Seven Regional

Television Regional and Community Television
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3615

Not sure why you think these new regional livestreams aren’t possible.

Nine introduced 3 new regional livestreams earlier this year as a quick example.
NBN Newcastle
NBN Northern Rivers
Nine Gold Coast

The NBN Northern Rivers feed (for example) just carries the Newcastle bulletin with the exception of local weather at the end, but the folks at Nine don’t seem to put up the bulletins to watch later on 9Now, instead you’re greeted with a 9News-formatted 9Now start-over ad from Sydney. I reckon they might introduce a Coffs Harbour stream next, maybe Tamworth too?

In this case, I now reckon the 7NEWS Regional bulletins in Regional NSW should just be consolidated to Sydney, or merged into their already existing Sydney bulletin, and rename it as 7NEWS New South Wales and cover the entire state, not just Sydney, similar to how 7NEWS Brisbane labels themselves as 7NEWS Queensland and covers the entire state. Same with 9News in Brisbane.

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3616

It’s not that they’re not possible, they’re just not necessary where there are far more efficient ways to deliver the same content online with the ability for localised advertising.

People in Sydney probably don’t want or need to see local news stories from far flung places like Wagga Wagga or Tamworth that have no relevance to them. It might also fall foul of the local news requirements for regional networks. That’s why they keep regional news in the regional areas.

The branding of Seven and Nine News “Queensland” is not a statewide bulletin but rather that they broadly cover the South East region, not just Brisbane. Even though Nine does have a separate Gold Coast bulletin.

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3617

The difference is those NBN feeds come from the same playout centre as sourced for the Nine Now feeds for the 9 metro markets.

Whereas the former Prime/GWN feeds, now Seven Regional feeds do not come out of the same playout centre as the 7QLD and & 7 metro feeds come from. And added to that, those feeds are from an outsource provider that was put in place before Seven purchased Prime/GWN. So, for those feeds to be streamed would mean Seven would have to spend dollars (which they don’t have) for an additional contract cost to provide to a smallish audience. Would not be worth their while to be honest until the end of the current outsource provider contract.

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3618

I have tuned into the Seven and Nine Brisbane bulletins, and have seen headlines not just from Brisbane, Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast, but also some from Toowoomba, Mackay and even FNQ.

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3619

Do you know if Seven Regional (NSW/VIC/ACT/WA) will have their playout centre transferred to Melbourne anytime soon?

3620

They do put up their bulletins on 7plus, but they’re generally not showing up until the very next day (basically almost as soon as you wake up).

For example, the Friday 16th August bulletins aired live on Seven that night, but were not made available on 7plus for catch-up until today. Meanwhile, 7NEWS Sydney aired their bulletin live that night, it was made available to re-watch a few hours after its broadcast, and on the same night of broadcast. This also applied to other capital cities and the Regional QLD and Gold Coast bulletins.

So 7NEWS in Regional NSW puts their bulletins up a day after broadcast, not on the same night, unlike the capital cities and Gold Coast and Regional QLD.

I think the same can be said for the 7NEWS Regional WA (formerly GWN7 Local News) bulletin. Available on 7plus the very next day, and by the time you watch it, it’s stale news.

So yeah, there’s an advantage to launching these new livestreams.

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3621
Should Seven West Media introduce new Regional NSW/VIC/ACT/WA streams onto 7plus?
  • They should introduce these new streams, a golden opportunity to do so.
  • Nah, it’s not worth their time, they should just save some cash.
  • Just have capital city streams from SYD/MEL/BRI/ADE/PER only.
0 voters
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3622

Well then imagine if this was going to be the future of commercial television. Note that the 7 Queensland channel mentioned is basically referring to the Brisbane feed and depicting as if there were no more regional channels left, meaning no more STQ Queensland stations. This is a predicted list of channels for the not-too-distant future. If commercial TV networks want to survive long-term, this is what they need to do, and they need to act fast.

Seven
7 New South Wales
7 Victoria
7 Queensland
7 South Australia
7 Western Australia

Nine
9 New South Wales
9 Victoria
9 Queensland
9 South Australia
9 Western Australia

Ten
10 New South Wales
10 Victoria
10 Queensland
10 South Australia
10 Western Australia

All of these are potential future statewide channels, meaning all local transmitters for the local regional channels would be turned into sole repeaters of the respective capital city channels. No more local advertising, no more local news, just everything capital cities. More product based ads and more national chain based ads, local advertisers may as well put their advertising dollar towards the cinema, online or on local FM radio.

