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Cyclone tests TV networks

This morning as Channels Seven, TEN, ABC and SKY News had live coverage of Cyclone Yasi's fury, Nine had a Danoz advertorial about back pain remedies.

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At 1:45 this morning as Cyclone Yasi bore down on Far North Queensland, Seven, TEN, ABC and SKY News all had live coverage for viewers.

Nine had a Danoz advertorial about back pain remedies, following a 2003 Bruce Willis movie.

Cyclone Yasi had certainly kept networks on their toes as they sought to cover its fury and frantic preparations.

After Nine’s excellent coverage of the recent floods, this time the Seven Network stepped up to take the lead.

Seven, ABC and SKY News had extensive coverage across the day.

Seven began with Sunrise which stayed on air until 11am, while Today wrapped at 10am as Kerri-Anne began. Both networks had extended news bulletins from 11am.

Thereafter Seven stayed with the coverage across the day while Nine switched to cricketing commitments.

Seven also abandoned much of its primetime schedule to the looming crisis with Chris Bath anchoring on a long day. She continued until 12:30am when Chris Reason took over. Seven stayed on air into the early hours including with Sunrise presenters giving reports via telephone well after midnight, ahead of a 5am broadcast today.

Nine did rush A Current Affair into the schedule (it was initially out for cricket) with Leila McKinnon, including a live local edition in Queensland. It then returned to the cricket, even missing two crucial news conferences from Premier Anna Bligh (both were carried by Seven, ABC News 24 and SKY).

Around 10:30pm Nine’s cricket finally ended as Peter Overton on location interviewed Anna Bligh -but Bligh was simultaneously live on Seven, ABC News 24 and SKY giving a Press Conference. As Overton asked her about the latest damage Bligh’s answer was less dramatic than the live advice she was giving to other media at the same time.

TEN also aired a late night bulletin as well as covering the drama in earlier News, 6PM with George Negus and The 7PM Project.

Seven concluded its marathon coverage at 2am with TEN following a few minutes later. ABC and SKY stayed with the story into the morning.

But in the rush to keep viewers informed, Seven backfired when it added a ticking “Countdown” clock to Today Tonight. The Twitterverse slammed the idea of turning the story into an New Year’s Eve style ‘event.’

– Today Tonight you are a disgrace. Having a countdown to when the cyclone will hit. Absolutely shameful

– Caught the end of Today Tonight as I left work- whose sick idea was it to do a “countdown to impact”???

– Today Tonight is running a cyclone countdown. I’m happy power is cut in the area so they can’t watch in disgust as I am #tcyasi

The clock was not present when Today Tonight aired in Queensland on delay.

But this aside, Seven’s coverage of the event has so far completely upstaged what Nine offered.

81 Responses

  1. I am no fan of Sunrise – but they have been brilliant over the last few days. The right mix of detail, updates and some clever use of technology.
    ABC24 has proven it can cover a live event (a concern raised when ABC stuffed a few events around 24’s launch),
    I agree that Ten and ABC24 cutting between Yasi and Egypt was a welcome break – these are both very important news events.

  2. I don’t know how I feel about all this blanket coverage of disasters – it’s a bit weird. Is it for ratings and the morbid curiosity of outsiders or for the affected community’s benefit with emergency information? I suspect the former.

    Something just feels wrong about this – in Brisbane today my impression of the media is that they’re a bit disappointed that nothing bad happened after all the melodramatic build-up. Now they’re scurrying around trying to find human-interest stories to cover up the perceived lack of actual catastrophe in order to justfy having flown most of the NSW/Victoria media gallery up here for the the fun.

    And I’m irked that Qld ABC bumped QI again – they’ve got four freaking channels for God’s sake. It’s the only decent show on the idiot box.
    Anyway, see you at the next ‘disaster’ – it’ll probably be in Qld again….

  3. Pathetic article. The ratings clearly show people were more interested in watching the cricket than watching news about a cyclone that never struck till 1am. Well after the cricket.

    Who the hell watches TV at 2am? LOL

    Certainly not the people in FNQ who had no power that’s for sure.

  4. Seven in Perth showed MKR at 7.30pm last night and then showed news coverage on 7TWO. Very good effort from Sunrise Skyping Grant Denyer and Channel 9 introuduced a news ticker for the first time in many years.

  5. I think Grant Denyer was an idiot this morning. Everyone is being told to stay in doors and he is out there driving around with microphone in hand in the pitch black broadcasting on skype. Sure it was nice to have someone in there but not setting a very good example. Could have ended badly!

  6. Media Coverage is a complete disgrace. Insulting. You can tell they are literally disappointed there has not been untold death and destruction. IE, some tragic reporter, ” they is mass destruction, or wait is that sand on the road..whatever it is, it is horrific”. Yer, go away Kochie, Karl, Mel, all of you.

    Pathetic, transparent and all done to get ratings and win a walkley or a logie.

    Ambulance chasers that want death and are no doubt all depressed cause no-one has died as yet and it was not the worst storm the world has even seen.

