no, but they’d have to start making updates at least, isn’t that one of the requirements of the sale, that the rules will change and local news quotas will come in for those stations?
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Fair point
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Agree, plus those areas are not included in local content quota rules unlike the eastern states aggregated markets where change of ownership triggers do not apply.
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I thought a sale was going to be the catalyst which changes that?
Hopefully it will.
Honestly, if Seven produced more than noodle updates it would be good, even say a 5 to 7 minute insert into the afternoon news or evening news instead of the fluff they currently offer.
Unfortunately, the legislation is not worded to specify it must be a set length (similar length to looney tunes cartoons which I used to refer to as a kid as a 5 minute cartoon as it was always listed as a 5 minute cartoon in tv guides back in the days of solus markets). I think streaming services and pay tv are the biggest factors leading to the demise of local content as the pie is spread across a lot more players.
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I reckon all areas currently served under a Seven O&O that are currently just getting noodle updates should also get some form of a local news bulletin from 6pm, even if it’s just for the first 20 minutes of the news hour (the metro bulletins go to an ad break at around that time), and then air the metro news after that ad break. It’s a shame that most Seven Regional stations lack a news bulletin now, with news bulletins from Seven Regional only being present in most sections of Regional NSW and all of Regional WA. Otherwise it’s just noodle updates. WIN used to focus on local news for each area of a state (e.g: Victoria), but now it’s just one huge statewide bulletin. The only local bulletins from WIN now are Canberra, Tasmania and, you guessed it, their hometown in Wollongong.
For the Seven Regional areas not served by a 30-min news bulletin, I say air a local bulletin (broadcast from Canberra) for these areas for that first 20 minutes:
Victoria
7NEWS Ballarat
7NEWS Bendigo
7NEWS Traralgon
7NEWS Shepparton
7NEWS Mildura
New South Wales
7NEWS Newcastle
7NEWS Wollongong
7NEWS Canberra (why don’t they have a bulletin for their regional hometown?)
If 7NEWS installed a local bulletin for Newcastle, this would give NBN News some serious competition.
Don’t know if I’ve missed any, if I have please let me know (Seven O&O stations in regional areas of course). Seven Griffith and Seven Limestone Coast are owned by WIN TV, and Seven Spencer Gulf is owned by SCA (they used to have a local bulletin there until the careless cost-cutting folks at SCA axed the bulletin).
Even then, it’s unlikely that this will ever happen. It’s just going to remain being noodle updates and the capital city bulletins with local ads.
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yes it’s very weak, but always has been.
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There is no growth to justify increasing costs and news resources. The market has depleted out of its arse. There will be more cutting in the coming years as advertising markets fail to come back and rising affiliation (this one will likely stabilise now) and operational costs force the cost-cutting hand.
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I believe certain advertisers who used to advertise on regional TV are now putting their money into radio and print media advertising instead, and of course, some social media.
When I was down in Colac in January of this year, I visited the local appliance store there (a Betta store) and saw 2 commercial breaks from 7HD Ballarat during the Melbourne 4pm news, and I’ll tell you now, the amount of local ads on there were just very minimal. If we exclude the Funfields ad from Melbourne (and a Country Racing ad) and only focus on the ads from Western Victoria, there were only 2 local ads in a single ad break.
You’d think that because Seven is No.1 in regional areas, there would be a heap of local advertising. True in Spencer Gulf and Regional WA, where there’s heaps of it. But in most other areas, it’s almost minimal to none. Advertisers are just choosing to opt out.
So how many ads were seen on my visit there?
NOTE: Any shop name that has a suburb next to it and is highlighted in Bold is an ad for a township outside of Ballarat.
Break 1
Bellevue Machinery Warracknabeal
Ballarat Trotting Club
Break 2
Trounce Caravans
The Bridal Outlet
Yep, most of the break was just national buys, and maybe the occasional ad or 2 from Melbourne. But I guess it makes sense, people have the radio on in their cars, so of course they’re going to continue hearing ads for Western Victorian businesses. And besides, Power FM and 3BA Ballarat can be heard in much of the Colac area, alongside the local 3CS and MIXX FM offerings. I’ll end it there because I think I’m beginning to go a bit off-topic.
Maybe they should just do a regional bulletin and a metro bulletin. A bulletin that covers regional areas and regional issues, for all of NSW. Then the Sydney bulletin doing the Sydney stories.
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more likely Shepparton will get an expanded 7 News Border. The viewing area population (similar to Mildura) is not big enough for a local news on its own (just ask WIN or SCA).
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It might depend on the market, but I’m told that its not print that’s benefiting from an uptick in advertising
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The updated legislation introduced in 2017 added new local content requirements which would be triggered by a change in ownership.
The aggregated eastern markets (not Tasmania) plus Mildura and WA have already been triggered when Prime was taken over by Seven. A takeover of SCA’s Seven branded stations would trigger all remaining markets except the WIN-owned Griffith and Mount Gambier.
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Shepparton is an odd one as the ACMA consider it part of the Border and North East region for local news content, ie it’s never a requirement to make separate content for both cities, just I don’t know the rules regarding how those quotas work when there are more opt out variations than the ACMA deem necessary.
NSW South Coast is the only one other than Shepparton that comes to mind as a non required split, but I think that they’ve always just got the Wollongong local news?
Won’t happen as you are forcing regional viewers to watch a 2nd rate service with no metro resources. Southern Cross tried that with the then Nine affiliation and those bulletins were rank. Everyone cheered when the metro bulletins in those markets were restored.
If that is the case, listed as proposed I note, no doubt Seven would cry poor like it did with children’s content and get the trigger removed. There is no money in those markets for local content. And where is the local content going to come from as most other local media has shut shop too.
And where is the magic money tree located to pay for this?
It won’t happen.
It’s true that there’s less money in those markets. But also noteworthy that SCA were able to prop-up an acceptable bulletin for regional SA until very recently, and continue to produce noodle updates for Darwin and Central despite no legal obligations to do so.
The only way they could potentially try to force some sort of localism is by tying the requirements for local News to the amount of home shopping they can screen ie could prevent additional home shopping channels if they can’t produce local content. On the flip side, the networks could scale back the channels provided to one and scrap multichannels.
At the end of the day, the government and ACMA have their hands tied and can only bring in reforms to try and make things better. The problem is the lack of strength written in legislation. But in reality, we should pat WIN on the back for maintaining local News during their 10 affiliation period as they could have easily shut up shop on all local services instead of maintaining them. At times we have been critical of the quality of the service, but sometimes something is better than nothing. NBN TV currently only screen the absolute minimum in their 6pm that could just as easily done as an segment insert during Nine News Sydney with pre-recorded intros and outros to with with Nine News presenters instead of a fully produced bulletin separate to the nine main bulletin
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