NYE fireworks went ahead that year and like 2019 it was controversial
Early 2000s were revolutionary for 7News with the on-air presentation and graphics, nothing since has had as much of a visual impact!
It wasn’t until the August 2004 relaunch (which I think “Americanized” the brand) that the ratings would soar, though, as they moved away from the disco theme which IMO was symbolic of its struggles on the east coast.
Seven Perth during that era kept the roll call voiceovered by Fred Botica
Something I’ve found interesting is the blocky segmented-style News Update title-cards used in Sydney during mid-2004 up until the August 31st relaunch:
There was also a Sports Report variant with the layered rectangles as well, but with more of a 3D effect:
It could be nothing, but it makes me wonder if it was part of a scrapped graphics refresh.
I wish that had been the standard!
Due to time difference The Book Place aired in Perth before the Opening Ceremony which had a full replay in primetime at 7:30pm AWST after Seven News Perth
Strange to have the sport presenter in the studio… these days the entire team would be on location!
Actually, it was from circa June 1999 that the Seven (Nightly) News branding took on a predominantly red theme. Before that (and I think I might be wrong) it was a mostly blue theme when they had the SEVEN NIGHTLY NEWS text in Times New Roman font.
While the east coast states continued to struggle against Nine News, it was Adelaide and Perth that did the heavy lifting.
Adelaide didn’t switch to red until Jan 1st 2000.
The new “Seven Nightly News” logo was used for updates but the previous look was kept until New Year’s Day 2000 to match the rest of the country
that’s right, it was quite an anomaly. I think, possibly, the intro the updates were done for the network, then the local update would cut in. Have seen other examples of that happened in the past.
Perth kept the original elements from the late 1990s during this era after the relaunch and the new graphics such as the roll-call and showing the presenters faces plus the set largely remained the same.
Seven Perth Breakdown Screen April 6 2002. Not sure if this Sports update was national or just for Western Australia.
Seven Perth’s opener from the 1999-2004 era. Each state had a different intro in their respective local bulletins.
Don’t think I have seen this before- the bit awkward farewell by Ross and Ann ahead of Ian Ross starting:
And with that… Ian took Seven Sydney to number 1 the following year.
Actually, that happened in 2005 (Seven News lost just one week that year).
Also the same year Nine sacked Jim Waley despite winning his two years in charge (2003-04) and replaced him with Mark Ferguson, who was then just short of turning 40.