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Early News to boost Sunrise

The morning war continues, only earlier…

In recent months Nine’s Today Show has started half an hour earlier at 5:30am, as a way of getting a head start on Sunrise.

But from Monday, Seven will counteract with a new Seven Early News, also at 5:30am. To be presented by Natalie Barr and Mark Beretta, it will draw upon overnight news stories from ITN and NBC sources. It will also contain more weather and finance than other Seven News bulletin.

Sunrise will start as usual at 6am.

Next week while Barr is filling in for Melissa Doyle, Simon Reeve will fill kick off the news programme.

Meanwhile, Georgie Gardner is said to be hosting National Nine Early News at 5am when it goes to air from July 21.

Press Release:
Channel Seven will launch an early news bulletin starting this Monday 14 July 2008.

Hosted by Natalie Barr with sports news from Mark Beretta, Seven Early News will start at 5:30am and is a lead-in program for Sunrise.

Seven Early News will be your first look at breaking overnight news, overseas events and of course the first glimpse at the day’s weather and finance.

Director of News and Public Affairs, Peter Meakin, says the 5:30am bulletin caters for the increasing number of viewers who are starting their day earlier and complements Seven News at 11:30am, 4:30pm, 6pm and the late-news bulletin.

“Experience has taught us that our audience decides when they want to watch News and it’s our job to oblige them,” he said.

“It’s no longer acceptable to cram all a day’s events into a 30-minute bulletin at 6pm and leave it at that.”

“Of course, our 6pm News is still our flagship bulletin but we have also discovered that we can attract substantial audiences at almost any hour of the day and night.

“With so many information sources these days, we can’t expect our viewers to wait.”

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10 Responses

  1. Get cable 🙂 No late night infomercials, a lot of American dramas 24/7. Or, read a book 🙂
    Why do people even watch TV if they hate it so much?

  2. John, it’s all about ego, and nothing to do with news. Each channel wants to have that perceived “edge” as being the “first with the latest” – even though what they actually report on is not, with the exception of international-scale stuff and maybe one or two local stories a year at best, the slightest bit time-critical.

    Hence all the “updates” that plague TV these days. News updates. Sports updates. Weather updates. Financial updates (these I understand the least – as if anyone with an interest in the markets is paying any attention to the late, cursory overview these provide!) Even the odd “entertainment update”.

    I sincerely hope that now Seven is fighting the good fight at 5.30am, they’ll kill off a couple of those f***ing ProActiv Solution infomercials and put NBC Today on earlier so they don’t have to cut it short. Remember the good old days when it was on at midnight…?

  3. according to NBN’s online guide, Amber Higlett is hosting Nine’s 5am:

    EARLY MORNING NEWS: Join Amber Higlett for all the latest news, sport and weather.

  4. “Next week while Barr is filling in for Melissa Doyle…”

    Didn’t Melissa already take a couple of weeks off recently? Is she only working part-time as co-host?

  5. It’s more to do with keeping people on the same channel. Ie. if channel 9 start at 5.30, then people are likely to stay with nine who tune in before sunrise starts.

  6. and then there will be the early early news at 4:30am just after the really late late news at 3:30am which is after the late late news at 2:30am which follows “your first look at the morning news” at 1:30am which follows the “that was yesterdays news at 12:30am” which will come after the late news at 11:30pm which was after the mid evening news at 9:30pm.

    does that many things really happen overnight !!!

    I thought the idea of the early news was to drag people into either Sunrise or Today. In reality, people watching news at 5am will have gone off to work or the gym by the time Sunrise and Today actually start.

    This is about ego not news

  7. LOL why didn’t they just start the early Seven Early News at 5am to compete with 9?

    I guess its a lot better than the bad old days, when there was no news until Today at 7am!

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