Seven News Content and Appearance

Right. I understand. Not very modern and smart then is it?

Not sure what they’re talking up then?

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Exactly, this whole move is a cost cutting exercise in having to pay rent at BCM. They only have 2 floors in total at the new premises for the whole of 7Melb.
When I mentioned before this move seems to not be catering for the future is what I mean. They look to maintain the small scale business they have shrunk to and then centralise literally every other aspect out of Sydney which is a shame. I can’t see how they can do shows like the Front Bar etc here. Which means it’ll be a cost to do that at another studio location in Melbourne.
The footprint of 7 Melbourne has been massively diminished which is a shame let alone the lack of network branding on the new building as Medibank have naming rights on it.

Even the look of the news room if they were to do crosses, there is no vibe of the brand other than a few logo stickers, when you compare it to 9News one, 7 just looks like a sterile call centre office.

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Downgrade seems to be an appropriate word.

Not sure that’s a smart long term strategy though. You gotta spend money to make money.

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Clearly you didn’t. lol

I wish I didn’t. :joy:

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That news studio is laughably bad, they just don’t care do they? No floor, no riser, no secondary standing area like the BBC News B studio, no ceiling light flourish. Just a long wall with a stupidly small looking desk.

I don’t know why anyone is surprised at this and the cheap newsroom. Seven is functionally a low cost airline network now. A Tiger Airways or Ryanair.

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Agree. Also there is no internal staircase between the two levels either. Which screams cost cutting in the design, meaning you have to go into the lifts with the rest of the tenants in the building just to change levels… which in this day and age is pretty inefficient :smiling_face_with_tear:

I think overall I’m just really deflated with the opportunities that have been missed. This move has been on the cards since 2017, which is when they stopped maintaining BCM, and the result of that 8 year wait is really deflating, especially for news.

The current set at the time cost about $600k. Back the. LED screen panels like those were quite expensive I remember seeing it slowly get built.

There are small things on the new set that annoy me, the lack of a frame around the side screen, it just sits there like a lump of wall, no riser.
They never really used the current set to its potential either, so I’m not too hopeful of how they will use the new one.

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Ew. Sharing oxygen with the public. :joy:

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Couldn’t have said it better MBB.

The internal design and layout is also a failure. Currently L3 (News) and L4 (sport / sales) are disconnected from one another. There is no internal staircase of access between levels.There is no heritage value or recognition to the past. There is not one outside signage on the building advertising 7 Melbourne.

The place feels like a call centre. It’s very much a downgrade and a cost cutting move.

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Who knows, the sports presenters might get exclusive access to utilise the fire stairs in the building. :winking_face_with_tongue:

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It’s the future guys. And it’s in an office building. There’s just no money to build bespoke studios anymore which means they’re limited.

Bear in mind, this studio is double the size of TCN’s News studio in Sydney.

P.s, I’m not sure there’s ever been a scenario where two studios have needed to be used simultaneously or even close to at BCM. The only one I can think of is TT, and they shared a studio.

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Currently “The Wash Up” and “Seven News Melbourne” are broadcast live at the same time.

To be fair GTV is in an office building and has elements of its history and brand since 2010.
Ten has been in an office building for almost 30 years.
I don’t think the lack of a second studio for some programming is an outrageous thing in 2025, especially with the increasing digital space.
And nothing beats displaying the heritage of your brand and branding in your “office space”

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Seven have no doubt done the sums and decided it was more cost efficient to outsource to other studios.

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I can see them implementing (or renovating) the space in coming years. Having all sports programming run internally is far more cheaper.

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TCN Sydney has a second studio beside it which can open up not one squished together space. Still it’s worth remembering the set in Perth is a green screen and in Canberra it’s a piece of cardboard with a screen.

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I think having the set in the newsroom, like HSV did when they first moved to Docklands, would have been something good and different. Or even having the studio back on to the newsroom in some way (though I don’t know whether that would even be possible in the new building). I suppose that’s not 7’s style anymore, but I think seeing it all happen behind the presenter really adds something to the broadcast. A bit more interesting than constant skylines, perhaps.

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The current night time backdrop doesn’t even feature the Festival Tower :grimacing:

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When Nine Adelaide moved from Tynte Street into the old Adelaide Bank building they plastered blow ups of old news clippings about the station over the internal office windows. They might even have an old TV camera in there IIRC.

In fairness their relocation was an almost complete strip and rebuild, and they do have naming rights to the building which helps too.

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Nine went to considerable effort to bring some of the heritage and stories/legacy of Bendigo Street with them to Docklands. They even coughed up for external signage!

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