What are the ratings like for the Regional Victorian bulletins right now?
As part of this article
But last month Win announced it was cutting regional journalism jobs in Queensland, Victoria and parts of southern New South Wales, and moving to state-wide bulletins.
The federal communications minister, Paul Fletcher, has declined to reveal what penalties, if any, will be imposed on Win, except to say thathis department had met with management after the job losses were announced.
âThe [communications] department receives periodic reports from all Ping grantees and can assess whether any of the terms of the grant have been breached,â a spokesperson said. âIn that case there are provisions for part or all of a grant to be returned.â
The department told Senate estimates that it spoke with Win after the announcement and âearly discussions indicate that they will continue to meet the requirementsâ.
A spokesperson for Win told Guardian Australia it was too early to say how many job losses were coming but the conditions of the grant would be met.
âThe Ping funding agreement is due for completion on 14 August 2021,â they said. âThe Win Network has no intention of breaking any conditions under that agreement.â
Iâd imagine it relates to the employment of regional journalists, so theyâll be kept on until the expiry of the grant funding. Could get creative with sending others on leave for instance.
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If they arenât already airing, surely we should be seeing âWIN News moves to 5.30pm from July 1â promos on-screen from tonight?
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You would think so, but no.
I would love to see a refresh to WIN News with the affiliation change but I doubt that will happen.
Here in Canberra, they are keeping a dedicated local bulletin which is great but their product is so stale in its current form, it doesnât do anything to attract viewers.
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Just need Amanda Patterson (QTQ-9 News Director) to spruce things up. âManuka Mayhem! Street Parking Outrage! Aldi Shakeup at Belconnen! And Canberra Cops Cleaning Up The Streets of Charnwood! Tonight at 5.30â
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Wouldnât surprise me to start seeing more advertising of the news changes from the weekend/Monday. I think from this weekend we wonât see much other than the upcoming Nine changes - especially needed all the time as so few people watch the current Ten programming.
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Because we need more sensationalism in news!
If WIN are keeping the Illawarra bulletin, they should do the same for Regional Victoria as we wonât have a local news bulletin from July 1st. We need to know whatâs happening in our community, but unfortunately we will be hearing stories in other regions of Regional Victoria which have no relevance to people in Western Victoria (Iâm one of those people who live in Regional Victoria). Now weâre going to have hardly any stories in our local region from July 1st, this is just no fair to people.
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Wow how come WIN didnât think about that?
Iâm sure they thought about it, but they just couldnât afford to care.
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I think itâs because airing 12 prerecorded bulletins at 5:30 wouldnât have worked for them.
Prime carries no local news in Victoria (except Albury) and is a clear #1. No reason why WIN would want to spend more money it wonât recoup in the short-term.
If viewers wanted local news, theyâd vote with their remotes (or, rather, whoever has a RegionalTAM box wouldâve voted with their remotes)
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Ironically, even though they donât have full bulletins across Regional Victoria outside of Albury/Wodonga, Prime7 (as well as SCA 10) would have more locally-relevant news content for a specific region on its news updates than what WIN News will have on its 30-min statewide bulletin from July 1.
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I donât see how this can be the case - the local content quota remains the same whether itâs within a news bulletin or a ânoodleâ update.
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We should have this conversation again.
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See you in two weeks!
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Samara Gardner reading Queensland (and Tas) market updates this afternoon.
Sheâs got a very young voice. Probably using her as a stopgap until the new structure begins.
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What are the chances of Tasmania being restored to a live hour-long composite replacing the Melbourne news? Iâd assume presentation would likely remain in Wollongong.
Nine wonât accept that. The 5.30 timeslot is not negotiable. WIN has 30 minutes to play with, thatâs it.
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