I think one of the main issues with WINs ability to try different formats other than local news at 6pm is that they are hampered by TENs line up, with their hour long news at 5pm and The Project, also an hour long from 6.30…
Any other timeslot between 5-7.30 means displacing one of those two programs (at least in part).
End of financial year. Ten’s affiliation rate increases simply not sustainable for WIN without making cuts every twelve months. WIN have tried but there isn’t the interest in the market. The Nine bulletins have also crowded out much of the marketplace.
People still don’t know the difference between Nine and WIN, with one commenter saying they thought they were the same. But then again, who can blame them
Unless they planned on doing an hour-long bulletin with national stories too (from 10 News First), I wouldn’t see the point in this.
My mother mentioned a report about a crime incident she’d seen on “channel 4 news” during conversation. I searched for it in my local news recordings and found it had actually aired in Nine’s regional bulletin. I doubt she realises WIN News is still on because she has told me in the past she hasn’t watched anything on Ten for years, probably since the days of Prisoner and The Restless Years.
I don’t think it would work for WIN at 5pm.
If they were to air that at 6, then what do you air at 5pm and 7pm?
Massive news. It’s a sign of the times for regional media in Australia but if you didn’t see this coming you would be living under a rock. You really have to wonder how WIN News can continue to meet local content requirements with the dwindling resources that they have. Sorry state of affairs.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a merger happen in Queensland. I mean it could happen with any of the networks there I believe. I think the situation across the network is much worse than many people think.
This is really sad news for the journalists, camera crews and the local communities they served.
Sadly the writing’s been on the wall for a while now. WIN News couldn’t escape the gravity of being on a relay of the lowest rated commercial network.
Given the news and Project block surrounding around its 6pm timeslot I’m not sure what could’ve been done to make it rate better.
Sure they could’ve made things snappier, but centralisation and the need to save money made that difficult.
Frankly it’s amazing these services stayed on air as long as they did after the affiliation switch.
Listen from about 45:00 onwards, in which they interviewed the former News Director for WIN News in Central West & Riverina, Dr Neryl East, who set up the bulletins back in the 90s, followed by former WIN News Central West Chief of Staff, Allan Reeder.
Dr East also authored this thesis, which contained a detailed history about WIN News in those aforementioned regions: https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2883&context=theses
Nine News Border North East is a combined Albury-Shepparton bulletin because the Shepparton viewing area population is 70,000 (the same as Griffith, Mildura or the Riverland). WIN News survives in the Goulburn Valley because (1) its heritage (2) it is the only truly local news in that market (Prime7 does not air its Albury/Border local news in Shepparton). In the old GMV6 days reporters often travelled to Wangaratta, Yarrawonga, Rutherglen and even as far as Beechworth and Bright for local news stories for its bulletins, even though these towns had a competing local news bulletin (albeit much shorter back then) on AMV4. I know people in Shepparton who still refer to WIN as “Channel 6” and Prime7 as “Channel 4”.
Have the Nationals said anything about it yet? Piss poor effort if they haven’t.
If WIN cannot be arsed to use the spectrum for the public good, and if Ten/CBS aren’t helping out, get them off air and replaced with either someone that will do the right thing, or sell/lease the spectrum and neither of them get any coin - fund public education and health.
To be honest, I think it’s hard to be critical of WIN here. They’ve done local news there for at approx 25 years, and with the introduction of Nine SCA news, those regions have all had it pretty good in the last couple of years with local news on all three stations.
It’s just sad, but economics coupled with the 10 affiliation have really left them with no other choice.
The Nationals would have said “I told you so!”. They opposed aggregation back in the late 80s.
I think they call this helping?
https://twitter.com/NSWNationals/status/1141552475142361091
I think the alternative to aggregation only would’ve delayed the inevitability of corporate consolidation and cutbacks rather than stopped it entirely, because the current output of WIN in their solus markets isn’t any more local (if anything, probably less local) than it is in their aggregated markets.
I think WIN has made a massive, massive, mistake!! Yes, maybe they’re not financially viable to keep the newsrooms open, but as soon as you take away the local aspect of any news, I think we can all agree that ratings will start to decline.
Solid mappy doesn’t seem so outrageous now after hearing that.
What advertising would the NSW National Party be placing over the next three years until the next election? They only advertised in the first half of this year due to the NSW and federal elections. The announcement they have pulled advertising from WIN means nothing really.
Solid mappy hasn’t made one iota of difference either then.
