Maybe a silly question but why does Channel 7 run location watermarks for their stations in Cairns and Queensland?
It is a fair question. Theyâve done it for years now. Probably a station ID/location thing, give viewers the idea that the channel theyâre watching is âas local as possibleâ?
Regional Queenaland (7QLD) is the only regional market owned and operated by Seven West Media.
Quite possibly identification for Master Control to confirm feeds are heading in the right direction⌠otherwise thereâd be no way to tell until the wrong commercial went to air.
But once they go to commercials, the watermark typically gets cleared from line.
On station monitors itâd have the station abbreviation on the monitor tooâŚ
So Iâd say itâs purely for aesthetics - I think its quite odd too.
But the ad breaks are 2-4 minutes long. Program segments last up to 2 or 3 times that length.
Iâd say itâs more for viewers to distinguish sub-markets in areas with overlapping signals (Sunny Coast/Bris, Toowoomba/Bris as a couple of examples). Also adds to the âLocalismâ which is why itâs the dominant station in Qld as opposed to WIN or Nine.
Iâm not sure I get what point youâre making.
This is a typical presentation suite. Each output is scheduled and has an individual playlist - mostly automated, with the only human interaction being adjustments for timing (if a live show runs over, or thereâs a breaking news update, obviously this gets thrown out).
Each output is labeled for operators to see what is going to line. You wouldnât really be able to read a watermark without putting it into a broadcast monitor.
Master control wouldnât really be interested in watermarks going to line, theyâd be referring to what their labels are telling them.
I agree with this. Watermarks can also denote ownership - so you can tell instantly where someone sourced material from⌠Does anyone know if these stations have different stakeholders to your typical 7 playout?
Do you think this could be a reason why Prime insists on using non-standard watermarks for the multiâs, to subtly distinguish their vision from Sevenâs?
Definitely - WIN are also a great example of this. They want to show their advertisers that THIS is where you should be spending your money, with OUR channel.
Prime were using a metro 7mate sport watermark for AFLW on the weekend, as opposed to the main channel which was using their own for AFL SOO game and the horse racing.
Made me wonder if Prime take a dirty 7mate feed for live sport?
Yes, Iâm well aware what presentation looks like abd what they do. And youâre right that MCR doesnât care about the bug going to line.
Seven and Nine both use localised watermarks on the Gold Coast so I think the explanation has to be to give an impression of a station that is localised to the region.
