It won’t work here. The advertising dollar (money to be made by the network) won’t be enough to support local news in the mornings.
If Ten is to ever re-enter the breakfast market, I agree that localism would be a very strong and much needed point of difference to Sunrise, Today and News Breakfast.
But since the network has previously made their intentions clear they’re not going to have another tilt at that section of the market anytime soon (and that was before the current pandemic resulted in major cutbacks across the industry - look at Seven for example) it’s pointless having this discussion.
…which IMO, isn’t being used as an opportunity to build an audience to its fullest potential. You’d think it’d make sense for 10 News First to position their 6pm half hour as a separate product, an alternative to the hour long bulletins on Seven and Nine. But they seem to be happy enough plodding along with an extended 90 minute bulletin which is far too much for most viewers to handle.
100% agree. The lack of investment at 6pm hasn’t been good.
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Worth a shot isn’t it?
They have had a ‘shot’ twice before, along with a ‘morning revolution’, and it resulted in more than 100 redundancies within less than a year of debut on both occasions. 10’s highest audience in the slot was 50k and that was more than 5 years ago. Breakfast audiences in general have shrunken since and the market has become more competitive. It would be a waste of time and money for 10. These supposed resources that you’ve suggested could theoretically be distributed elsewhere.
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a VERY expensive shot
My point is if they are going to try again, look outside the box.
Do you know the expensive it would be to operate 5 different news programs around the country. For an audience of say 50-100k? It’s not feasible.
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No.
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FTA stations in Australia command a much larger share of ad revenue than FTA stations in Canada or the US, as those markets are much more fragmented with many more statins, triple Australia’s cable penetration and more developed digital ad markets
For example channel 7 in Sydney gets a lot more viewers and a more more revenue at 7am than a station in a similar size market (say Miami) where the amount ir people watching any given station is about half that of in Australia. (I used to work in LA in a role where I got daily local ratings from all Over the US)
Similar at 6pm in Sydney where as 7 News May have 200,000 viewers, the number one local news at 6 in say Washington DC (sams size market) may have 100,000
Im Canada they have 3 hour local morning shows in markets the size of Newcastle and Tasmania - also with much lower viewership that a similar siZd market place in Australia due to cable, market penetration and a more developed digital ad market
The revenue and business case is there for local tv news in Australia - but our Networks have no interest in allocating funds there. They are far more focused on primetime.
If 10 really is not interested in breakfast news, they should really counter programme. CBS this morning and studio 10 at 8.30 is hardly counter programming.
A Nickelodeon branded 3 hour block could do well. Or stripped US sitcoms. Counter program, brand it, make it big point of difference Stand out.
But running cbs this morning shows they feel there is an appetite for News there, but they have no creative solution to program the slot
Morning shows in Canada run with audiences of 10,000 - some markets have 2 or 3
America’s TV landscape and news is different to ours, so our needs (IMHO) are entirely different to their. And why should we copy America?
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GTV won’t make more ad money with local news in the AM, that’s why tiny stations do it, sell local ads. Their revenue sources are different compared to network TV here.
Correct they would Not make more Money with local news. Unless it rates higher. But that is a different argument to “the económica are not there to support local news”
Stations of all sizes (NYC - market population 20 million to Peterborough, Ontario market population 500,000) do local news in Canada and the US - and not for the reason you say.
They do it as it rates higher, and lifts the whole station. They also do it as the keep 100% of the as revenue verses splitting in with a network or syndicator.
A mix of local ads and And national ads tend to be sold either way
but doesnt canada only have cable and not fta?
While I agree with your point more broadly, this line isn’t true.
that was my point, doesn’t work that way here
Sunrise and Today used to get over 300k each about 5 years ago. Sunrise was on over 400k in 2007 and could tip over 500k on special occasions. Bit different now.
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Well in Australia the network and the station is the same company so actually they would keep 100% of the revenue if they did local news