And it seems like the gap is widening!
Last December, Prime7 stated that their Northern Rivers 6pm news share was 42% vs NBNs 39%.
Now it’s 47% vs 37%, though some of the increase was coming from non news programming on WIN, ABC and SBS.
Nothing has changed with NBN News in 2018 as far as the bulletin itself is concerned, it’s still a bit too Newcastle centric.
I’m not sure how viewers in the relevant regions feel about Prime7 Local News compared to NBN/Nine News and WIN (in the Southern NSW regions where they have full bulletins), but personally I don’t think the format/presentation is as good as it could be. Now don’t get me wrong, Madelaine, Kenny & Karl make some presenters in metro markets a bit pathetic by comparison.
But each time I see the “generic regional filler” items on what is supposed to be a full local news bulletin I wonder whether it’d be better to just shorten the 6pm bulletin(s) and extend the running time of Prime7 News at 6.30pm (or the delayed/cut down version of Seven News in the case of the Albury/Wodonga, NSW/VIC Border market).
I actually think the non-Newcastle regions of Northern NSW might benefit a little (with an emphasis on little) from adopting the same format for news that Nine has in the other aggregated markets on the East Coast.
Feel free to throw things at me right now! 
Do you mean that NBN should adopt the Nine News regional format?
If so, it was actually set up the other way around, with Nine News based on the NBN model.
But it’s the execution, NBN may in fact be better off with generic stories that Prime7 uses rather than air Newcastle ones everywhere.
then thats why nine news regional sucks then lol esp if its based on the nbn model lol
Yes.
I get that. Although there are some subtle differences between the current format of NBN News and Nine News in the other regional markets - but that discussion is for another topic.
Maybe it’s just because I’m so used to watching the metro bulletins, but personally I think the regional news formats of Prime7, Nine/NBN and WIN all have their flaws.
Some things (like more centralised production and less resources compared to metro news bulletins) obviously can’t be helped but there are other elements that can be tweaked which would make for more watchable regional news services IMO.
I think a pre-recorded cross to the “local newsroom” about 20 minutes in to the metro bulletin is something regional networks could experiment with. Have around 15 minutes of local news with 1 ad break in between. Maybe opt out for local weather at the end. It would dilute the identity of the local news operation and it brings all news under the one metro brand. But I think it could work.
So for example, 7 News Sydney would begin as usual, then 20 minutes in a pre-recorded segment would air with Fergo crossing to Kenny for all of today’s local news. Local headlines segment followed by a few stories with a brief look at local weather, then another pre-recorded cross back to Fergo for metro sport. Local weather at the end branded as Seven Weather.
Yes, good idea and one that has been mooted a few times on these forums.
Problem would be getting Seven to cooperate so that the opt outs and opt ins can be timed smoothly so that there’s no crashing in or out of the Seven bulletin.
There’s also no reason why Prime7 couldn’t change their 1 hour block of news to be split 20/40 rather than 30/30 eg. Local News from 6pm to 6.20, and then the metro news to be 6.20 to 7pm.
It’s a LONG way to go for cheap fuel in WA.
Many towns wouldn’t have much choice.
especially if it is in the outback many hundreds of kilometres from a major centre!
I think Shepparton Area should get a Prime 7 News. The Area and Population warrents it for News that we have got now
The area already gets regional news from WIN and SC9 (even if the SC news bulletin is shared with Albury)
Win has about 15 mins of Regional News while SC9 have Sweet FA for the Shepparton
I think for a area and population of the Goulburn Valley and Southern Riverina, I think if Prime7 has a news broadcast for the GV and Southern Riverina. It stops the Complacent Win News(Dishing local news which really come from Ballarat or other areas) and steps up SC9 News to more GV and Southern Riverina news in there bulliten
Judging by the editions of Prime7 Local News I’ve seen in recent years, they too have plenty of out of region and “generic regional issues” reports to fill the gaps.
Ideally you’d probably want to see more reporters/camera crews hired by WIN and Nine/SCA so they can cover more relevant local stories for the Goulburn Valley but with the regional media industry as it is at the moment, that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Prime at GC2018
The problem with this suggested format is that the Sydney bulletins are packed full of Sydney news in the first segments. No Sydney newsroom would forfeit their early live crosses to a stabbing at Parramatta in order to take a ‘statewide’ view of the news. Before I get pounced on, a random stabbing in Parramatta is NOT headline news for people in Dubbo.
The beauty of the current Prime7 format is the parochial Sydney stories are completely removed from the newshour. The fact that the 6.30 news is not produced in Sydney can only help story selection - we have seen time and again that Nine is unable to determine when a story is of no interest outside the M7.
Prime7 is the best produced regional news outside of NBN in my view. They have more than half the audience, so I wouldn’t tinker with success.
I noticed that due to the games, GWN is running 6-6.30, incorporating national/world news with the local news, and 7 News has been bumped.
National stories have Seven News reporter sign-off’s intact.
And because the bulletin is including Seven News reports, it looks like they aren’t uploading it to their YouTube account for the duration of the games (last one uploaded was Wednesday night).
They probably only have rights to air the Seven content in broadcast, not online.
Just like how Southern Cross Tasmania only puts the local stories in their uploads.
That’s interesting as Noel just mentioned their YouTube channel to catch-up on local news.