    The pathetic morning shows, the 24 hour coverage. Ohhh, boo hooo, it wasnt as bad as you your hoping. Maybe you can start some bushfires, or put a bomb in a fault line off the coast and cause an eathquake. Sad w8nkers.

  7. I don’t get the problem with the clock.

    If I am watching coverage at 6.42pm and I have been hearing about this cyclone all day long – the one question I am wondering is “what time does it hit?”

    The clock addressed that.

  8. How come 7 was allowed to show the Aus Open on their secondary channel but 9 arent allowed to show the Cricket. I know the Minister allowed it but why?

    And altho 9 did let themselves down with the coverage a little last night i dont really see the point in broadcasting at 2am when it is dark outside and nothing to see anyway…. isnt that what a dedicated news channel is for? Chris Bath looked and sounded so uncomfortable and unprofessional while talking to people via phone last night…. Especially the guy on the freighter that was in the middle of the storm… He seemed to care less and she was trying to make it into something it wasnt.

    I really dont think 9 will be too disappointed anyway they won the night.

  9. Channel 7’s (including Sunrise) coverage has been the best one from all of the TV Networks. I dont agree what TT done last night, thats just wrong.

    Why couldnt 9 put the Cricket on GEM??.. 7 moved the Tennis to 7TWO, when they had the flood coverage.

    I cant stop laughing when “Channel 9 Home of News and Current Affairs” promo comes on.. If they are Home of News and Current Affairs, why was the cricket on last night?? and why isnt Today, 9 News and ACA Australia’s # 1??

  10. Seven’s set last night had a background of lightening bolts – not a good look.
    Grant Denyer with the iPhone was good but he just walked into peoples houses whilst live to air. What if someone was upset or cranky?

  11. In response to accusations that the media were beating up the cyclone story, Koch hungrily reported that waves during the night reached 18 metres. About eight hours earlier, Anna Bligh mentioned the very same reading and explained that the buoy sending the data was faulty because waves were breaking over it. She guaranteed the waves were nowhere near 18 metres.

  12. @ Brenton, thanks for pointing out the east coast edition of Today Tonight doesnt air in Nth QLD, still the countdown clock should not have aired in NSW/VIC, but it was a mistake and overtime people will move on compaining about it. By the way here in SA we didnt see the clock beacuse we get a local edition of Today Tonight from Adelaide which trashes Nine’s ACA almost every night for the past 10 years.

  13. As much as I like your site David and respect your work in most cases, you have got it wrong! I know you have to fill a page just like the tabloid Murdoch papers.

    So what Seven was On-Air till 2am big deal!

    For the people that mattered in FNQ they didnt have power!!!!
    There wernt many people watching at 2am.

    Thats when many good folk in FNQ or in other states listen to radio!

  14. Also, it was a nice idea for Grant Denyer to broadcast on Skype, but the quality of the stream was awful. You could barely make out the highly pixelated and jerky images.

  15. The countdown clock may be considered tacky to some. But the networks are aiming to entertain. News is entertainment, regardless of how devastating the impact. It’s their job to sensationalise it, because that’s what brings in the ratings which pay for advertising. That’s the nature of the commercial networks and viewers.

    I didn’t bother watching TV, rather, I viewed the many webcams on the internet, which was far more interesting than listening to reports made several hours prior on the TV.

  16. Now i know it’s important to cover this event and the coverage was great mostly. But people have been evacuated, bunkered down wherever they are, and Seven had a guy standing out in the middle of the street with gusting winds and puring rain with the cyclone about an hour away. Like come on.
    Seven’s coverage was the better one, except the awful backdrop of a pic of lightning and storm clouds. So dramatic.
    Kath Robinson seemed to be smiling most of the time. Put me off.

  18. Sorry further to that TEN broke up their cyclone coverage when nothing was happening and concentrated on all of the devastation in Egypt which I thought was great too

  19. I really think that TEN should be more commended here they top kept their coverage past 2am and to be honest after watching 7 all day it was a welcome change Kath Robinson did great as were some of their images which were different to 7. Ten is trying to be serious about news and I really think they stepped up last night

  20. The way the media is carrying on with such totally ridiculous overkill coverage
    of not much interest to anyone who doesn’t reside in North Qld, you’d think the entire east coast of Aus was going to be destroyed, or that North Qld was totally decimated..

  21. usual grubby stuff by 7 having a count down. what are 7 trying to prove. they are still the worst network on tv. well we already knew that. this put the nail in the coffin. nut you can cover something with good coverage and you can over kill something.

  22. I was watching Ten’s coverage late last night, and I must say, Cath Robinson is an absolute professional. She is confident, asked intellegent questions and I didnt see her stumble once in the entire time she was on. She would do great on her own current affairs program as well I believe.

  23. Why on earth Today Tonight decided to have a countdown clock on top of the screen? Hello, it’s February 3, not New Year’s Eve! But overall Seven was the only channel to be covering Cyclone Yasi between 8:30pm and 10:00pm, so it was great but Nine has broke their promise to be ‘First on Nine’. Surely they did because they were covering ways to cure back pains and not Cyclone Yasi!

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