Claire Fenwicke 
I wonder where Prime7 got the 2 m physical distance from?
It’s not Health.gov.au, which they reference; I just checked and the website still says 1.5 m:
In public
Social distancing in public means people:
- stay at home and only go out if it is absolutely essential
- keep 1.5 metres away from others
- avoid physical greetings such as handshaking, hugs and kisses
…
2 m appears to be the advice in many other countries, but not Australia.
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Why not broadcast what the Government have produced?
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if it’s masked as “local information” (e.g. under the “What’s On” banner) does it count as local content?
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Thats a pretty low act if it does
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Another
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My name is Paul Patrick and I am the Head of News at Prime Media Group.
I am pleased to see that the debate about regional TV lives on and I encourage it, but ill-informed assumptions need to be corrected before they become truths.
PRIME, WIN and SCA have only recently asked Government for financial support.
Since 2013 regional TV operators have sought only regulatory change to enable them to reorganise themselves in the most economically efficient manner in the face of new competition –competition that has increased by around 800% and includes the metropolitan networks and international tech giants.
Recent press articles have reported that regional TV executives have been in discussions with the government for the past fifteen months or so. Those discussions related to an urgent need to reform the businesses so they could remain financially viable in the face of this enormous increase in competition. The businesses have, in fact, proffered a self-funded solution which would not require a cent of taxpayer funds.
Unfortunately over that fifteen month period the government has not responded to the proposal. The economics of the regional television market have been decaying for years and the reforms were urgent. The arrival of COVID-19, coupled with no engagement from government on the self-funded plan has left regional TV businesses in an invidious position.
In regard to regional TV operators and digital platforms, it is easy to draw conclusions, but here are the facts;
• Regional TV operators can only buy their content from Nine, Seven or Ten. They are not able to buy content from distributors such as Disney or Warner Brothers or anyone else because all those contracts are held exclusively by Nine, Seven, Ten, ABC and SBS, including all digital rights to that content, and those rights will not be shared with their affiliate partners.
• Prime does have a website, and we feature our key stories on it for our local audience. We also engage on Facebook. You can judge for yourself if you think it’s enough.
But let’s talk about the successes – our local news engages with tens of thousands every night. In NSW, our commercial share of the 6pm news audience varies from 50% to over 80%. Remember – these programs are competing with metro bulletins on 9 and TEN.
In Western Australia, our share of the audience at 5:30 regularly hits 80%.
Local news matters! Local audiences value it. PRIME is the only one committed to a dedicated local news bulletin in all of our markets. It is an essential service.
So, when you talk about local news – and regional television - remember the people who work for them have spent years trying to evolve their businesses.
Unfortunately, regulation, government charges, and obstinacy in Canberra have meant that the true market has been unable to flourish, and this is why our businesses are, regretfully looking for financial assistance.
Remember, the Government has not provided us with a response to our self-funding proposal a full 15 months after being presented with it.
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Hi, and thanks for coming on here to provide some more info.
Sorry, no you’re not. The Canberra broadcast area has a big population compared to many of your other markets but Prime7 hasn’t had a Canberra news bulletin for how many years now…?
It’s also somewhat offensive that you’re blaming that same city (Canberra) for the (in)actions of the federal government, which is made up of MPs from around the country, including those many rural LNP held seats in your regional markets.
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WIN currently buys library content from NBCUniversal for WIN Peach and has purchased other content independently over the past few years.
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Just before anyone asks - we (admin/mod team) are satisfied that this account is indeed Paul.
Welcome Paul
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Hi Paul,
So fantastic to have you here! I hope people here don’t attack you to the point you don’t come back.
I don’t think there is a person on MediaSpy who is not a huge supporter of local news. In fact I think we all wish all 3 commercial networks had local news in all regions ar 4, 5 and 6pm! We all want more of it, we all want a higher quality with better sets and graphics and we all wish Prime, WIN and SCA management invested more money and resources for you.
You make some excellent points. I did not know the broadcasters had been waiting 15 months for the government to respond to your proposals. That is frustrating and disappointing.
I will point out that there os not a TV station in the world that has not seen massive competition from streamers and tech giants. Be it Prime7 Tamworth, 10 Sydney, CTV Calgary or CBS Miami or NBN Newcastle - all stations large and small the world over have seen an onslaught. This is not something unique to Australian regionals.
I’ve often wondered this: Prime pays 35-40% (whatever it is) of ALL it’s revenue to Seven. That is 35-40% all every cent it makes from ads sold across Prime, Mate, TWO and Flix’s 24 hour schedule is paid to Seven. Often, as you point out Prime7 Local News hits shares of 50-80% - that is some good ad revenue you are making there off your own production - yet 35-45% of it goes to Seven. Even thought you are not carrying their product 6-7. You are producing your own , not taking theirs - yet handing over 45% of your revenue.
Why doesn’t prime7 speak to Seven about the US model: for the hours you carry local news, you keep 100% of the ad revenue. It gives Prime7 an incentive to keep the news on the air, and perhaps add more in Canberra and Wollongong. It gives you incentive to improve product and raise ratings and offer more marketing and promo time to your news. It seems like a great way to make local news more profitable and appealing to the bottom line.