So the current Seven Regional channels would be converted into exact copies of Seven Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in the regional areas, and with a few seconds delay. Same with Nine and Ten. Geelong doesn’t have any local TV presence, instead carrying an exact copy of Melbourne, and has been doing so for many years. With this, Geelong is classified as an outer suburb of Melbourne when it comes to TV.

3623

What is all this BS fantasy based on?

TV only exists to sell advertising.

Advertisers buy east coast, capital city. National or local.

State wide is not a thing. You’ve made it up.

Some advertisers will not pay to Broadcast their ads into local areas where they are not in business - and networks won’t carry capital city ads to 35% more people for free.

Your idea is nonsensical

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3624

Not to mention distance creates an advertising problem.

If I have a business in Townsville for example, who is going to want to travel from Brisbane to visit my shop?

I also would be reluctant to advertise as I would now be competing against similar shops in other parts of the state.

As mentioned, makes no sense.

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3625

It is not nonsensical, it’s already a thing in many areas, on both TV and radio.

Also regarding the advertising, it would be Adelaide and Perth that retains local advertising, because advertisers are still buying spots on those networks. In the regional areas, it’s a rather different story.

Apparently, there are far fewer advertisers on NBN Northern NSW than that of some Seven and Ten stations, and then online, billboards and local radio. Most of the ads on the stations are national buys. You’re more likely to see heaps of local advertising starting from midnight until 6am in the morning on Seven at the very least, though they’ll probably be repeated countless times.

As for this whole statewide thing, this is essentially what happened in the past.

Firstly, WIN News firstly consolidated all their bulletins to Wollongong, then they starting axing some of them, and then they converted most of their local bulletins in Regional VIC/QLD into single statewide editions, which saw the lost of jobs in the regional areas where they used to have a seperate local news bulletin. The whole statewide WIN News thing began on 1st July 2021.

Secondly, people have also speculated statewide stuff for radio too. Many have suggested that Hit Network stations (in their current form) should be turned into repeaters of their respective capital city stations. Essentially put, for example, SCA decided to firstly scrap local breakfast shows in Regional VIC/NSW/QLD/SA. Then they brought in a Albury radio show to take over the reigns. Then SCA decided to scrap that Albury radio show that was rather doing well in those areas, and are now having the Regional VIC breakfast show come out of Tasmania. The slow and painful death of the Hit Network. Most stuff is syndicated nowadays on their networks, and the same can be said for television.

What next? Axe that radio show and to top it all off, have Regional Victorians turn to Fifi, Fev and Nick from Fox FM in Melbourne? Might as well name them their respective metropolitan names and carry metropolitan programming. SCA are looking to save money instead of putting their efforts into giving talented radio stars a chance to host a breakfast show, or even the weekday and weekend slots.

VIC for example
FOX 101.9 Melbourne
FOX 104.9 The Border
FOX 91.9 Bendigo
FOX 96.9 Shepparton
FOX 99.5 Sunraysia

The same could happen also in NSW, QLD, SA and WA, potentially.

This is just a rough sketch of what could happen to the TV networks (and Hit Network radio stations) in the future. These plans are not confirmed, so do take this with a grain of salt.

And in response to all the criticism regarding this idea, here’s a much more eased list, now retaining some regional stations.

Seven
7 Sydney
7 Melbourne
7 Brisbane
7 Adelaide
7 Perth
7 Gold Coast
7 Regional QLD

Nine
9 Sydney
9 Melbourne
9 Brisbane
9 Adelaide
9 Perth
9 Gold Coast
9 Northern NSW

Ten
10 Sydney
10 Melbourne
10 Brisbane
10 Adelaide
10 Perth

Outside of those areas, it would essentially just be the capital city channels. If all programming on 7 Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Traralgon and Mildura is just all Melbourne programming for example, might as well just turn them into repeaters for 7 Melbourne? That would perhaps make a bit more sense, as some residents in Ballarat or Colac, for example, who are being served the local Ballarat signals, are choosing to receive the Melbourne signals instead. Some Traralgon residents are receiving the Melbourne channels too, instead of the local channels. It’s a sign of the times.

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3626

Statewide advertising feeds exist for some TV multi-channels - namely, because there isn’t the demand to justify running, say, 5x versions of 7Bravo.

