Seven Regional

Just saw a new Prime7 news promo for the central west, anyone else seen it?

I saw a new promo here for our news in the New England / Northwest

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Do you like the promos?

No, because Like always you’ve completely brushed Moree :cry: I cant remember the last time I saw a Prime 7 News car in town & there was a big Rugby Semi Final on here yesterday but because it didn’t involve a team from Tamworth the Tamworth media couldn’t be shagged sending anyone here to cover it…Bad Form

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I havent watched the NE/NW news since it moved to Canberra - but I hear that its dominated by news from Tamworth and Armidale

Prime Media Swings To Loss

Reality has caught up with Prime Media Group (PRT), the Seven network’s regional affiliate in parts of Australia in the 2015-16 financial year.

Prime’s two trading downgrades during the year to June ending up being accurate warnings of sliding revenues and profits, and helped produce the impairment of the balance sheet values for its TV licences and goodwill.

Prime bit the bullet and written down the value of its TV licences and goodwill by just on $123 million as the outlook for regional TV broadcasting worsens. And in doing so the company became the last Australian TV network to impair its licence and goodwill balance sheet values.

"In the 2015 calendar survey year, the Group’s total audience in the aggregated regional market of New South Wales and Victoria fell by 5.6% on the previous year. Viewers aged between 25 and 54 in this aggregated market also declined by 12.3% in the 2015 calendar year, which was the second consecutive survey year of double digit decline. Revenue in this aggregated market also contracted again, declining 6.0% in the 2016 financial year compared to a decline of 3.9% in the prior year.”

No other TV group has revealed data like this and it is bad news for the industry generally.

And interestingly, after June 30, the company says it has outsourced its network playout facilities to a company part-owned by the ABC - and regional rival, WIN

"The Group has engaged MediaHub Australia (a joint venture between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and WIN Television) to provide on-air operations services to the company. On-air operations in a television business augment the program feed with commercials, community service announcements and other materials, to create the complete schedule of content for transmission. It is a major component of television broadcasting. Outsourcing this function to a managed service is an established practice in the major and mature television markets of Great Britain and Europe, with impressive continuity of service outcomes,” directors said.

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Interesting find on Facebook via Twitter. Prime7 presentation during the Olympics.

[quote]

Samuel Gordon-Stewart
The Olympics. They begin! Live & Free or thereabouts. — at Prime7
3 August[/quote]

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“PRIME7 currently has no commercial arrangements in place with the Seven Network to broadcast 7flix. This means we do not hold the rights to broadcast any of the programs shown on 7flix on our existing channels.”

This was part of a Prime7 reply to a post on their Facebook page regarding the introduction of 7Flix to Prime broadcasting areas.

I’m not sure if this is considered a normal arrangement for an affiliate station, but it seems pretty slack for Prime7 to not only be unable to broadcast 7Flix, but also to not have the ability to incorporate any of the programming onto their existing channels.

Any ideas on what the expected timeline is to deliver 7Flix to regional areas? Will/should it coincide with Prime7 switching their playout to MediaHub?

No doubt comes down to finances. If they haven’t got a business case to support carrying the content then they’ll probably be unlikely to do so. Operators like Prime have probably absorbed losses in carrying secondary channels like 7Two and 7mate but there comes a point when they’ll draw the line and it appears that 7flix might be that point for Prime?

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That can’t bode well for the next affiliation deal, can it? I know the contract isn’t due for renewal for a few years yet, but I’m sure 7 wouldn’t be filled with confidence that their regional partner can’t broadcast their full suite of channels.

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It could be just as simple as the current agreement says that prime can broadcast “7, 7TWO and 7mate”. To add 7flix would need an variation to the current contract to be agreed upon and there’s little point in Prime doing that while they are technically unable to do so, given that signing a new deal for it would require them to pay and set a launch date.

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Which I would assume is the exact same reason why SCA isn’t broadcasting 7flix either at the moment - not that they’ve said either way if this is the reasoning of course.

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Looks like Prime didn’t bother changing the image on tonight’s signpost for the northern markets.

The lineup: Highway Patrol, Red, Goldbergs
The image: Sherrin football

Edit: only on the Seven/7Two version. The seven/7mate version just played with a film reel and football respectively.

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Do Prime still air lineups?

Yes. Here’s a recent one:

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I have no more information then this - but Prime have announced that they will outsource their playout to Mediahub starting from November.

I believe there may be a month with tandem playout facilities (primes & Mediahub’s) and then MediaHub only from December

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Prime Media Group (Prime7 & GWN7) is celebrating one of their biggest ever ratings wins, as Australia’s #1 regional TV network :slight_smile:

They won every market that they cover, except for Northern NSW (Newcastle), which was still won by NBN. It should also be noted that Seven West Media (7 QLD) & Southern Cross Austereo (SCTV in Tas & Central Oz) also dominated 2016.

Prime7 in regional VIC particularly dominated, with daylight second (WIN have always struggled there for some reason)…

I wonder if the affiliate switch mid-year helped the network?

Wonder what executives & shareholders at WIN Corp (Ch 10 affiliate) & SCA (mostly Ch 9 affiliate) will be thinking? Grant Blackley & SCA are trying to ‘pump up’ their year, despite getting smashed in every one of their markets, saying “revenue is growing”.

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Probably " Well Seven is the most watched network nationally, so Prime7 would be the most watched also"

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Where are you getting the ratings for Central Australia?

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Is the Prime 7 watermark a different shade or is it my imagination?