WIN News

Good point about how the media outlets work. We see it everyday in the media and although News Corp are far more blatant about it, particularly on the Sky News Channel, all the major players are at least somewhat guilty of manipulating the rules

I see it differently.

it’s in Nine’s interest for 6-7pm local news to be the best product possible and rate well. They get 50% ad revenue for it and the flow on to prime time too.

strong local news at 6 lifts all boats

Explain the fact WIN screen Local News at 5:30pm and National Nine News at 6pm then?

I am sure NBN News could have been an edited half hour package featuring just National News if that were true. Also NBN would have adopted full Nine News branding to allow that

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Because Nine and WIN don’t actually care about local news.

Nine would say that their flagship 6pm bulletin is the best possible product available and is better than anything WIN could produce. Being city focused, Nine would say that anything major enough in the regions they would cover on the capital city bulletin anyway.

WIN just want to do the bare minimum to get by. Their 30 minute news bulletins are stuck in the pre digital era and have seen a reduction in relevant local news over the past decade. WIN have shown no interest in expanding their news coverage, and have actually cut bulletins and stuck with noodle updates when they’ve had new markets to deal with. The only reason WIN keep doing what they are is because they must get enough additional local advertising in those slots to offset the cost of production.

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I am not doubting what the logic they are applying could be, but its baffling that its taken 35 years for any serious talk of a change at 6pm for NBN News with almost 20 years of that time under Nine ownership. Each time in the past the possibly of a change to NBN News has been dismissed sighting the strength of it as the evening lead in, but now it seems someone at Nine thinks a change now is good and its looking like Nine wants WIN to look like the bad guys. Its just a wait and see game from June onwards

I think also because Nine doesn’t have the economies of scale that WIN has in producing local / regional news.

WIN can do it more cheaply than Nine/NBN can, and it’s gotten to the point for Nine where NBN News doesn’t appear to have enough viewers to make it viable in it’s current format (as it’s audience numbers are now about 1/3rd of what they were in the 90s).

And because I think they don’t want to forgo the 60 minutes of ad revenue per week that inserting noodle updates would cost them.

I don’t know WIN’s programming decisions - but win has always preferred a 30 minute local bulletin to run alongside Nine’s bulletin. When Nine expanded its bulletin to an hour / win moved to 530. NBN has always preferred a one hour composite bulletin

Sorry, where are you getting that data point from?

Not quite

In the early to mid 10s, there was Nine News 6pm with WIN News at 6.30, and when Nine News went to 1hr, WIN News was moved to 7pm.

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I recall reading local newspaper reports around 1993 that had NBN News weeknight audience across Nth NSW at 240k vs more recent numbers.

All broadcast TV is down significantly since the 90s. Thats 30 years.

you stated It’s gotten to the point for Nine where NBN News is no longer viable. Where are you getting that from?

There was a comment in the NBN News thread (or somewhere from around the time that the sale to WIN was announced which I can’t seem to find) that Nine had given NBN News 6 months to prove it was viable.

Media Spy speculation.

Nine is in the process of transforming from a broadcast company to a digital entertainment company (9 Now, Stan etc) that’s why it sold tv and radio stations.

Found it.. sounds like info from an insider so I don’t think it’s “Media Spy Speculation”.

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“I’ve heard” is unverified hearsay.

nothing has been fact checked ,sourced or verified.

There has been nothing reported to suggest NBN News is not viable. Nine sold NBN as part of a wider business plan to focus on digital as widely reported. Any decisions about the future of NBN News wil be made by WIN.

it is possible they will opt for a 5.30pm format to match the rest of their stations. It is also possible Nine encourages them to keep the current format.

I hope they keep the format for as long as possible. They could combine all WIN bulletins with some using Newcastle studios and others coming from Wollongong. The WIN bulletins have a lot of generic content and they could easily use that as a composite bulletin and it would not cost WIN that much more and keep the local windows. But the presentation has to be on par with how NBN news is now or it won’t work. I would argue that was a major reason why Nine Regional News didn’t work during the Southern Cross years.

Btw, Honeysuckle (Newcastle) only has one main studio, whereas Wollongong has multiple.

Even if they wanted to, I can’t see this happening.

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I haven’t watched a WIN bulletin for a while but when I did I watched the Central West NSW bulletin and other than sport most stories were either national generic or state generic with 1 being specific to the central west and one specific to Canberra. If they follow a simular format they could easily do it with Newcastle doing what they are doing now. With the national stories broadcast live from 6pm.

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I think mediaspy speculation is a bit strong, especially considering that Nine and WIN have an agreement for WIN to buy NBN.

There are 3 things to look at

  1. Nine are selling to WIN which says the ROI on NBN as a wholly owned subsidiary of Nine is less than if WIN paid affiliation fees
  2. NBN is NOT a Wollongong based company therefore sentimentality is lost
  3. Bruce Gordon has stepped back so not likely to try and influence continuing a Newcastle/Northern NSW tradition when he couldn’t with WIN’s home based.

The only way NBN News will continue in its current form is if there is a contractual clause specifying a set period to continue broadcasting NBN News as is, say 12 months - which is unlikely.

I think discussion is probably more relevant in the NBN News thread in the interim, but in the long term relevant in this thread

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Nine is selling Tv and radio stations to transform into a digital (9 Now) and steaming (Stan) company, away from being a broadcast company. That’s been stated by Nine and reported by AFR and business analysts. Nothing has been reported or stated that NBN News or NBN are not viable, nor that they will Make more money having the station as an affiliate. That’s pure speculation. NBN is a tiny part of Nine. They’re streamlining their business to focus on digital and streaming. Just like companies in the US.