven to take over:

January 1, 2022 at 12am. Big TV events usually happen here or on the 1st of July at the same time. I think it would be good to switch over then.

February 20 after the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony. Since many viewers would be watching. It would be good to switch over straight after the ceremony finishes.

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Whatā€™s there to switch over? A watermark?

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Thereā€™s a rather large possum running around Prime HQ that needs to be trapped and euthanised.

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Or ā€œput to sleepā€ as one former-but-still-lurks-every-day-and-even-messages-members-to-discuss-TV-with-them-member would say! As well as poor Doopa Dog.

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Itā€™s one of those things that could change at any time with nobody really noticing. No fanfare required. Prime could change to the dirty 7 feed or just the 7 watermark at any time but still own the network and then it could switch at 3am on a random date in January and nobody would really know (and apart from people here, really care either).

Do any of the Prime bulletins have a break over Christmas?

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They used to do a single bulletin for the North west/north coast area of NSW - not sure whether they still do that

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What day will 7 actually takeover?

Seven and prime run local news very successful at 6pm, which is the standard across the network. That wonā€™t be changing

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so @KICK-IT are you saying PRIME will stay at 6pm and the 630 news would be the same as it is now and that 7 wouldnt want their flag ship 6pm Sydney news to be across the network?

only change be removing prime name and making it 7 local news

Why would Seven risk messing with their current winning formula? Seven QLD and Prime do essentially the same thing for their news hour: local at 6pm, national at 6:30; itā€™s just that Prime make their own national bulletin.

Regional viewers would also probably have some choice words for the Sydney-fication of ā€œtheirā€ news (even though its national and international news).

What would be interesting to see is would Seven experiment with making a version of the 6:30 news for QLD instead of trimming down the Brisbane bulletin?

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Theyā€™ll do exactly what they do in Queensland.

Seven has stated how important Primeā€™a local news is to primetime ratings

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At least youā€™ve got 7mateHD to look forward to! For me, Iā€™m looking forward to Seven assessing the WA market and realising how ancient it is and finally introducing 7HD and 7flix. Iā€™ll begin holding my breath as soon as I click Reply on this post. 3ā€¦2ā€¦1ā€¦

I donā€™t disagree with what you are saying @KICK-IT and @Nick Im just saying its possible.

Possible. But exceptionally unlikely.

Following the 7 Queensland model, I think something like the following will play out:

Prime7 Local News will be rebranded ā€œ7 Newsā€ with local city / regiĆ³n inserted on opening titles

All existing local bulletins will be kept by 7

New 30 minute bulletins launched in Newcastle, Canberra, Wollongong and one for Victoria as a whole

6.30 will see a truncated 7 News Sydney or 7 News Melbourne- same as Queensland