AFAIK Prime7 has for a long time now had a dominant share in Reg Vic and viewers seem to flock to Seven News Melbourne regardless of it not being local per sé.
Though my relos in Bendigo used to prefer WIN News anyway.
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I think the major problem for regional markets was the local content requirements in relation to the so-called points system in regards to the value placed in local news as opposed anything else.
I think locally produced news, sports, childrens programs and lifestyle/talk shows should have had the same value.
I think we would have seen more diversity across the networks. Perhaps SCA when it was a Ten affiliate may have produced a sports program similar to Sports Action that aired on Capital Television in the late 1980s
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The general performance of WIN would also be a factor
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i have never heard of a news service being a profit business. Its an essential part of the platform and thats why its there. If it as profitable as you claim, PRIME and other networks would be throwing bulletins to air everywhere and not sadly pulling back and working out ways of cutting costs. WIN TV like PRIME only have 9 local to compete with in VIC markets, and they have changed or upgraded cameras and edit suites to the industry standard now of HD. Infact the cameras they use are over 20 years old. Im not bagging any news service we need news in regional areas, i just say they are not profitable and in some cases make a loss for that network. Have a great day
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I’ve even heard that 7 and 9 NEWS are not profitable as organizations. But the Breakfast shows are.
Strong local news lifts an entire station to #1 - look at 7 Perth, 7 Tasmania, GWN7 WA, NBN Newcastle and 7QLD.
The 30 minute smay not be profitable - but the halo effect is brings to the entire Channel is unmistakable and brings in revenue big time.
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Remembering that some regional news services didn’t upgrade to 16.9 transmission until 2011/12, it’s no wonder that most aren’t in HD yet. It’ll probably be 2025/26 (if regional news as we know it still exists by then) before all regional TV news is produced and going to air in HD…by which point in time the likes of Nine News Sydney very well could be looking at producing bulletins in 4K.
Don’t know about the entire organisation, but it was said by Hugh Marks fairly recently that Nine News at 6pm and A Current Affair are the strongest revenue segment/s in Nine’s schedule.
Personally I could believe that the 6pm-7.30pm weeknights are a cash cow for Nine on the East Coast, but reckon they’d have to be loosing money in Adelaide and especially Perth given the dominance of Seven over there.
Didn’t Hugh Marks actually recently say Nine News (6pm) is the most profitable daily timeslot for at least their network? And no doubt Seven who rate even higher.
I think he said 6-730 brings in the most revenue.
But that doesn’t mean it’s profitable.
If the running costs are more than the revenue brings in…
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When i worked at WIN back in the late 90’s and early 00’s they had received new SD 16:9 cameras. those cameras would be easily 20+ years old, WIN Wollongong have HD cameras for the last 3 years and promised the rest of the network a rollout would happen soon, they are still waiting.
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Prime are jumping up and down about current media laws crippling them, well I feel for the people at prime who voted and wanted the seven merger to go ahead but certain people who block it this is what is known as karma…
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Trust Bruce Gordon and Antony Catalano stuffing the merger up so that they could flush the company down when times get tough. They’re terrible.
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do we know if the president or CEO or whatever you want to call it of prime media group have the power to veto any votes if it goes against what is in the best interest ie veto the vote of Gordon and Catalano?
Its not a great situation where someone can control a media licence (or in Gordon’s case, many licences) and at the same time be a shareholder in a company that holds a similar licence in many of the same markets.
It doesnt matter whether he has enough shares to enact “control” - Gordon has enough shares in Prime Media Group to significantly impact decisions the board put to shareholders and is able to offer a significant percentage towards any voting bloc of disaffected shareholders, like we saw last year.
Rudd’s push for a royal commission into Murdoch-led ownership of media assets in this country is well placed (not that it will get up), but there are many more issues that need resolution - like this one
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Yep, I agree. With the above in mind, it’s probably not entirely coincidental that there isn’t a single regional market where both Prime & WIN have full local news services these days as well!
Only if he is a shareholder. One share equals one vote. But no vetoing.
It is a group effort from the regional industry which would enable a further rationalisation of costs. Prime are in the best position of the three regional commercial broadcasters.
What do WIN, Prime7 and SCA want exactly? I’m a bit lost…
I love it when these companies try and claim they are small battling community companies from the bush. They’re all big media companies reaching 6-8 million Australians.
Double the NZ market almost.
Same population reach as national TV networks in Norway Finland and Switzerland - yet they’re always claiming how badly done by they are
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