It also doesn’t exist in commercial radio - the Hit stations you refer to retain a local mornings shift to meet the 3 hour local content quota. There is no chance a broadcaster would remove local advertising from these stations - stations that have to provide local content and local news - regardless of whether breakfast is coming from Albury, Hobart, Melbourne, or the planet Jupiter.

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3627

Can only comment on SA radio, but we have SAFM Adelaide as the metro station and SAFM Mount Gambier is a relay of the metro station but with local ads and opt-out programming… just like regional TV today.

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3628

Correct, so basically all these Hit Network stations should just be the metro stations relayed into the regional areas (FOX in VIC, 2DAY in NSW, B105 in QLD, SAFM in SA and MIX in WA), but with local advertising and some opt-out programming. None of the local ads or opt-out programs would be removed just because of this. Makes much more sense.

Essentially, the Canberra and Hobart stations wouldn’t be affected, as Canberra is Australia’s capital city, and Tasmania only has one Hit station from its capital city in Hobart. Launceston and Devonport has ARN stations, and some smaller areas around town carry them too via repeaters. So in Tasmania, Hobart has ARN and SCA stations, while the smaller areas only has ARN.

Back to television, makes me wonder if Seven will buy out Southern Cross Austereo’s 7 Hobart TV station and make it an O&O station? Then Seven can launch a livestream of the Hobart TV station on 7plus, because they do have an hour-long news bulletin running on the Seven affiliate, currently coming out of their studios in Launceston. They would firstly need to have that station’s playout centre transferred to HSV in Melbourne, as seen on all 7 metropolitan stations and 7QLD. Not going to include Darwin because Seven there only does noodle updates (from Hobart), otherwise I think they just relay 7NEWS Brisbane.

3629

The above is also how regional TV works right now, here’s what you said about that when you fantasised about future regional TV:

Do you want local ads and opt-outs, or don’t you?

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3630

Yeah I do, but that was just me imagining what regional TV could look like in, let’s say, 2030. Either that or the regional channels would still exist, albeit moving completely online and installing new Full HD 1080i livestreams. And that’s why we have a potential new list of new Seven channels (as discussed a bit earlier in this thread) for livestreaming on 7plus in the future, whether in 2025 or in a few years time. This is essentially TV networks preparing themselves for a future beyond terrestrial (linear) television services, and they provide the TV channels, whether metro or regional, online.

With Channel 10 doing so badly though, I wonder how much longer they’ll survive? Mildura Digital Television (a Network 10 affiliate) already shut up shop on 30th June 2024, and I reckon Tasmania could be next in the firing line. Even 10’s The Project predicted that Tasmanian Digital Television could be the next to go. Only time will tell, I guess.

On the Gold Coast BTQ feed, sure, there’s opt-out local news at 5:30pm, and the ad feed is customised, but the ads are all just coming from Brisbane. So during the Gold Coast news, which is normally meant to be where local advertisers put their ads on the station, you’re seeing a lot more ads for Brisbane Appliance Sales, Clarendon Homes and even Beds R Us. Either that or most of the ads are just national buys. There’s currently no way for businesses to really advertise on BTQ Gold Coast during the 5:30pm news, yet 102.9 Hot Tomato recently partnered with the local 7NEWS bulletin to give away tickets to some sort of air show on the Gold Coast.

I reckon for the sake of it, there should be some local Gold Coast advertising during the 5:30pm news, and not Brisbane advertisements. If that happens, I reckon it’ll feel a lot more local to the area. I understand and know that there’s a Seven Regional station on the Gold Coast on Channel 6, but most people are watching the BTQ (Channel 7) feed, so it’ll feel much more local if there is some sort of advertising catered to the Gold Coast during their local 5:30pm news.

Then again, it probably will not happen. They are specifically connected with BTQ-7 in Brisbane, so there’s a very small chance that this will occur.

3631

None of this is happening. You seem a little obsessed. You’re literally making things up and framing it as possible by saying “none of this is confirmed”

Correct as it’s in your head.

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3632

I’m not really making things up. This is just speculation here. Thank you.

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3633

Yep.

speculate

verb

gerund or present participle: speculating

1. 1.

*form a theory or conjecture about a subject without firm evidence.

3634

ok this is going waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off-topic so this discussion ends now.

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