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Report: Cuts looming for Seven News

In the wake of a huge drop in predicting earnings last week, there are media reports that Seven's newsrooms are facing cost cuts.

In the wake of a huge drop in predicting earnings last week, there are media reports that Seven’s newsrooms are facing cost cuts.

The Australian reports savings of about 10% were ordered by management even before last week’s profit downgrade.

Cuts are likely to impact on helicopters, charter flights and freelance vision, which can sometimes cost $2000 a day. “We can’t predict when there is going to be an earthquake in Christchurch, or a cyclone, floods or bushfires, and all these disasters cost a lot of money,” a source told the newspaper.

Such cuts would come at a time when Nine has been winning the news war in Sydney and Melbourne.

But Seven remains in front of Nine nationally due to its unassailable position in Adelaide and Perth, both of which have Nine affiliates under the management of WIN Television.

Seven West Media’s announcement of an expected profit drop surprised many and prompted a swathe of downgrades by analysts.

Seven has an advertising share of about 40 per cent, compared to Nine’s nearly 32 per cent and TEN at 28 per cent.

Source: The Australian, Business Spectator

9 Responses

  1. Ditch 16:30 news. It was brought in during the Olympics, matched by Nine, now they both don’t want to be the first to drop it. In the digital age, no one needs TV to tell them the latest. More production weight should be concentrated on 6pm, and make it relevant again.

    On a sour note, it’s about time they ran the knife through MP again… I can think of two or three people there who would benefit from being taken down a peg.

  2. the #1 problem is the leadin, thats what determines news ratings, people don’t care about live crosses and being ‘first on the scene’.

    i dont think puff pieces are a problem in moderation, they are a must in a social media world. i would cut down on local news and have more international. in melbourne its like all the networks (yes, ABC included) interpret ‘local news’ as a daily car accident bulletin, every single day car crash, car crash, car crash. yes they send an important message, but it is way over-represented, i’d rather hear about some big events around the world.

  3. @tmorgan96 – Seven need to save money and you suggest that they spend more on upgrading their news studio. How, exactly, is this going to address their drop in revenue?

    @jezza – believe it or not, there are people in charge of business expenditure who divide their TV advertising budget pretty much equally between the three main commercial channels. You sometimes wonder why ratings are collected – no, it’s not so network fanbois can go woohoo when they win a week.

  4. Tips to Seven: new graphics, and a better news service. You might have reporters but you sure as hell don’t use them to the best of their ability. Enough with the fluff stories at 6pm- give us news. God knows you’ve dropped the ball in the past year.

  5. Well this shouldn’t be too difficult. Just get rid of all those crappy ‘live crosses’ to the scene where nothing is said of any use what so ever.

    If ch7 are struggling, well the rest must be on the verge of going bust . How the hell did ch10 get 28 per cent of advertising revenue with their appalling ratings? Who ever is spending with them is seriously incompetant

  6. If I were 7 I wouldn’t be looking at cutting costs in the Brisbane market. It’s highly likely to be the next market to switch back to Nine.

    If anything, they need to pump money in to be competitive with Nine, as currently Nine outrates 7 leading into the 6pm news in SEQ, due to Nine’s Gold Coast news service ratings being mixed in with Hot Seat’s ratings. Surely, it will be a matter of time before Nine’s momentum at 5:30 spreads to 6pm: and 7 needs all the budget it can get to counter it.

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