The number of staff leaving has been a concern but it’s not for the reasons you think.
It’s got little to do with the perceived right wing nature of the channel and more to do with lifestyle. Younger people in particular aren’t thrilled with the sausage factory nature of the job, all news channels operate this way.
Sky has given a lot of people their start, that’s the way it is and that’s the way it will stay.
And it’s not better to be in regional TV… at Sky, network bosses can see you or your work on a daily basis.
ANC almost exclusively use Video Journalists meaning a lot of FSN reporters were required to upskill. VJs aren’t all bad (see SBS Dateline) but some of the shots that come through are amateur at best.
Point is - good people have left. If everything was fine, they wouldn’t. Paul Gregg quit recently - months after his 2IC Andrew McKinlay left the to rejoin channel ten, after 7 years at FSN.
Absolutely, the decision to deploy VJs should be done on a case by case basis where circumstances make it appropriate… plus where they are used there should be adequate training.
Near the bottom of the article you can see some of the ratings fro SNOW programs. (Please don’t re-post thanks).
There is a possible audience reach of 7.813 million. Even though, unlike the Sky News channel, the programs are free-to-air, the audience figures so far suggest there is much work to be done bringing to the bush the kind of anti-migrant and climate change denial arguments that have so destabilised the Coalition government.
I’ve just looked on my epg.
If I go Wed 9/1-Tue 15/1 there are:
Fox Sports News 110.5hrs (includes 45 hrs Sat/Sun)
Sky News 34 hrs (includes 13hrs overnight of encores)
Headline News 12.5hrs (weekdays 6-8.30am)
Sky News Weather 6hrs (daily 5-5.30am and 8.30-9am weekdays)
All Aust News 5hrs (weekdays 11am-noon)
It appears Paul Murray is back next week, so FSN goes back to 11.5 hrs daily. Still too much, should be an hour on and an hour off, not 4 hour blocks. Could utilise Sky News Weather more, say a 30 min block every 3-4 hours.
I don’t think anyone would disagree the mix is wrong, even Sky News management would concede that. It’s certainly not what anyone would consider ideal.
But the reality is SNOW can’t show any content from Seven or Nine and no one is going to put at risk the main channel product on Foxtrl to satisfy scheduling on a secondary channel.
Worth noting that the ratings for SNOW have collapsed this year. So far the numbers are running at the same level of NITV and at about 1/10th of ABCNews.