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Networks adjust schedules for bushfires

Nine and Seven provide extended News bulletins to cover the Victorian bushfires, delaying Sunday Night's premiere in Melbourne by 30 mins.

firevicNetworks are adjusting their schedules in Melbourne due to the extent of bushfires in the state of Victoria.

Updated: 173 lives have been lost, over 750 homes destroyed with a 100km firefront and towns razed.

The threat is far from over.

Both Nine News and Seven News in Melbourne are expected to air extended bulletins to 7pm.  Seven coverage begins as early as 4:30pm. TEN News has also aired a special one hour bulletin from Melbourne, instead of its normal Sydney weekend bulletin.

TV Tonight is advised by a spokesperson in  Melbourne the premiere of Sunday Night is pushed out to 7-8pm (Vic only).

The All in Call will air in Melbourne at 8pm on 7HD, 7:30pm elsewhere.

Photo:  The Age

70 Responses

  1. Just a follow up to the Network Ten programming query on Sunday night / Monday morning. After Red Dragon concluded some 30 mins behind schedule they did end up showing Jon Stewart, The Office and Taken Out. As suspected they dropped Video Hits Up Late and ran straight into Kenneth Copeland.

  2. There are some unbelievable comments here! My thoughts:
    1. During a major natural disaster, one channel should have non-stop coverage on their main digital and analogue channel. The others run normal programming with updates, even referring to the channel showing the full coverage. Should be something like an emergency broadcast plan – even to the point where network resources are shared to give best coverage rather than competing.
    2. Regular programming for the channel that shows the news non-stop is shown on their 2nd digital channel, and then repeated / encored throughout the week on the main channel for those not yet on digital. Again – alot of the complaints above (and in other programming threads) would be easily solved by the networks making full use of thie extra digital channels they are now allowed to use.
    3. Sky news becoming free-to-air is also a very good idea. Maybe could be in the ch44 group with Apac, etc, and hope that can go national.

  3. How can people seriously expect the usual tv programming when so many people are losing their lives and their homes. Grow up people, if this happened in the US they would do the same. If you want to lose yourselves in tv go watch a DVD.

  4. i live in sydney but at one point i tuned into 774 ABC Melbourne to find out what was going on and that sounded very informative… and i completely agree, radio in times of disaster can be so more effective than TV.

    Can i also note that ABC ran a special midday edition on sunday for 1/2 covering only the fires.. so kudos to them.

  5. Dropping 24 isn’t a national tragedy. 108 deaths are. Not everyone has the internet. Phone lines are down. TV is a vital source of emergency communication (as is radio).

    You’ll get over the non-showing of 24. There’s plenty who won’t get over this weekend. If missing 24 is you’re biggest problem, your priorities are well out of whack.

  6. I’m guessing those of you complaining of too much fires coverage don’t live in Victoria or know people here? I live within 70 minutes of the two largest fires and know people who are up there in support roles (SES, ambo’s, etc) and have friends with family members who have lost their homes, so any and all news on the situation is very welcome.

    Yes, some of us have internet access, but many people don’t, and in a household of, say, 4 adults, it’s a lot easier to all watch the TV than to crowd around a monitor and read updates. Personally, the footage shown on the news is a lot more informative in a disaster like this than just reading the words on a screen or page. I had read that Marysville had gone, but the concept of a whole town destroyed was fairly incomprehensible until I saw the footage on ABC2 yesterday morning.

  7. Ianblair23 in regional Qld SC10 broadcast two episodes of Out of the Blue from 5.30pm (new start time) and 6pm.

    The first episode was broadcast in SD and HD, while the the second episode was in SD.

  8. I know it’s tragic but they don’t need this much coverage.
    I can’t believe channel 7 has dropped the ball with 24 yet again, that’s three times in less than a week.

  9. Can anyone tell what happened with Out of the Blue on Ten tonight? I read above that Ten extended their news by 30 minutes, so what aired at 6:00 pm?

    Also, can anyone tell me how Seven made up half an hour after they also extended their news coverage. I saw that Sunday Night ran from 7:00 to 8:00 pm what I didn’t see is what aired from then on. All know is the Bones ended at 10:30 pm, Seven then ran a special late night news bulletin, dropped 24, moved Air Crash Investigations ahead and are now half an hour ahead of schedule.

  10. Don’t forget that after The Office concludes Taken Out is scheduled. You would hope that they are planning to drop Video Hits Up-Late or one of the religious shows rather than one of their first run programs. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

  11. Does anyone know if 10 will stil air the season 4 episode of The Office, which was supposed to of started airing at 1:10am(great timeslot 10, by the way!!), the late night film, Red Dragon started about 30 odd mins late, and with Jon Stewart to air after that, it would mean the the office wouldn’t begin until 1:45am or so.

  12. Can’t be angry at 7 for covering such a tragedy.

    But at least they could have run some ads or had a news ticker thing during Bones to tell people that there would be news coverage instead of 24.

  13. In Sydney, Seven has just finished their special news bulletin and Air Crash Investigations is currently airing. It seems that episode three of 24 will not be airing tonight.

  14. Nine News in Sydney tonight had a short introduction by Mark Ferguson then cut straight to Peter Hitchner live on the scene in Victoria. It was extremely compressive and very well done under the circumstances. I am guessing that other states cut to Victoria as well. Now, I didn’t see Nine News last night, but however bad it was, I feel that Nine more than made up for it tonight. They had extended one hour edition and then went back live to the cricket. When the cricket concluded at 10:00 pm, they ran other one hour special bulletin which just concluded. They are now showing the as-scheduled movie Firewall.

  15. Okay, was a 10:30pm news update really necessary? People have the internet. If people were that keen to know something about the fires, I’m waging they wouldn’t be waiting around, glued to the TV waiting for Bones to finish. Sorry to sound insensitive to the victims of the fires, but it seems Seven throws professionalism and practicality to the wind at the drop of a hat these days. Get on with 24, already. 20 mins late…

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