And it gives them an instant FTA platform to put their news channel on, and the sense of legitimacy that comes with that, instead of being known as just a fringe online outlet.
TV doesn’t take up much space in Hobart as it is. It’s not really too different to the situation in Newcastle where they built a small green screen studio and then sold NRN before they even moved in.
Context please? Wasn’t all of SCA 10’s noodle update presentation centralised in the Canberra green screen studios until they sold the site and combined all news into Hobart and Launceston alongside SCA7?
Canberra did do all the noodles in the early-mid 00s, in little green screen booths. They were awful - you could hear the reverb from the glass door on tape!
GTS/BKN full bulletin was done from the phone boxes too.
The short lived State Focus Sunday morning magazine show was done in the main studio, where the news set used to be.
Can’t recall if they moved down to Tassie with the 9/10 swap or before that.
Yeah, my thinking was saving on rent/capex rather than space. I’ve not been to the Hobart set up. Guess we’ll find out who takes residence in Hobart soon enough.
Forcing ADH to set up a new Hobart studio makes the deal a bit less sweet. If I were them, I’d want that thrown in.
Austereo could move a radio station in a weekend with their resources.
You seriously under estimate the complexity of a radio studio, especially one built to SCA’s specs. It would be far cheaper to build a new TV office/studio to the equivalent standard they have in Hobart than it would be to build new radio studios similar to what they have.
A new office fitout alone would take months. Add to that building the studios which need soundproofing, cabling, isolated air conditioning air. And then transferring the gear. Usually when radio stations move at least half the tech side is brand new and is installed over a longer period, with whatever’s being kept moved over minimum a massive weekend. Overall it would be $1 million plus in capex to get a space that would save at most 50 sqm.
TV on the other hand is a small room with basically just a single fixed camera that either records locally or fed offsite.
Theres also far more radio staff than TV in Hobart, so ADH would have a nearly empty office if they took over SCA’s space. It was never setup to be a primary TV facility. The TV headcount as grown a little in recent years, mainly due to the noodle updates moving, but the vast majority of staff are in Launceston (which has also vastly reduced office space in recent years - that building was sold not long ago and SCA now only lease a fraction of it).
Yes. When SCA build their new Newcastle offices/studios they included a small green screen space. The idea was it could be used for advertisement production etc. It’s really low key - I guess the thinking was they had some spare space and they wanted to future proof themselves incase they wanted to produce something locally in the future. Perhaps since they knew they be closing down Canberra there was a thought that some stuff could move to Newcastle.
Ultimately SCA sold NRN to WIN and got into bed with NBN for sales around they same time they moved, so it’s never been used for TV.
The space in Hobart is quite similar except it’s been setup to be a remote/alternate desk for the news and is sometimes used for the Tasmania bulletins and it now also used for noodle updates. It’s nothing special, just a space about the size of a single person office with a bit of soundproofing and a single camera.
So Newsmax will be carried on FTA in Tasmania and the
Other smaller cities ADH now owns stations in?
That’s still a small FTA audience 600-700k or so - compared to Sky’s 4.5 million via SCA
Perhaps Newsmax are signing a deal with Seven Regional to carry their channel in Vic, NSW and Qld in exchange for continued network carriage in Tasmania and elsewhere. It’s all speculative at the moment.
All it’s known is Newsmax will have at least two production zones. Sydney and Launceston.
We don’t know - at the moment it seems to be speculation more than anything.
Ok, strong reply mate - but I did work in radio and TV for years. Was at CapNet when we moved 2SKI 45km up the mountain to Jindy.
I guess you know for sure that ADH didn’t acquire Hobart as part of the deal. I was just musing, as SCA even at one point tried to sell the studio shed in Lonny for spare cash by moving the news studio into the broom cupboard next door.
On this deal though, considering SCA just got $6m for their assets using $1m of that to move to a new site doesn’t seem unreasonable. Not saying it’s going to happen, just that from a business point of view it’s not out of the question. Would be down to what they want their radio assets to look like over the next 5-10 years. Now would be the time to re-shape their real estate.
^^
SCA did sell the whole studio complex in Launceston and now lease back 1/5th of the building. The ‘broom cupboard’ you refer to is their purpose built HD automated news studio. There seems to be little fact spread over a lot of posts in this thread.
On the topic of unconventional news studios, IIRC 10 Adelaide’s studio on Hutt Street had their news set built in a corner near or under a set of stairs. But it looked stunning on air!
This next bit sounds like a commercial, but it’s not the space, it’s the way you use it
Sounds like these “anonymous sources” are either talking out of their rear, or completely made up so that someone could write an article.
Of course if a deal ever couldn’t be reached then it could become a problem, just like if a car ever crashed into the front of a shop it could be the cause of injuries. Hypotheticals without anything to back them up isn’t news.
This is the AFR article that is referred to in @tx42’s link
The article discusses that Seven and ADH area negotiating a deal, with no suggestion that there is an issue so far.
There is one paragraph that discusses any consequence (without suggestion that an agreement can’t be reached):
What appears to be a seemingly small media deal could have profound consequences. Three sources with knowledge of Seven’s deals with the AFL and Cricket Australia, speaking anonymously due to confidentiality requirements, say the broadcaster is contractually obligated to air the sports all over the country.
So what you’re saying is IF 7 can’t/won’t air it in TAS then Nine could potentially do the funniest thing ever and get AFL & Cricket rights if those sports wish to be nationally shown?
Given both sports have deals with Seven that include streaming rights, they’ll likely argue that they have national coverage
I’d imagine 7 aren’t going to let a carriage dispute lose them the AFL/cricket rights (considering their value), even if it’s the only thing they let ADH show, or overpay to buy out ADH. Hell, if ADH don’t even accept that (for some illogical reason), 7 would give the rights to SBS in those areas (may cause playout issues that would have to overcome) before they let them lapse.
Can’t imagine ADH lasting long without a content agreement anyway.
ADH have hardly paid $6+ million only to turn around and dump their affiliation agreements. ADH are basically a start up, they have virtually no content of their own and it would be very expensive to get programming worth watching 24/7. Having a Seven affiliation is the golden ticket in regional areas. Seven or their affiliate is #1 in almost all regional areas and the affiliation is what ADH have effectively paid for. The purchase price would have been almost nothing if TNT was a Ten affiliate.