Come on. Regional QLD is for Seven a “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” market. The average viewer won’t know their trusted presenters are based outside their markets, and still rated no. 1 over there.
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What is the point in duplicating in an environment when free to air channels are trying to be economical?
How is it a duplication? The national bulletin at 6:30pm would be tailored to the regional Queensland market. The Brisbane 6pm news focused on the South East covering stories of reliance to metropolitan Brisbane and surrounding areas with some stories not being relevant elsewhere. The flow of the bulletin wouldn’t be as good as you are cutting a 60 minute bulletin into a 30 minute bulletin which is never ideal.
So just the same stories that Jo and Rob would cover in each market? Might as well just mix a bunch of segments from each bulletin together. People want to see news from other places in Australia and around the world at 6:30 instead of what they already watched at 6pm.
The 6:30pm news on Seven in NSW is just national and international news read by a local presenter instead of Mark Ferguson, basically the same thing that Sharyn and Max do.
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Except in a messy cut down format
It’s clear that while Seven is number 1, they aren’t going to make any changes. Most people stick around for the 6.30 bulletin, so it clearly doesn’t bother people. I’ve seen the bulletin myself, they cut stuff out so you get the top stories from across the state (including state politics), as well as national news and major international events. Only issue is there is sometimes more sport than news.
Could it be done better - Yes, either as a separate state-wide bulletin, or trying to do some composite NBN style bulletin. I recall seeing videos on @TV.Cynic’s old youtube channel, which show what 7QLD did when the news was one hour due to tennis I believe. Can’t remember exactly what they did, but I think they either did local stories, then national news segment, or they did local stories first, played the first segment of the Brisbane news, then back to local news. Or they did both (Memory is a bit fuzzy)
There was also this time during the 2004 Olympics, where they had a local segment first, then they had a statewide rest of the days news segment, before statewide sport and weather, all within 30 minutes.
Credit: Dan Martin
However, I don’t think they are going to make changes unless something happens and they slip behind in the ratings, which isn’t likely given the state of WIN News. Especially when Rob Brough…and his…winks (
), are popular with viewers, along with Joanne Desmond.
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Rob Brough was doing the local news when I was 12 years old now I’m 36 turning 37 and he’s still doing the news lol.
I know he’s been doing the news for much longer but been in Australia 25 years this year and he’s been on there all that time.
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Rob Brough is 69 years old and has been presenting 7 Local News since the early 1990s, after a brief stint as host of 7’s popular Family Feud. He was often “sent up” in comedy skits.
Before that, he had been a sports presenter on Channel 9.
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69? He looks good for that age thought he was early 60’s.
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He actually started at 7 in November 1989 with Family Feud - they ran it over the summer holidays. He then started reading the local news in late 1995 - around the same time the Seven Network purchased Sunshine Television. Prior to working at Nine (which he started in 1986) he was for a year or two sports presenter at the ABC and radio before then.
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It’s really sad that his presentation style has gone completely downhill where it’s slow and stilted.
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And probably unlikely in the other direction with the ex-Prime 6.30 bulletin in NSW either - as others have said, “if it ain’t broke…” - although you can probably bet that if Seven had owned Prime by the time they cut TT and went to an hour, they likely would’ve at least considered the same as in Queensland.
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And that’s exactly why they should’ve moved the local news bulletins to 5:30pm when Seven extended the metro news bulletins on the east coast to an hour. Same thing with Prime7.
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I agree that they should do something different, but they shouldn’t move the news to 5.30, because there isn’t an appetite for 5.30 local news, and the bulletins have a very large ratings share at 6pm. Being in primetime with these ratings mean they can charge top dollar for advertising. More people are also home at 6pm, which means more people will be able to see local stories that happen in their community.
Yes the 6.30 state/national bulletin is something that they can work on, but it’s clear that 6pm is working in Seven’s favour
When local news began decades ago on SEQ tv (the precursor to Sunshine and 7Qld), it was at 5:40pm, but the decision was later made to move it to 6.00pm and give it priority over the national bulletin, which was moved to 6.30pm. Then in more recent times, the capital city stations moved to hour bulletins, which is when the dilemma began.
I guess the thinking is that people want their local news as their main bulletin at 6.00.
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There was also a brief time when SEQ was affiliated with TV0 Brisbane and they incorporated local news into the news hour, for about 20 mins at around 6.25 each night; in between the main headlines and sport.
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But then there’s other people like me who’d want the local news at 5:30pm and then the metro news in full at 6:00pm.
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This would have been only for a very short time (less than 6 months) as Skase only purchased SEQ8 in 1987 then in September that year, sold TVQ0. 1987 appears to be the first year that the regionals moved off the old microwave link and purchased their own satellite facilities so could then do a deal with any of the 3 commercials stations in Brisbane (or Sydney) directly. 1987 saw NQTV take QTQ News over BTQ. BTQ going to 1 hour earlier in the year made that change easier taking the one and only 30 minute bulletin easier to incorporate 30 mins local news. I think RTQ did the same.
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That change first made on 18/1/88 to coincide with BTQ7 as they changed their news to 6.30pm meaning they could slot in local news easily at 6pm (Home and Away at 5.30 & Carroll at Seven live at 7pm). Of course half way through 1988 BTQ changed back to 6pm so from then on in, SEQ was delaying BTQ News by 30 minutes to air at 6.30. MVQ6 did exactly the same.
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