If Seven or Nine had one of their news reporters in Afghanistan, you can bet that they’d hype up the promotion of their reporter being “Inside the Front Line” and that it’s a “Major Exclusive” or something like that.
If I was Ten, I would definitely be heavily promoting Amanda Hart’s reports from Afghanistan because it’s a rare “Exclusive” for Ten’s news service these days which the casual viewer who doesn’t usually watch Ten Eyewitness News: First At Five just might be quite interested in!
Yep, it’s very sad. A few years ago I remember many on Media Spy regarding Ten’s news service as a better product than the Seven/Nine equivalents. For all the criticism that both Seven and Nine’s news services get (quite a lot of which is quite justified, I might add), I don’t think you can say that Ten’s news service is superior to “the big two” these these days for reasons that have been very well documented.
In all honesty, I actually do want Ten Eyewitness News: First At Five to rate well because viewers are undoubtedly better served with more choices for news on TV rather than less. But it’s very hard to support Ten’s news service in it’s current state especially when the network has only one news bulletin a day which will often take weekends off due to sports coverage! 