Maybe parent Austereo are thinking of getting rid of the “Southern Cross” too, whole company re fresh?
1 Like
I would’ve thought they would hang on to their unique branding as a point of difference and connection to their Tasmanian viewers. TAS TV and the Tom Payne read news bulletin seemed to suffer when WIN took over and removed heritage branding from the station, rebadging it with a call sign that meant nothing to their viewers.
7 Likes
Well, good luck using the TNT 9 logo these days 
1 Like
For my money, I’d rather resource was focused on getting local faces on local television rather than creating “local brands”. Indeed TNT has used network branding in the past when it was Channel 9.
I know this change won’t have any impact on Tasmanian production, but I don’t think the “Southern Cross” brand - which is just TV-8 from Victoria - adds anything for Tassie viewers. I get that people are “used to it”, but people don’t watch a channel because of its name. Proven by the WIN-Ten switch and many other station identity changes over the past 30 years.
As for the “everything coming from Sydney” point - wouldn’t viewers in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth also have the same gripe? Doesn’t seem to bother them. Indeed there is nothing Tasmanian about Southern Cross at all - it’s generic from Darwin to Hobart and everything in between.
3 Likes
I think the only reason why there is no watermark on SCTV is because SC couldn’t be bothered making one, they didn’t have there own watermark on the old SC Ten (apart from a brief period in the early 2000s).
2 Likes
Apparently 
4 Likes
TAS TV became WIN the same year as aggregation - so it’s hard to pin any viewer effect on the name change alone. TAS was number one in Hobart when there was only one channel, sure.
Southern Cross had the “power” of both Ten and Seven content, so was in effect a super station. WIN wasn’t able to compete with that.
3 Likes
Until the next round of negotiations. They will take the rebrand in order to pay ‘less’ than if they remained. Good ol money talking first.
Now 10, how about this thinking for your affiliate?
1 Like
Believe me - Sydney associations with anything is not always a good thing. And I live here, and admittedly, looking for a way to get out.
1 Like
There isn’t anything “Sydney” about the number 7 - and having decent network promos doesn’t make a station more “Sydney”. Southern Cross network comes from Canberra and no one is saying it looks too “Canberra”.
2 Likes
Not quite sure what this means, but I would highly doubt Seven has offered SC a discount. SC has always preferred using the network branding, as they did with Ten Vic, Ten Cap and Ten Northern all those years ago.
The generic “Southern Cross Television” brand was created out of necessity to badge for their mish-mash of stations. For example GTS/BKN was 7&9 and TNT was 7&10 back then, so it was a real mess. Not to mention their bigger Ten cluster. So, they got rid of the Tassie Tiger and voila. One size fits all.
Southern Cross is a network built on the lowest cost television possible - and the SC brand is no exception.
3 Likes
The star came to rebrand everything from Southern Star to SC10 and SC7 to their various radio stations.
The Ten branded stations changed to run with the star logo.
3 Likes
I would have thought having an independent brand was high cost? Wouldn’t it have been cheaper for SC7 to revert to Seven branding without the Star as soon as dual programming ceased?
2 Likes
The biggest benefit of having the Southern across brand was unifying sales. It made it very obvious who ran the station and who to contact. That’s why they introduced the star logo across all TV radio assets, despite there being very little actual link between the two - advertisers can easily see what they own and get drawn into pitches of “we reach 90% of all Australians” or whatever.
From a national sales perspective, this was revelvant right up until SCA took over the Nine affiliation. Since then, the landscape has changed, and regional TV is sold much more through the national brands, even though they’re still run independently. I wouldn’t be surprised if 7 Affiliate sales start representing SCA7 soon, even if its joint with SCA.
These rebrands means that reach rules are less relevant now. The regionals (apart from WIN) are being run as though they are part of the metro networks - it’s really just a matter of who’s taking responsibility for the transmission. Even the profits of the operations are being shared with the networks now with the higher affiliation fees being paid.
5 Likes
I largely have to agree with what was said by @CTC7-9-10 in post #640: Re, local TV branding.
Unfortunately the demise of localised branding for a national/international brand is something that’s been happening in most industries in recent years - it isn’t something unique to TV or even the media in general. Although it’d be nice if TV stations did have more unique local names/branding (whether in either metropolitan or reginal markets), does it make sense to focus on stuff like that over the quality of your on-air product? Yeah, probably not.
Weren’t the reach rules actually dropped in October last year?
1 Like
Yes.
What I meant was, that it largely doesn’t matter if the reach rule was dropped or not. In 9 months we’ve seen no movement from any network looking to expand their holdings. And that’s because they don’t need to. Nine already had almost 100% use of their brand (except for Imparja but even they’re letting the 9 brand through more now - and NBN, which Nine already control). Same with Seven now that SCA are rebranding. And with higher affiliation fees, they’re getting a lot more of the profits from the regional stations. If they were too buy into the regional markets, they’d be buying the headache of managing local sales offices and extensive transmission infrastructure for very little extra profit, or even the risk of a loss.
I think the only reason a network would buy out the regionals is if the regional broadcaster was going to fold, just so that their programming remained available in those areas.
6 Likes
Well we are a land that’s girt by sea… But no longer siloed as we are getting more and more connected with the greater world.
There is simply no point in maintaining separate brands in the current world as people are no longer oblivious to the greater world. For example most people know that Hungry Jack’s is Burger King. On day when Jack Cowin either sells up the chain or kicks the bucket, we will more than likely see a rebrand.
Local TV is something that hasn’t really existed for some time. With SCTV being basically a carbon copy of Seven, why spend the time, money and effort maintaining a separate brand.
5 Likes
HJ’s would have originally been called Burger King but the name was trademarked by a takeaway shop in Adelaide. The owner of Adelaide Burger King eventually sold all but his trademark; some stores became HJ’s while others were bulldozed and redeveloped. The trademark apparently lapsed decades ago.
There was a legal stoushe in the early 2000s between BK and HJ’s and a small handful of new BK-branded stores were opened, but they were absorbed into HJ’s when the issue was resolved. BK presumably still owns the trademark.
The template for retention of brand recognition, value and goodwill has been well executed recently, yet SCA in their typical scorched earth approach to brands ignored it.
9 have done a fantastic job leveraging the goodwill of the NBN brand, retaining it in their anchor program, NBN News and other elements such as Big Dog. Yes, people know they’re watching 9 product, and the dills who supposedly buy advertising recognise it better as 9 but locals still have a connection with a 50+ year brand via a nightly reminder of the news.
When you change regional brands, you increase audience and local sales suspicion that local production will reduce, news decline and no local programs or local initiatives.
1 Like
But to me in NBN land, it still feels clunky having a program called NBN News on Nine, made worse by inconsistent branding re theme music, EPG program titles e.g. they still title it as “NBNs Afternoon News” and the 6pm bulletin is a dog’s breakfast itself.
3 Likes