Seven News (Regional Vic/NSW/ACT/WA)

Pity … the Canberra market is sorely underserved and deserves a 7 Tasmania style bulletin seven days a week. But I can understand why they don’t do it when the Sydney bulletin seemingly rates so well.

The implied thing in the statement I think is more that they are already winning Canberra so won’t do much - but in Newcastle consider if a local news can beat NBN.

I’m really interested with how they handle the 6:30 section. I can’t see them wanting to give Newcastle the “regional” 6:30 bulletin. To me it would be ideal if they could handle a 6:30 from the Sydney set like Ten are doing with the Brisbane bulletin - some pre-records and some alternate reads, and other sections played out from the main bulletin as needed.

You can then move the staff who do the 6:30 over to read Newcastle.

Do they like watching Seven News Sydney, or do they just watch Seven News at 6pm, maybe by default. If it was a proper bulletin, that had relevant local news instead of stuff from Sydney, surely people would watch.

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You have to remember that people like Mark Ferguson. Think about how people like me in Regional Victoria, Southern New South Wales, Canberra and Regional Queensland felt when we lost the metro Nine News on weekdays in 2017.

If they want to keep Seven News Sydney intact then their only option is to produce a 5:30 Canberra bulletin.

Do they though? If they were to do a proper 7 News Canberra with someone like Craig Allen, I think people would watch. They watch the Sydney news because there’s not a better option.

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who knows what 7 have in store. No one on here does. Its all fun guessing game. The start of the Comm games seem to be suggested a bit. Im not convinced. Lots of likely scenarios have been suggested only time will be the answer.

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Existing local news services in NSW and WA will be rebranded as 7 NEWS and they are looking at launching a local news into Newcastle.

These things we know.

Oh gawd no. The production quality of 7 News Tasmania is is way under par than the production quality Canberra is currently served with the 7 News Sydney bulletin. No offence to 7 News Tasmania as parent company Southern Cross put as little resources as possible into that bulletin, and it shows. What Seven do in Canberra now works, and I would highly doubt Seven would drop the 7 News Sydney 6pm bulletin in that market. All they need do is insert local windows, not replace it entirely.

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Who is home at 5.30pm and more to the point, why would people sit through 90 minutes of News when even an hour is a real stretch for many people?

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Ask the people of the Gold Coast and regional WA if it works.

The thing you miss is that the overall production quality would go down if Canberra was to have a composite bulletin so as to insert some local packages. And people would reluctantly switch over to the restored metro bulletin on Nine (WIN) instead. Seven won’t risk that.

No no no. I want them to keep the prime and gwn brand for the local news like WIN and NBN. But an additional Newcastle bulletin is fine with me as long as it has the prime brand

No one cares what you want.

It’s going to be the national 7 NEWS brand - it’s been confirmed. Same as Adelaide, Brisbane, cairns, toowooomba and Sydney

Does the average viewer care that much about production quality over local content? I’d take the local bulletin but maybe that’s just me. Also, anything is an improvement in both quality and content compared with what WIN currently offer up here.

People might like a much better local focus of their region more than some Sydney news presenter :person_shrugging:

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I think if the bulletin is done to the standards of what 7 does out of Surfers Paradise and Maroochydore - then viewers would be very happy. Ultimately they want a bulletin that serves their needs and city.

If it is hokey Win News or 9 Local news format - with hokey stories from Goulburn and Wagga - than nah I would say it won’t fly.

But a market of 500,000 does not need a news service on the level of a market of 5 million. Nor is it realistic to expect one.

But a well produced local news that does not feel or look hokey that serves the city well - is exactly what wins viewers over

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I am not missing that or calling for that, I am saying 7 News Canberra, to be the same style of bulletin at 7 News Sydney, 7 News Adelaide, 7 News Brisbane etc. A mix of local, national and world news, presented locally.

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I get home before 5:30 and I’d watch both Seven News Regional and Nine News entirely (except for sport) if they’re ever to launch Seven News Regional in Victoria. If it’s a statewide bulletin then I’m not watching that.

I guess this is almost the issue with Canberra in particular: they want to know about local issues, but given its status as the national capital and some of its population being transient, I suspect the national/international news aspect has more importance than would be the case for a typical regional bulletin.

This seems to be why Ten/Capital News seemed to be looked back (with rose coloured glasses or not) as a decent bulletin back in the day, at least before the Southern Cross days - and likewise with the local ABC bulletin now. Although the comparison with the latter is not like-for-like as ABC has a lot more resources in Canberra to run 666 on radio too.

With how (metro) Seven is set up now, if capital region news (beyond the ACMA requirements) is not going to be the focus - why duplicate resources when they can do it mostly out of Sydney? But it also does risk Canberra being a snowflake because I’m not sure what works in Canberra necessarily works in most other parts of regional NSW, especially if they lose a 30-minute Prime bulletin for a local-window setup that may cover less in areas already starved for local news content.

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The ‘local’ ABC bulletin is an absolute waste of resources most nights. Sure it might be presented locally but the local content is next to nothing in favour of national/international issues. Their ‘local’ journalists seem more interested in filing packages for a national audience rather than a local one.

Honestly, if they are going to try and cater to the small transient population and go so high brow over covering local issues most of the population might be interested in, stick on the national 24 or Sydney bulletin at 7pm and put the resources elsewhere (Eg; 666 and online).

ABC tv news is another reason why Canberra is sorely underserved in the local tv news market and needs a proper commercial bulletin.

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