Ten News First Content and Appearance (2015-Sept 2020)

If I’m not mistaken, the US network news bulletins have some form of live (or updated) editions for the West Coast.

The reason Ten doing a weekend national news bulletin has come up for discussion again is understandably, because of the Media Watch story pertaining to a major news event that happened in Perth the Sunday before last: Seven and Nine (presumably also the ABC) had live, up to date coverage while Ten ran it’s national bulletin from Sydney on a three hour delay.

I absolutely understand that TV news in the US and Australia are completely different beasts. But having a live, locally produced news service for Perth on weeknights and three hour delayed national news broadcast on weekends is more than a bit slack whichever way you look at it.

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Guys it’s money and priorities:

Seven and Nine are news networks. They do 7-8 hours of news a day. Ten does 1 hour a day.

Ten’s news budget is a fraction of the other two

Ten as a network rates a lot lower

Ten’s news services rate a lot Lower

Running 5 full newsrooms in 5 cities over weekends 52 weeks a year is hell of a cost

For what - local news at 5 in Perth that would rate 49,000 viewers - compared the the 41,000 they get with a National News?

Think about Retuen on investment

If you had a a few million to spare at ten would you launch a new primetime reality or drama series or local news in Perth to get 9000 viewers

Let’s be realistic

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Yeah agree but also Tens news budget is their choice. They can put more resourses/invest into it to gain more viewers not just for the news but help build audiences for new programming. Spend money to make money. More people hear about ten investing in news the more eyeball you get.

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News doesn’t make money.
We’ve been told this over and over
Sky News UK runs at a loss. All the US ness devisions run at a loss if exclude the breakfast shows.

I’m all for Ten investing in news. But after they invest in primetime first.

And even then the investments need to be smart.

Sky News wherever doesn’t make money because of the rubbish they put up. If Ten had no news what so ever do you rekon they would get many viewers tuning into the channel? Look at the digital off shoot channels of all stations here in Australia…more people still watch the primary channels due to their news services mixed with programming. I understand News isn’t the be all end all of making money but as i stated in my earlier post it “brings” more eyes to the station to build viewers of new programming. Why do you think more people watch 7 and 9?

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Probably. The demos watching Ten in primetime are not those watching news at 5pm.

News might play a small part, but it’s largely because the main channels are still treated as the only channel that gets good new programming. The multi channels consist mainly of repeats and cheaper content (which is cheap because it’s already rated low elsewhere).

I agree. News is important and needs to be invested in, but there’s no point using news as a launching board for other programs if there’s nothing worth watching. News is on TV to get viewers in the hope that they will stay to watch more and people won’t stick around if there’s nothing worth watching - and it will be harder to get them back again in the future.

Ten already have a strong primetime lineup at times - so people are clearly happy to tune into good programming without the news to support it. They need to further strengthen that to keep that audience for longer first.

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Ten’s current strategy is to deliver news in prime time to their target audience via The Project rather than the traditional 5pm news service. That would be one program that could be targeted with more resources. Even last week, despite Ten’s poor overall ratings performance The Project at 7pm was the number one program at that time in 25-54.

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Quite a few thoughts and questions about Ten’s news service come to mind…

*The Project and Studio 10 are relatively successful programs for the network. Are there elements of those shows which can successfully be incorporated into the 5pm news?
*Should the On-Air Presentation be more in-tune with the target demographic of programs like The Project?
*Is the content style/story telling particularly engaging to the 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54 demographics?
*As a point of difference to the established talent on rival networks, would bringing in some good quality younger presenters/reporters improve the news service?

Personally, I think that there’s room for a news service somewhere within Network Ten. I would not be an advocate of completely removing news from Network Ten’s programing schedule, just as I would not be an advocate the axing of things like local programing on Eleven even though Neighbours, The Loop and children’s programing get consistently less viewers than the 5pm news bulletins.

But do I think Ten could do a better job at producing a news service that the 16-39, 18-45 and 25-54 demographics would really enjoy watching? I’d probably have to say yes. Whether or not they have the budget to successfully do this sort of thing is another story though.

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I’m not saying news should be priority…but at least if they could iron out the basics like normal local bulletins 7 days a week would be great! Incorporate eyewitness news resources into Studio 10 like hourly news updates…the newsroom is right there now…and The Project more too!

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Also when Ten rated well it had early news, morning news, 5pm, and late news. A once stop shop for people to hang around and leave their TVs on Ten. Why turn people to another network to get their news fix then try to bring them back to watch a “primetime” show?

I agree local news should be added 7 days a week, I also think they need a primetime news - and a breakfast show.

But that should all come after a strengthened primetime. Out of that - they can promote and launch new news products outside of primetime. But with low primetime viewing - and no one to see promos or tune to Ten - you’re not going to be successful suddenly getting people to turn on Ten at 5pm in perth on Sunday or 6am weekdays.

You need to strength of primetime and the halo affect or a successful energized network to launch series outside of prime.

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At the end of the day, the game is to fill space on CBS All Access. That is the focus. It’s content content content.

If anything, you might see a variety of news brands start appearing throughout the broadcast channels to cater for that requirement.

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On Gogglebox tonight - one of the couples said “sit down and watch the news” and The Project coverage of the Yes verdict was shown.

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They do when required. Plenty of clips where they note it at the start. Happens for the newscasts and the morning show.

Careful mate, that sort of thinking lead to UK’s Channel 5 replacing their (outsourced) 7 PM bulletin with Live from Studio Five. (2 minutes in).

But seriously most television news can do better to court an young audience. I’d recommend less of a focus on woolies savings and that sort of dross and more on current affairs. Also it’s about time we stop treating people like idiots when it comes to technology (and video games).

Then again, most of my observations are probably rubbish because I’m an anglophilic teenager currently trawling mediaspy. Hardly a beacon of mainstream yoof.

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Came across this on YouTube


Credits @SydneyCityTV

This variant of the theme music sounds amazing. I would just love to get a clean copy of the full-length theme :frowning:

No one posted Ten’'s election coverage? By far the best… Tegan carried it well, providing the updates every half hour from 8.15.

Ten were live with the Premier’s speech, then on a short delay for the opposition (compared with the ABC)

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It was posted starting here

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You mean In the opener? I have included that part of the theme in the video linked below:

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Ten had election coverage? I didn’t even bother to check…