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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. @rob…good point…pass the man the winning bottle….David you need a sponsor so next year you can give a prize for best comment of the week…. that way…some of the comments may grow in ability and not be just snide jibs at the others…. thoughts…

  2. who the F*&^% cares… i mean really….. they both lie to suit their own needs…and everyone here taking sides…only makes things worse… stop…go to your room….. snigger…

  3. @Mathew Hahahaha You can’t just say that 7 stole 9’s slogan because they used the word “First” in their slogan. By the way I am talking about footage, like the one the this story is about or A Current Affair stealing Today Tonight’s whole story. Ch7 is better than 9, Just face it, the truth.

  5. @Number1
    What planet are you living on? 9 have kept their mouth’s shut over a lot of things 7 have been doing. 7 have stole 9’s slogan, used 9’s production music in a promo, copy promo concepts, etc. How pathetic and desperate can they get??
    & as for ratings, 9 have won back Melbourne & Sydney, & are quickly gaining in Brisbane. The only thing keeping them back is Perth and Adelaide and they aren’t officially part of 9 anyway.

  7. Seven have every right to be p*ssed. I was watching this live on Seven and I did check if Nine had coverage and at that time they were showing something else. So Nine need fining or something because this is just pathetic on their part. I will admit the choice of stories on Sydney’s Seven News is pretty poor these past few months but Nine isnt much better either. Nine need to get sent to the cleaners on this matter

  8. Seven has a right to be p!ssed about this altho’ they sometimes behave as badly with regard to usa/misuse of Nine’s footage. Calvert’s response is laughable. It really is like two children squabbling and this is one of the reasons why I don’t watch the news on either Seven or Nine.

  12. many times i have seen footage earlier in the day on either seven or ten news, hand then have seen the same footage passed of as an exclusive on nine, and hurley’s immature response doesn’t actually address sevens allegations. ten is the only one who saves an exclusive label for true exclusives.

  15. I wish networks would stop using those ridiculous graphics across the centre of the screen. It’s just immature. Do networks in other countries use similar tactics? Or is it just Seven and Nine carrying on like school children?

  18. I totally agree with 7. If it was 7 that took 9’s footage, they would be fuming. 9 seem to be doing this all the time. And as for that comment about 9 beating 7, What about in every other state?

  19. I was watching the 7 afternoon news when I heard the reporter say our helicopter helped the police track the suspects – showing the images of cars crashing into a ditch.
    Soon after while channel surfing I saw the same images on 9 with the words “First on Nine news” emblazoned across the screen. I simply assumed they also had a chopper in the area. Apparently not.

  22. This has to stop, I now refuse to watch any footage that have anyones logo plastered across the center of the screen. Maybe Seven should pull out of the agreement or can they select which footage goes into the pool? I’m not saying Seven is innocent in this type of action.

    BTW I think I first say the footage on TEN news, or it could have been SkyNews. Reason I can’t remember, it didn’t come plastered with ‘First on…’ through the middle! Its a sad situation when the news coverage is becoming the news event!

  23. You also need to remember that Seven copied the nine news slogan often with “First for News” emblazoned across their screen (though their version is far more annoying! as the text is animated)

    Seems like they have a double standard here!

  24. Ten News Sydney supered the vision with “ATN” – does that mean ATN7 in Sydney or the Australian Traffic Network?

    I thought it was the traffic chopper who had the vision, not Seven’s. I was in the traffic jam that it created and at no time did I see the Seven red chopper.

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