Tasmania is a self contained market of about 500,000 people - I’m not sure how that is so different or unique compared to markets with similar populations: Newcastle, Wollongong, Canberra etc.
I for one certainly am wanting local news to fail. I would love to see SC, WIN and Prime7 doing local news in every market 7 days a week. I want it to survive and improve - but unfortunately the writing is kind of on the wall. Especially for WIN - we are all throwing around ideas here that would help WIN keep some sort of local news on the air - rather than axe it all. And I do think in it’s current format it won’t survive. You need to evolve or die in media in 2016.
Also, I think MS does not have a great deal of respect for regional stations. They have continually cried for for decades. First it was aggregation. Then local news. Then digital upgrades. Then local news again. Then streaming. Then local news again. All this - whilst not being particularly forward looking nd embracing of technologies such as streaming, digital. They have cut local news to beyond repair - and we now have local news being read from studios 1000km away.
I take my hat off to SC/Nine for this massive expansion. It seems when the networks get involved (7QLD, 7 + 9 Gold Coast and now 9/SC) we actually get investment in news and expansion of quality - rather than downsizing.
We all want local news to survive and succeed here - but we also want it to be batter, and to move with the times.
I’m certainly not one who wants to see local TV news fail and die off. It would be nothing short of a tragedy if the only TV news that viewers in regional Australia got was stuff piped down the line from the nearest capital city. However, I certainly want to see the format of local news bulletins to be better and evolve with what viewers want these days.
I (and probably most on Media Spy) definitely have a great deal of respect for the talented presenters, reporters and crews who work very hard each weekday to bring regional viewers local news stories which matter to them. But I have considerably less respect for regional TV network management who in recent years have made the decisions to axe local news bulletins, close down local studios in favour of more centralised operations and include more filler/generic regional items instead of actual local news in bulletins.
In summary, local news if anything is probably more important now than it ever was before. Most regional areas are growing (which I suspect is a reason why Nine/SCA is heavily investing in regional news) and with growing regional areas, I think regional viewers expect local news services which cater to their needs in 2016 going on 2017.
WIN is a company that has axed multiple local bulletins across their network, resulting in job losses and reductions in local content. I don’t think any of us would find joy in WIN News disappearing, but we can be forgiven for losing all hope.
tl;dr Treat viewers like shit and you can expect to be treated the same way back.
. . . my respect is for the workers at regional stations operating under difficult environments - my comments have nothing to do with how regional stations have ‘cried for decades’ my comments are about respect for all the hard working employees whom give over and above to do the best they can.
Think it only applied to 3-station markets that were aggregated in the late 80s/early 90s. Definitely doesn’t apply to what were previously solus or 2-station markets.
Even in aggregated areas, not all networks have to supply local content to all areas e.g., Wide Bay - only 7QLD must supply local content, Central Coast NSW - only NBN. Any areas not listed have no quotas.
. . . my respect is for the workers at regional stations operating under difficult environments - my comments have nothing to do with how regional stations have ‘cried for decades’ my comments are about respect for all the hard working employees whom give over and above to do the best they can.
I don’t think the national news director or the state news directors at WIN are doing a good job at all.
While going through some really old content from around 1998, I wasn’t aware that when DST commenced a fortnight earlier in Tassie to the other states, that WIN moved their local bulletin to 7pm during this period. Strange, because by the early-mid-2000s their bulletin remained at 6pm despite the earlier change. I’ve got a promo of this which I’ll cap.
This was so they could get the national news stories in from Nine so they could edit out sign offs etc from the mainland feeds before going to air I’m pretty sure.
I think this was a different thing each year as to how they handled things. It was a very confusing month when this used to occur, each network changed how they handled it every year but I do remember WIN moving the news to 7 some years. I don’t recall Southern Cross ever changing but I do remember them simply removing Today Tonight at times and putting on alternative programming.
Once again, changed frequently. I know there were plenty which used to go to air, my mum couldn’t stand “Charles Christian, National Nine News” all the time. As you say, I don’t think I’ve heard any on Ten.