'When you say Prime7 is the the only broadcaster committed to a local new bulletin s in all of your markets:
What about Canberra (market pop: 560,000) Wollongong (market pop: 541,000 and Victoria) Market pop: 1.2 million
Those are all some fairly large markets - one the national capital, that Prime7 doesn’t have a bulletin for. Canberra and Wollongong alone are larger than the Tasmania market where SC does a fantastic bulletin. And similar in Size to Gold Coast where 7 and 9 compete with top notch bulletins.
I think many of us here o MS have all found it curious that Prime7 chooses not to run local news in Canberra and Wollongong in particular. One is the national capital (the very people you are trying to have help you) and one is a fast growing city south of Sydney, WIN’s service in both cities is beyond a joke. It seems the markets are ripe for competition. Curious on your thoughts here. It would seem to me if you want government votes on your plan, that Prime7 not having local news in that very city could be working against your arguments?
Newcastle with 820,000 also seems ripe for competition. Only one bulletin in that market and it’s not so great. I know NBN is dominent, but in such a large market not that much smaller than Adelaide - even a #2 rated prime news there would probably pull a larger audience than say your tamworth bulletin?
You make great points - and thank you so much for the insights. One last question: What exactly are regional broadcasters asking the government for with your 15 month old proposal? What legislation changes would really help you guys? What reform are you after, and if passed could we see an increase in local news?
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The Ballarat market has 357,000
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If the first two statements are correct, why do the two largest conurbations in regional NSW (Newcastle/Hunter Valley and Wollongong/Illawarra) not have half-hour local news broadcasts? Not to mention the other areas that others have mentioned
I appreciate that Regional TV has a chequered history - not just recently, but basically through the whole history of Television in Australia. This has seen (over the course of many years and not necessarily by Prime) “regionalism” dropping to the point where it is today - frankly, not much.
We’ve seen news output slashed or a drop in quality, centralisation of operations that result in the closure of facilities, very little in the way of non-news/current affairs regional content. I find it patronising that promos for local news talk about “our region” when the person saying it is located 700+km away and claims of being part of a regional community that feel fake.
I think we are at a point where a difficult decision needs to be made - we either embrace regional media and work towards increasing and improving regional content or give up (especially in television and radio). I’d rather the former occur, but the way things are going it feels like it could be the latter
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Prime7 could probably find some real cost savings by doing away with the Prime brand as well and aligning with 7
It’s inevitable in the future.
I’m sure certain folks in Prime7 HQ think the prime7 brand is about localness regional ties etc. but actually. Prime7 Brand across 3 states run out of Canberra is really just as generic and
pan-Regional as Just “7”
If you don’t have a local news commitment to the community (Newcastle Canberra Wollongong) then putting the word prime in front of the 7 hardly conjours up ideas of “this is my hometown station”
They should go the way of 7 Tasmania and be done with it. I think it would be stronger brand actually.
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That would’ve happened anyway if Prime Media’s shareholders had voted for 7WM’s takeover.
But without that (takeover) it appears 7WM doesn’t like the idea of affiliates’ news services using the 7News brand (look at what happened with SC7 in Tasmania).
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There is some content available but not much because most of it is indeed tied up by the metro networks.
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I think Prime put together a good product in general - they do a lot of things right that the other regional networks get wrong.
Their website is the best of all the regional networks, providing full ondemand news bulletins and stories. Ideally they would be able to work with Seven so that Prime’s website would be able to deep link into 7Plus, so that even if Seven are still controlling all the ads for that content, people could make Prime7.com.au a one stop site for watching all the content on Prime.
A weakness is that they only have video stories - on the web, especially on mobile I would rarely stop to watch a video report. Adapting their scripts to text - even if it’s essentially just writing out the closed captions - would make it far easier to consume their local news online.
Another downside is that none of the local content for regions not served by a full bulletin is online - so with the site set to ‘Ballarat’ - all of the stories are interstate. That’s okay to have them there, but even if they just had the 2 minute update and weather, it’d show the needed localism exists.
On television - they get right the proposal to the viewer. WIN demand that you watch an hour and a half from 5pm in order to get full national, international and local news and weather. Nine/NBN combine theirs, while Seven give you a delayed hacked together bulletin (as do Prime Albury in fairness to them).
The live “national” bulletin at 6:30 presented from the region, allows them to cut Sydney centric fluff out of the hour, while still providing all the day’s news in an hour, but with a fuller local picture than the windows in the Nine/NBN bulletins allow.
I think Prime do get the local news balance correct. Plus, I’d give them credit for while they haven’t expanded to more regions, unlike WIN they haven’t cut any either.
I’d be interested and didn’t see mention of the detail of what regional operators wanted reform wise, but out of all the regional networks, Prime are better set in their arrangements.
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Did Prime have a local news bulletin for Ballarat? When?
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I’m 99% sure that Canberra and the Gold Coast are the only two markets where Prime have previously had a full service local news bulletin and then axed it, and that no Ballarat news ever existed on Prime.
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