0/5

One hour News, but Nine at risk of mixed messages.

Big Brother late, GEM news dumped, Survivor tossed around.... Nine's experiment with a one hour news service isn't all it's cracked up to be.

2013-10-30_0007Nine’s primetime experimentation with a one hour News in Sydney is beginning to impact on other scheduling, and it risks confusing viewers.

For all of this week Nine viewers in Sydney have been watching the 60 minute bulletin with Peter Overton, presumably to test the waters on whether it is a viable permanent option.

It does so having won the year in the ferocious 6pm news battle. It has to be asked: if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

But the answer may lay in lower audience numbers later in the evening and a bit of a dearth of solid 8:30 shows from US outputs. If Nine can push back A Current Affair to 7pm and its Reality shows The Block, The Voice, Big Brother to 7:30pm starts next year, then it can help push the problem back to 9 or 9:30pm.

So far its one hour bulletin has been working, with the extra 30 minutes beating Today Tonight in Sydney. But it’s early days. Whether viewers will stick with 1 hour if the material is not compelling enough is another, long term question.

The move is also impacting on other programming.

Nine hasn’t been screening their 7pm bulletin on GEM this week. While Seven is sticking with its 7TWO bulletin at 7pm, Nine appears to be an “on / off” affair.

A Nine spokesperson told TV Tonight, “It’s just been rested from the schedule this week so that it doesn’t clash with ACA at 7pm in Sydney.”

But ACA isn’t at 7pm in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Is Nine suggesting Sydney viewers are its priority?

Not necessarily.

Last night Sydney viewers watched Ed being evicted from the Big Brother “live eviction” show thirty minutes after Melbourne viewers saw it happen (other states already know how that feels).

So far there was limited reaction on social media, but if it continues into next week, Nine may well cop a backlash. Nine can’t risk the winner being announced on social media by Melbourne BB fans. Brisbane media has previously questioned why Queensland viewers must watch the finale delayed when it’s filmed in their own state, due to Daylight Saving changes.

Last week Survivor fans were also less generous about a late decision to start the show on GO! at 8pm instead of its usual 8:30pm. Many of them missed half the show, according to their Twitter feedback.

So what, exactly, does Nine have scheduled for next week?

It’s hard to know.

Nine’s own Access site, in which media log on to refer to schedules, doesn’t even have Nine News scheduled for an hour this week, let alone next week. But the NineMSN-owned TV Guide does.

Next week both currently list Big Brother as a 7pm show for the big eviction shows on Monday and Wednesday (finale) in Sydney.

TV Tonight understands it’s still an ongoing discussion.

Given the GEM bulletin is still nowhere to be seen in schedules it’s fair to say the current state of play is a bit of dog’s breakfast …. or as its replacement might suggest, even an Antiques Roadshow.

28 Responses

  1. The news is pretty similar whatever station you’re on so we watch Ch7 news for the superior sports coverage. I know Ch7 have dabbled with an hour on Saturdays and I’ve just completed an online questionnaire which seems to be testing the waters for hour news each night. My wife watches Neighbours so we have to turn over at 6.30 regardless but I will be mightily pissed off If I miss my nightly sports fix!

  2. I don’t really join the blog here but read it.

    This however got my attention and Nine’s quietly.
    I read your front page and the “IceTV” guide link shows Sydney as having at 6pm, not just 1hr of news but… *plays Eeywitness tune; da da da da*, NAtional Nine News or NNN. 🙂 Looks like a nice quiet return to NNN, based on “Eyewitness” thing? I like that idea because National is a name with Nine and it got them as “leading hour of news & Current affairs” in the ninties.

  3. Surely an easy fix for Nine to avoid dramas with the ‘live’ BB eviction shows is to fill 30 mins at 7pm on GTV (and the other states) with TBBT repeats. Then the rest of the night’s programming falls back in sync across the network.

