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Nine newsroom tipped for Townsville

More chatter on Nine's push into local news following recent affiliate mergers.

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Nine News looks set to expand into regional markets with local news according to early details in a media report.

A Townsville-based newsroom is expected to be established, following Nine’s alignment with Southern Cross, according to the Townsville Bulletin.

A Nine spokeswoman said new arrangements would be in place by early 2017 and further details would be announced.

In May there were media reports Nine’s Queensland news director, Mike Dalton had been trying to poach reporters to be based outside of Brisbane while last week he was tipped for a role looking after regional broadcasting.

Since affiliates changed hands at the start of the month WIN’s local bullletin has suffered against Seven’s in Townsville.

In June, WIN News in Townsville had an average of 11,326 daily viewers throughout the Monday to Friday bulletins while Seven News had 21,923.

Since the July 1 changes, both bulletins have lost viewers with Seven receiving an average of 19,391 daily viewers – a 33.1 per cent share of the time slot – while WIN recorded 4874 daily viewers – or 8.3 per cent of the free-to-air market – up until Tuesday night.

“It’s early days and it will take time for people to find WIN News in its new timeslot,” a WIN spokeswoman said.

8 Responses

  1. it would be nice to have a Sydney bulletin. I’m sick of hearing about the weather forecast for tiny towns and the traffic jams in Brisbane/Melbourne/Karratha. That’s why I don’t watch the news – too much fluff I don’t need.

  2. First Townsville, next Canberra, hopefully. Since WIN News shut down their Canberra newsroom the bulletin has become a joke and is known locally as In Wollongong Tonight. When Southern Cross took over Nine programming one report said that they were considering a locally based news bulletin, similar to the old one hour TEN Capital bulletin. They certainly have the space and resources. Their Canberra studios were purpose built for colour TV and now have a large amount of unused space which could once again house a newsroom and a set for a local news bulletin.

    1. @squareeyes Win Canberra news is still there… Sure it’s read out of Wollongong… But all the stories are recorded and compile in Canberra still…. Maybe you just can’t see it at 6pm…. And as far as SCA building… Last time I looked the old studio we did the TEN Capital news out of was full of servers for the play out for the whole network… But you know

    2. “They have the resources”? What about Producers, Camera crews, Reporters, Editors, etc., etc.? None. The “sets” these days are no more than a green screen. How would an average Canberra viewer know or care whether their news was read in Watson or Wollongong. The content is sent from Canberra, the program is sent from Wollongong. WIN didn’t “shut down their Canberra newsroom”. What was the last Wollongong item you saw in Canberra news? There won’t be any Southern Cross-produced Canberra news, given their 50% affiliation fee. Nine is already carrying the can for loss of regional news bureaus in Qld.

  3. “In June, WIN Local News in Townsville had an average of 11,326 daily viewers”, then “Since the July 1 changes… WIN recorded 4,874 daily viewers”, then “A WIN Television spokeswoman said the network was happy with its Townsville news bulletin’s ratings since the July 1 changes, pointing out last Monday’s bulletin attracted about 9,000 viewers, and Tuesday attracted 10,000”. The “ratings crash which followed a recent channel shake-up” seems to be a “crash” from around 11,000 to around 10,000″.
    “WIN @ 7” is actually @ 6 these days.
    So Nine is paying for the Nth Qld news facilities out of the 50% SCA affiliation fees? How does Southern Cross fit into this? Are they simply farming out their local news requirements to Nine?
    Qld must be the only state with plans for 3 regional news bulletins. Even Canberra and Hobart only have 2.

  4. Assuming Nine choose the 6:30 time slot for local news in Townsville, Townsville will have 3 local news, 7 @ 6, 9 @ 6:30 & WIN @ 7, which is overkill but I get Nine want reporters etc north of Brisbane as they lost that with affiliation changes.
    Being in Mackay myself at one point or another 7 local news here rated 36-39% of the 6pm slot with no one watching WIN News which only lasted about 5 years, so will be interesting to see if Nine after getting established in Townsville if they then choose to produce bulletins for other regional qld markets as well.

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