Good. I get sick if all the whingeing about what they do or don’t do. Now we’ll just get whingeing about it not being shown at all. 
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I would keep The Latest name and format, it’s fantastic. It’s just the scheduling that’s the issue. 8.30 or 9.30 is worth a long term trial.
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High rating 8:30 shows:
- Have You Been Paying Attention (Mon)
- Mad As Hell / Gruen (Wed)
- Gogglebox Australia (Thur)
- Friday Night Football (Nine NRL / Seven AFL)
- Weekend sports coverage.
Off the top of my head, that’s 5 nights of the week that would easily beat a news bulletin. Not to mention that Seven will always put AFL ahead of any news experiment.
Seven tried the short-lived 7pm bulletin on 7 Two, which gained no traction after almost 9 months. ABC News 24 have an 8pm bulletin every night of the week, yet it doesn’t even appear in the top 20 multichannel programs of the night.
I don’t see the evidence that there’s an audience for news and I don’t think we’re not going to see a bulletin in the 8:30/9:30 time-slot outside of special event coverage. I really don’t think it’s necessary.
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9.30/10.00/10.30 would be my preference
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Out of interest, why are some obsessed with the Latest starting times and for it to start at 8.30/ 9pm, but not with Nine’s Late News also starting at various times Sunday to Thursday? and for that to start earlier?
Landscape has changed. FTA LIVE viewership declines more and more every hour as the night goes on after 8.30. We all know why. Reality over runs. People now like to watch scripted content commercial free (BVOD and streaming) networks have played funny with over runs and constantly bumping shows. No one knows what to expect anymore, nothing is reliable. Can anyone actually name a stable 9.30 show or slot across a network? I can’t.
Having a stripped show at 9.30 every night creates appointment viewing across the week. And leaves 7.30-9.30 to be programmed nightly and focused upon. Bookended by a daily fixture at 7 (Home and Away) and another bookend at 9:30 (The Latest)
A regular consistent show that viewers can rely on. Sunrise - been at the same time for 2 decades., 6pm news. Been there for ever. Home and away, ACA, Project, 10 News at 5, ABC News at 7 - when a news show or stripped show is programmed consistently at a regular time slot, growth and stability and consistency happens
There is also less marketing costs. Right now 7 must market, promote, produce promos for, buy airtime for, push on social media, generate publicity for, tweet for etc - 7 different shows. It’s a lot of muscle, money and budget. These 9.30 shows are getting - what - 200k - 300k, max? It’s spreading shrinking marketing budgets and resources across a third hour of primetime.
Having a regular daily news show daily at 9.30, a good show like The Latest, a solid brand, that you own, that defines you that requires little marketing muscle or effort or money.
Right now we have a revolving door of B and C grade US dramas, strange crime and UK filler content, movies, repeats, clip compile shows, plastic surgery shows…
What does “Worlds Most Shocking Moments” and “The Greatest Showman” repeats do for 7’s brand, viewer loyalty and long term consistency? This content can all be found other places. Live news, local content and shiny for reality is one area that the streamers are not in.
What does The Latest do for loyalty, brand building, consistency etc - given time - I believe the same as 7 News at 6, or Sunrise or The Project. It becomes a brand building show with consistent ratings demos and audiences that 7 can sell to adevrtisers, plan around etc an require veery little housekeeping day to day to market manage and promote.
It leaves 7.30-9.30 to be able to program with 90 minute reality shows, 30 minute observational shows, US drama, Aussie drama, sitcom etc. And 7 (or 9 or 10) can focus then ion the 2 most important hours one TV - 7.30 and 8.30
The Latest at 9.30
Then scripted content at 10. I would reduce the ads in the scripted content at 10 so run time is just 50 minutes and ads sell at a premium, with the next show starting at 10.50
Obviously 7 has its reasons for preferring to run “worlds most shocking emergency calls”, Netflix dramas that come 4th in their slot, UK dramas that skew 55+ and movie repeats… they see something in it.
I’m not sure what. It’s my strong belief The Latest locked at 9.30 7 nights a week would help Seven focus on the key hours of 7.30-9.30 while providing stability and a 3rd flagship nightly show after 7 news and Home and away.
Just my take… 7 obviously has a different one.
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I’d have to google all the articles - but I’ve read many (I think published often on TVTonight) that shows streaming using picks up massively as the night goes on. It’s a trend consistent in most countries.
Local news rates higher than any of those things, the news programs you point to were national and or on multi channels.
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Because I don’t want to watch 9’s Late News. I like the format and style of The Latest. Simple.
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That’s 7pm on 7Two. Of course no one would be watching then and there.
