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War of words between Seven and Nine

A war of words has broken out between News rooms rivals over footage of a car chase in the Hunter Valley.

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Before the year ends a war of words has broken out between Seven News and Nine News and lawyers and handbags at 20 paces.

It all stems from the footage of a car chase in the Hunter Valley on Thursday.

Seven claims it filmed footage from a Seven chopper and, as is the practice in News, the footage became “pooled” for use by other networks.

Seven spokesperson Simon Francis said on Friday, “The footage in question was shot from the Channel Seven helicopter in Sydney yesterday and provided to Nine as part of a pooling arrangement.

“Seven showed the conclusion of the car chase at 12.54 p.m. several minutes before our competitor. Nine showed the material again at 2.59 p.m., with “First on Nine” emblazoned across the centre of the screen. That was a transparent avoidance of truth and there was more distortion in Nine’s 4.30 p.m. news bulletin. Reporter Mark Burrows claimed that a Nine cameraman had filmed the scenes in question.

“It was a Seven cameraman in a Seven helicopter.”

Seven even pulled in lawyers from Addisons to sort the kerfuffle, raising the ire of Nine’s Director of News Mark Calvert.

Calvert said that describing pool footage as exclusive showed signs of desperation.

“Nine denies that our broadcast was misleading or deceptive, or constitutes passing off. Nine did have cameras on the scene, so that statement was not inaccurate.”

With Nine News winning the year in Sydney there’s no love lost between these two rivals.

Nine spokesperson David Hurley told TV Tonight, “This is the stuff of losers. It’s why they’ve been having meetings in Sydney to try to figure why they are being smashed. Here’s a newsflash. Nine’s News is better than Seven’s. It’s that simple.”

With Seven and Nine both part-owners of SKY News, is it any wonder the tender for Australia Network went to the ABC?

37 Responses

  1. “Turn First to Nine News” only to see seven footage.

    When will Nine use their own materials! Or is that asking for too much? Is it easier to use someone else’s material and brand it as your own? I don’t think so.

  2. What Nine doesn’t get is that they are lying to their viewers. They is treating them as fools.They are fools if they keep watching. I do watch Seven’s News but find that Today Tonight brings Sevens whole News image down. If Nine picked up there act i would probably switch.I do find myself watching on ABC News 24 more now.

  3. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Surely there can be a rule put in place that stipulates that any footage claimed out of the pool must have the original networks watermark on it.

    This way all the other networks have access to the footage but the original suppliers of the footage are given the credit.

    Surely it can’t be that hard. These ridiculous watermarks across the middle of the screen are a joke.

    And how dumb does Mark Calvert think we are? “Nine did have cameras on the scene, so that statement was not inaccurate.” He should have followed this statement with “Our cameras didn’t actually record the footage but we had some nearby. Our helipad in Brisbane is close to Sydney isn’t it?”

  4. Channel 9 are trying everything in their power to beat 7 with news stories but are being so childish about it, why don’t they just accept defeat, they had their day a few years ago and then got too big for their boots, so will try anything they can now to regain their standing but are definitely going the wrong way about it and hope it takes them a long time to achieve thert goals, stupid is too good for them.

  5. Both news services. Nine and seven are crap. Niether is worth watching. They can argue all they like because both news services are of a very poor standard. Sensationalizing news is what nine andnseven are all about. The biggest news stories around the globe never get a mention I Watch CNN and BBC world news Real news

  6. Nine has been proven to be liars- “choppergate” in Brisbane found them out. Nine are desperate to regain the Brisbane no:1 spot and will do anything to get it- pathetic…

  9. Dean says:
    December 17, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    “David, that last sentence is a cheap shot and you know it!” David has a made a valid point and it is his opinion and his blog.

  10. @deedeedragons – I don’t think that’s the point, it was captured on a Seven chopper by a Seven camera man, and what Nine did was misrepresent the facts. And I’m betting if Seven had their logo in the bottom corner then Nine would have done the usual trick and zoom in to crop it out. It’s all silly and childish but surely there are copyright issues even if the footage goes into a pool.

    Like I said maybe Seven should have just held back and made is an exclusive, releasing the unedited footage 24 hours later to others?

    David what is the point of the footage pool system?

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