I assume that a metropolitan station would have higher advertising rates than regional stations.
As at 30 June 2020, Canberra (at 431380) is about 30% of the population of Adelaide (at 1376601) and Adelaide is around 25% of Sydneys population (at 5367206) (source: ABS.gov.au)
I am not necessarily suggesting its a good idea, but the metropolitan stations will look at all sorts of ways to increase their revenue base, especially if they own the regional stations as well.
As appeared in a Sunday program in late March 1989, it was stated prior to aggregation, regional networks were dictating the price they paid for programming (which may have been substantially true due to wider audience exposure for their product). Now the tables have turned and networks with aggregation command a percentage of the revenue of the regionals.
The advertising pie hasnt increased much over the past 30 or so years but the other entertainment options have such as streaming services, pay tv and the internet in general. Factor in the availability of gaming machines in households these days, the networks need to look at ways to remain viable.
How could they achieve this in reality on Gold Coast? The only remotely available slot in prime time would be 7pm, but I daresay they would not want to displace Home and Away. I guess Prime7 (as it now is) could do a direct Seven Brisbane feed between 4pm and 6pm and if they wanted to screen a local news, it could be instead of The Latest
Advertisers are not suddenly going to pay more dollars to cover the same market just because its structure changes. And also, Canberra is licenced to Prime7, SCA and WIN. While Seven will gain access to the market via Prime, are you suggesting that SCA and WIN just get booted out of town to make room for Nine and Ten, who AFAIK have expressed no desire to buy into Canberra.
Considering essentially 2 near identical program streams broadcast into the same sub market they could do it. As for the timeslot who knows but Prime Gold Coast News was repeated at 9.30pm for a few years of its life. But thereâs really no need because the bulletin is on 7Plus.
I didnt say it was a good idea, but then I think the timings of the overall aggregation of markets werent the best. Northern NSW was aggregated after Southern NSW and regional QLD but population wise is a similar size to regional QLD. I also think that it should have been more structured than it was. eg Newcastle should have been aggregated within 6 months of Canberra and Wollongong. I know its the past, but its one thing that I feel was handled wrong.
If the networks want to buy these stations and the owners are prepared to sell, I cant see the problem. If the metropolitan stations own these stations and they want to, if the necessary changes to legislation is made, what would stop them.
I am just putting across a thought.
As for the regional content conditions, the fact that WIN is the only network that provides remotely meaningful local content at the moment in a local news program, so would it be considered much of a loss if it was changed?
I feel sorry for the metro network shareholders getting stuck with some of these regional TV stations as its widely known some small market regionals donât sell enough advertising in the market to cover the transmission costs let alone fund local news. Paying to buy regional stations that are underwater on even transmission costs is nuts.
Prime makes a pretty substantial profit overall so those markets which may make a loss (which for Prime would really only include their digital joint ventures in Mildura and WA?) arenât gonna make too much of an impact for those shareholders.
Where would such a combined operation exist to service Federal Parliamentary reporting needs and local News production in Canberra?
To run local news production out of parliament house would not be allowed by the parliament. Being the news bureaus there are only provided space for parliamentary reporting only. If you have ever been there, it is very small as it is. There is no space to put in a an extra studio for local news, let alone desks for extra journos, space for more edit suites and a control room.
And such a combined operation could not exist outside parliament house either, as the federal politics journos have to stay working inside parliament house to cover and report from parliament house.
There will be no combined operation.
7 West does not have a streaming arm like Stan, Binge or 10âs Paramount + to grow revenue as FTA ad revenue declines. So they must look at ways to boost revenue. Buying Prime Media does that.
Instead of collecting 40% ad revenue for stations reaching abut 5 million people - they collect 100% of ad revenue
Shareholders of 7W would probably prefer 7W be in the streaming business. But they are not - so they must show revenue growth somehow - enter Prime 7
in a rapidly declining sector, Seven might be able to get a bump from better deals with national broadcasters but if theyâre looking at improving revenue in any meaningful way, buying Prime doesnt really achieve that.
One hopes theyâre planning something in terms of streaming (they have to), but it doesnât mean they canât also grab low hanging fruit. Better to get this done now, and then move on.
It was probably an inevitable move at some point in the future if they didnât do it now - there are significant doubts the regional ad market will recover post-COVID, Seven may be able to inject some life into the markets where Prime operate, but it will be incredibly tough.
However, this doesnât shake the reality that Seven is a collection of basically legacy media that are all on the decline and have no real visible strategy to move into streaming or other new media. Whether they decide to go alone into the streaming space or partner with someone, they probably dont have a great amount of time to make a move before being significantly left behind (and difficult to catch up).
Even Peacock is basically bundled with Sky (both Comcast), so much integration happening. Youâd hope theyâre having discussions with NBCUni about doing something together.
Judging by what Warburton has said about Seven getting into the SVOD space, it seems like they will only do so in conjunction with some sort of partner.
The issue is (as bacco touched upon), they really need to do something sooner rather than later.
So are you saying Prime7âs 2 minute noodle updates are superior to WINâs half hour in Canberra? I was referring to Canberra when I made that statement about the news.
I agree that WIN is shoddy in areas where both operate full half hour news services. Mind you the bar has been lowered in recent years due to cost cutting for all providers. NBN produce a good service, but still streets apart from what it once was