Just because they didnt vote Nat/Lib doesnt mean those areas aren’t right-leaning - in the example you provided, voters moved to options that were similarly right-leaning
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Ballarat is a union town and home of Eureka so that’s hardly surprising
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Nicholls (formerly known as Murray) has always been a safe LNP seat and the Nationals have always held that seat, at least in my lifetime.
Sky Regional’s biggest potential audiences are Gold Coast & Newcastle - by far. Gold Coast has a huge young and huge retirement (ex Sydney & Melb) population. Newcastle is a largely suburban industrial city.
Not convinced cattle stations and wheat silos resonate with these people. Also not convinced people in Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra etc think “rural”
Images of suburban life, RSL clubs, SLS clubs, etc much more so.
It’s not meant to resonate with the audiences you’re obsessed over.
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Exactly my point. But it should be:
If Sky Regional wants political sway - most of the viewers don’t live in rural areas
If Sky Regional wants higher ratings and ad dollars - most viewers don’t live in rural areas
So showing cattle stations and wheat silos is a misguided branding strategy.
I feel it’s like when 9 News Local Canberra Edition put Parliament House up as the local backdrop - when the viewers were saying “hey, thats not how we see our city AT ALL!, that’s how an outsider sees our city”
Cattle stations and farms to me seems to be imagery that a Sydney marketing exec conjours up with the word “regional”. I just think it’s misguided.
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Exactly. Sky News Regional is probably aimed at conservative “She’ll be right cobber!” Aussie battlers who live in country areas synonymous with wheat silos and wool sheds, likely to vote for The Nationals or the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party in elections.
Whether this tactic will work in the long run remains to be seen though, as I’d imagine that many of Australia’s farmers also want news about rural affairs (think a Stock Market report + the types of stories you might see on the ABC’s “Landline” program) unlikely to be featured on Sky News Regional.
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Their programs are aimed at your typical ‘Aussie’ battlers in those environments but are presented by rich, elite, angry white blokes and women from the city. Talk about irony.
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Sky Regional reaches about 6.8 million people (QLD, NNSW, SNSW, VIC RegionalTAM markets)
So you think Sky Regional is aiming at the 800,000 farmer / rural folks who make a living off the land in their viewing areas rather than the 5.5 million+ who live in large and small cities and urban areas in the SCA viewing areas / WIN?
That would mean they are aiming for the minority - either in political sway or ad dollars
Possible I Guess. Doesn’t sound like a News Corp strategy. They go where the votes are or where the $ are
No, and this is the flaw in your thinking. They’re aiming for farmer / rural folk mindset, the farmer / rural folk political thinking, which exists among their regional city audience and to a larger degree their metropolitan pay TV audience too.
SNR is right-leaning. Rural Australians are stereotypically right-leaning. Images of rural Australia portray right-leaning. EVEN IF their audience doesn’t live there. SNR are saying “we are right-leaning” without saying “we are right-leaning”. That’s all this is.
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Well, yes, you could say that. Sky News has always been a small, lesser known news channel behind a paywall, with a very niche opinion primetime. It’s only in recent years they’ve branched out into the FTA space. It’s now glaringly obvious how niche they’ve always been and how they clearly intend to focus on that and try to grow it.
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I think the logic is a little flawed but yes I can see that line of thinking.
Aussies whether they live in Penrith Ipswich Bankstown Newcastle or Gold Coast - are not rural but there is a little identity politics at play where people in large and small cities like to feel they are that aussie battler
I get where you’re coming from on that
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Yep they’re watching but on Sky News on Foxtel.
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LOL you think people who live in Bankstown are likely to watch Sky News?!
While that area is socially conservative, politically I’d imagine that such a multicultural area would likely be repelled by the “immigration is ruining the great country of Australia” type opinions I’d expect to see expressed on Sky News post-6pm.
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Don’t expect Kick-it to really understand anything about the nuances of Australia - they’ve been shown up time and time again as having lots of opinions but not knowing much about how things work here.
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You’re totally right. I was getting my generic Sydney suburbs mixed up. Bankstwon is very multicultural.
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I like that my opinions seem to bother you so much 
Many parts of Canberra/Queanbeyan (and beyond) where Sky News will resonate. Maybe not the majority of people for sure, but a sizeable minority indeed. The same must be true for other places that are considered to be left leaning.
Canberra is portrayed as leftist although it is really an even split. This may not be easy to see based on they way federal/local electorates are drawn but you do see it reflected in the senate vote.
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It’s not. Labor/Liberal vote is similar, although Labor always more in front but those ACT Liberal politicians who sprout the line there’s only a few thousand votes between the major two parties forget the huge 20% vote for the Greens.
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That’s not true. Labor and Liberal always get the same number of seats (plus or minus a seat or two) every election. ACT Labor has been in minority government since 2008