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Even the program director of the ABC said that junction programming is irrelevant these days. And the commercials would have market research that indicates that, to most of their audience, the confirmed junctions of program times just don’t make that much difference anymore - people find programs when they’re on. (Goodbye 8:30. Programmers agree Junctions are "irrelevant" in 2015 | TV Tonight)
Ok, these are very different examples, but here’s a few points:
- The number of viewers that watch the entire Sunrise from start to finish would be few and far between. People come and go. Start of the day audiences do require structure - true, but Sunrise is hardly the same show a 6am to what it is at 9am. People watching at 9am probably don’t care if Sunrise started on time.
- Over the last few years a number of stripped reality shows, with well established audiences, have seen a decrease in viewers. The Block, for example, pretty terrible numbers for them this year… Time slots aren’t the only justifying factor.
- “Been there forever” is normally an argument against accepting change.
Those are actually excellent numbers for that time of night, especially with the declining markets of FTA. Around 2013/14, NCIS was one of the highest rating shows in the 9:30 time slot, and that was around the 400-500k mark - so adjusting for the decline in audiences over the years, those are great numbers.
Don’t forget the benefits of targeted audience advertising, and the fact that FTA have content quotas to fill that is outside of news. Whether you believe they’re relevant or not, they’re still a thing right now. Not all advertisers want to be associated with news content.
Millionaire Hot-Seat takes over from local news as a lead-in for Nine’s 6pm local news, why? Because it rates better. Bold and the Beautiful commonly out-rates local news on the competitors, when it doesn’t, it still takes a good percentage of the afternoon market share.
Your argument for “local news” is based solely on the 6pm news bracket (5pm for 10, 7pm for ABC), you can’t just use that to justify local news at any time of the day would provide the same outcome.
Why not?
By the same arguments used here:
- they gave it plenty of time to find an audience, and it was in prime time
- Multi-channels have been around for quite a while now. Since analogue TV was switched off, not a single viewer wouldn’t have access to 7TWO.
- Sure, ABC have always been the dominating force for news at 7pm, but 7 have a different target audience and market share. If their audience wanted news, they would’ve found their way there.
They stopped because the ratings didn’t justify the expenditure, and people still expect entertainment in prime time telly. I’m also arguing that there is plenty of evidence to show that no one will watch news in a 9:30 time slot either.
It still feels that people on this forum expect all 3 commercials to pretty much be all day news channels, but this isn’t viable.
I agree, for The Latest to have more success it needs better lead in programs. I agree that having a more-stable start time would also help it’s audience grow, but I don’t agree that it needs to be any earlier than 10:30.
The flip-flopping of The Latest is odd… but I think it’s one of the programs that speaks sense to the changing nature of FTA - it’s a sign that someone is understanding that a more flexible structured brand is important. A news program that’s only wheeled out it they feel it’s justified? That’s something different and exciting to me.
@TV.Cynic is The Latest continuing to rate lower on the night’s that Angela Cox is presenting than the nights Musher presents?
If that’s the case, then Seven should put Michael Usher in the chair permanently in 2021 from Monday to Thursday so that his focus is on The Latest, and then they could even create a special Sunday edition of The Latest at 9:30pm.
Therefore Angela Cox or even Angie Asimus could anchor Seven News Sydney on Friday and Saturday nights.
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How long has there been “The Latest” logos around the desk? They worry about these details but still don’t give it priority in their programming.
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ABC doesn’t rely on ad revenue.
Start times matter. That’s whythe the networks start 2/3/4/430/5/530/6/630/7/730pm shows on the dot. That’s also why these shows day in day out are the most watched. 5pm shows out rate 830pm and 9pm shows in Australia
Funny how as the start times Past 830 chop and change so to the ratings fall dramatically
The networks killed start times working past this hour.
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Looks like you might need to become a network director then, but you’d be the only one programming on the dot like that.
News bulletins run to time, most of the time, Hence why they start on time, and hence why the programs following also start on time.
However, it’s not just “reality” shows that run over time, plenty of dramas don’t stick to the strict time format either. Would you really reduce the quality but cutting it to an hour/half hour format?
I really don’t care about start times if it means the show quality drops. Blame HBO and streaming for that.
Yes. Every single drama and comedy on cable Of FTA in the US runs to time. Producers have zero problems making their compelling stories fit the hour or half hour format.
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The producers don’t make the final cuts when it gets compiled for on-air. Just like radio cutting down songs that run too long.
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Who does?
I’ve worked at CBS abc & NBC -at all 3 networks producers know scripted shows must deliver at 42 minutes and that’s what they deliver to current execs for screenings and approvals
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While much of what you say is on point, I don’t agree with this part as a general statement.
10 News First and The Chase at 5pm do sometimes outrate some 8.30 - 9 shows. But there are a lot of 8.30 to and 9pm shows that rate above these and definitely above the other 5pm shows.
In general there are more people watching at 8.30- 9pm than at 5pm.
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I can’t speak to the US market as much as the Australian market, but censors run a knife through it before on-air, and then it can also get trimmed down to save time.
Just look at movies on-air here, they have entire scenes removed, or sped up to save time.