  4. Nine News Sydney ran the stolen/found pig story again tonight, then a piece on Melbourne Cup tents. Switched over to 7 when that started. TT running same piece. Now, of course, WIN News is pushed back to 7pm.
    @MHA – In the late 60s we did have
    7am Today. Mike Walsh, Bobo Faulkner
    12:25pm News (5mins)
    6.30 Television City News. Eric Pearce, Kevin Sanders
    10.45 Television City News (30mins)
    Because Nine had a policy of fewer commercials there was 3mins of News at 9:25pm.
    And IMT still started on time at 9:30!

  5. I think the reason that 9 keeps putting more news on is they don’t have anything to show apart from repeats and repeats of everything, they just milk everything dry until people are sick of it, surprised that they get any viewers at all, wonder what the hedge fund people think about it, can see things getting messy again if they don’t pull their socks up.

  6. The thing is today tonight in Perth is local the 7TWO news at 7 is with Sally Bowery hope spelled it right a and the 7TWO show Perth weather in there 7 news were GEM is delayed news. So does that have anything to do with who watches what news

  7. Why don’t channel 9 just show BB when daylight savings is not on?
    Or at the least show it live here in Qld at 6pm, making it 7pm in NSW and VIc?
    Its a bit of an insult that BB is produced here but we don’t see it live. Ridiculous!

  8. @poss, you are not wrong!

    I remember back in the 70’s, you only ever saw 30 minutes of News at 6.30pm on Nine, yes, that’s right there was no News at 6pm, 4.30pm, 3.00pm, 11.00am or 5.00am. The way Nine is going it will be News/Infotainment from 5am right through to 7.30pm, with live/near live reality rubbish until about 10pm, then probably they will bring back a 2 hour Nightline to midnight and then fill the mid-dawn with infomercials. Only Cricket and NRL and other sport will break it up. Go! and GEM will be filled as already is with endless cheap repeats with very rare premiere programs. If it works for Nine, well and good, but we are not watching in our house.

  9. I have a friend who watches Nine…she is not at all happy…started with DOOL…and this is about the finish for her…plus others saying…Nine does not tell anyone what is going on…does not worry me…I dont watch.

  10. Well I’m sick of recording 2 broke girls only to find The Big Bang theory instead. EPG needs to be updated!!!! Last week fine, I thought it was cos of the fires, I didn’t realise they were testing the waters for a one hour news. But all programming needs to be updated.

    I do find it annoying also that BB is on at 7.30 while Melb get it at 7pm (on the plus side it means I can watch H&A then switch over). It should be on at same time for all states. Surely can’t be that hard to do.

  11. The strategy has given me a good excuse to stop watching Nine news. I only watched it because it covered things quickly in a short package, with minimal filler (royals stories excepted – somehow those have always been considered “news”). Now since it stretches everything (and I mean stretch – with recaps, previews, and long unwieldy stories), it’s just painful to watch and I’ve got better things to do – I’ve given up on it.

    If I’m going to spend an hour watching news I’ll watch The Project instead – it’s far better quality news and stories, if a little long for my liking.

    That said, I understand their strategy – it’s cheap to produce, and obviously still gets the eyeballs. Just not mine anymore.

  12. Good article, David.

    Nine News in the second half hour will always beat Today Tonight as it was thrashed each and every day of the week by ACA and loyal viewers will watch the news and then ACA out of habit.

    I think you are correct about the post 8.30 scheduling and our schedule of overseas scripted drama and comedy is looking more like the US where the pick of the shows are screened at 9pm and 10pm. That will probably happen on Nine next year.

    The GEM bulletin, despite being read by Peter Overton, always trailed the 7Two version with Melissa Doyle so they may have just given up with that failed experiment. I would too as habit has anyone wanting their news at 7 watching ABC1.

    News might be cheap to make (must be, we now have it swamping all stations schedules) but it ultimately cheapens the brand because the material is the same filler and there are only so many…

  13. I saw some fans of Big Brother in Sydney on twitter getting mad at evicted housemates leaking the results before it was announced. When in actuality they weren’t leaking anything, as those Big Brother housemates were just watching the feed from Melbourne.

    The Sydney BB fans had not caught on that they’re watching a delayed telecast in Sydney after always getting shows live alongside Melbourne.

Leave a Reply