Seven & Ten News (SCA)

It’s just bizarre that Seven West Media are fine with the 7 logo on their Tasmania affiliate’s station, repeating what happened with Nine (so no concern about protecting their brand there), yet at the last minute complain about the news service?

An objection just about the noodle updates may be understandable, but SC7’s Tasmania news is of a reasonable quality.

I don’t see why 7WM shouldn’t be happy with the bulletin being prominently named “7 News Tasmania”.

If they want to control the product from their affiliates, then buy them (now that they can).

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Or the other option could have been for Seven to produce the news bulletins themselves ala what Nine do for SCA already in the regional areas.

If the issue was going to be around the quality of bulletins for GTS/BKN then they really had an option to ask Nine to fill the gap here by extending their agreement on the east coast to cover regional SA.

I wonder if Seven did produce the bulletins like with Nine whether that wouldn’t have guaranteed the staffing positions and may have provided uncertainty.

Unlikely to happen when the primary affiliate for SA is Seven not Nine.

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The GTS/BKN bulletin seems to be fine, the only real issues being visual and the nasal weather presenter. Fraser presents very well, as do most of the reporters.

Southern Cross News SA is much better since Tim Hatfield left and all, but one, of the current reporters are very good.

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It wouldn’t affect them at all. SCA own all three networks and moving their news bulletin wouldn’t mean less eyeballs. Just because their original channel is what has become 7 means diddly squat.

Like I said unlikely to happen when they are a 7 affiliate in this market and considering most people in the market don’t change their tv channel from gts/bkn (6). There are many in the area who don’t know 9 exists.

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I disagree with this. Tim Hatfield was an institution in the area. Everyone knew who he was. Plus he made a effort by coming to the area regularly. Frailer hasn’t been to the area once since taking over. Also ratings have dropped by 5% since Tim left.

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I think that would work really well.

Do SCA do their own surveys? Regional TAM do not survey the South Australia regional areas.

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He was no institution lol. Just because he visited a few times didn’t make him a good news reader or chief of staff.

Where did you get the ratings info from?

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Trust me he was. I lived in the area for 10 years and everyone knew who he was. There were billboards in Whyalla and Port Lincoln with his face plastered on them. He also has family in the area which helps.

Yes they do a local survey for the area. I had a box at my house.

If I remember correctly, Tim Hatfield even mentioned that he was moving to Seven News Adelaide at the end of his final Southern Cross News bulletin last August so the departure most likely would’ve been on good terms.

Wouldn’t how the bulletin looks visually be a fairly important factor in Seven deciding whether or not to allow SCA to use the Seven News logo & brand on their regional news services?

Are there any current on-air presenters at Southern Cross GTS/BKN News that really could be considered to be a local institution? I personally get the impression that the local news over there (like many regional news services I guess) is one that presenters/reporters usually stay at for only a few years at most before going onto other things…which is understandable since most people in regional TV news want to advance their media careers. :slight_smile:

Don’t agree there. Just because he loved to “plaster” him self everywhere didn’t necessarily make him a good news reader or chief of staff. I live and work in the area and have done so my whole life, seen many come and go over the decades, even when the bulletin was produced from the Port Pirie studio.

Would be interested to see any info about the ratings.

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Where are these ratings published?

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He also rebuilt the bulletin to what it is now. From being insignificant with no online presence. To a bulletin that has an online presence, a catch up service via YouTube and a social media presence (that started with less than 300 followers) that has close to 20000 followers and a reach of millions. He was the leader to the current graphics package, launched current segments like fuel watch and it was his idea to bring in a weather presenter (this eventuated 2 weeks into Fraisers tenure). He is/was also the third longest presenter/chief of staff for the bulletin. Ratings and advertising under Tim’s time were up 25% year on year. He lead to a news service that was making money. Something Southern Cross was not possible and is key to why the bulletin still exists (considering it’s not legally obliged/required under current laws).

The ratings are not published it is something that was done in-house. It is done to help in selling advertising. GTS/BKN (channel 6) often had reach viewership of 60%. The lowest was often SC9 which was often less than 5%. SC10 often pulled in 20-30%.

so how did you find out the numbers? I think we’d all be interested in them seeing as ratings for such a small market are never known

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It was part of my role when I worked for Southern Cross Austereo. Numbers were kept in house so not really able to give/get. I’ll dig through my old stuff and see what I find. They weren’t super detailed just gave %estimations of viewers. There were around 100 boxes within area. Southern Cross News had a 80% share so based on a viewership number of 130,000 in area close to 100,000 were watching the bulletin.