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Nine to stick with one hour News

Extended news scores for Nine and is here to stay -but it raises so many other questions.

2013-10-30_0007“7’OBlock” is no more…

Nine has confirmed it will stick with a one hour news format.

News Corp reports the extended bulletins will be permanent with A Current Affair to shift to 7pm and reality juggernauts The Block, The Voice and Big Brother to 7:30pm.

Nine had big success with the extended bulletins on Monday with convincing wins in Sydney and Melbourne over Seven News.

In Brisbane Nine had slight wins over Seven, while Adelaide and Perth remain Seven strong-holds.

Nine strategically coded its one-hour news into two thirty minute programmes with OzTAM -a ploy that pushed Seven News into third place, and one that is likely to cause heated debate. The numbers indicated Nine News in Melbourne actually rose in the second half hour, bucking the trend of all other cities. Whether that was a one-off or not is unclear.

Even TEN won’t be happy with the move given it will impact on The Project. But at the risk of moving The Project yet again, there is a golden opportunity for TEN to restore its Reality shows to 7pm and create a major point of difference. It could well be the way forward for the ailing network. What happens to that unnamed “6pm family entertainment show” is another dilemma but given it’s untested, the benefits arguably outweigh it.

Having the extended News for Nine will help it address its post-8:30 schedule where it had been lacking compelling content too often. Shows like The Block and The Voice can now be pushed out to 9 and 9:30pm, which helps lift overall network share.

But it also means The Block will go head to head with My Kitchen Rules, instead of enjoying the 30 minute head start. Good luck with that….

Should Seven now match Nine is the question on everybody’s lips? Short of boldly moving Home and Away to 5:30 it seems the only solution is to stick with convention, or possibly merge Today Tonight into Seven News as it had done last summer.

But first OzTAM needs to address coding issues with the brazen 30 minute Nine News segments creating inequity.

In 2011 CEO Doug Peiffer told TV Tonight that OzTAM was concerned over such coding issues because there’s no consistency.

“I don’t think we want to start chopping the News down into quarter half hours,” he said.

“It’s just about getting all the providers of programme names to be sensible.

“People are raising it, media buyers, people inside Programming, and the ones who are really raising it are the users –the ones who run the software who try to come up with a sensible average for a programme, and they’re the ones who seem to be doing the hard leg-work trying to put it back together.

“So we’ll discuss it and see if we can come with an industry agreement on it.”

Over to you, OzTAM.

45 Responses

  1. I cant see channel 7 moving to a 1 hour edition of the News as that will impact on Home and Away and they cant move Home and Away to 5.30pm cause that will mess up Deal or No Deal and Million Dollar Minute. Unless they dump Deal or No Deal to 7two or 7mate.

    (Looking forward to Simon Reeve taking over Million Dollar Minute, he is going to be so much better then over exposed Grant Denyer)

  2. Ho much more of 9 news are we expected to have, at least 5 hours per day already plus all the updates during the shows and most of it are repeats and repeats, and with all the repeats of TTBT don’t they have anything else to show.

  3. How much “news” do we really need? On no particular day last week – I use 9 as an example – we have the morning fill of Today followed at regular intervals with “news breaks” or updates to stories we already know of, followed by the late morning news again updating on previous updates followed by further “news breaks”. At approx 17:55 during Hot Seat, Eddie prior to a final question crosses to the news studio for a “news break” just minutes before the actual news hour is due to commence. Once into the evening the same intermittent breaks occur. From one story in the morning to it’s continued saga late at night, not much really changes. Soon we’ll have 3 hour bulletins filled with “news” about nothing as lets face it the commercial networks seem to forget news comes from all countries. It’s a continued stream of updates on updates with repeats about nothing. News (and I use…

  4. Ten should trial a late evening show of the project @ 10.30pm and get rid of 10 l8 news because without Sandra it’s crap. I would watch a late version of the project, more can me talked about, more can be said and more personality will come out which is all good.

  5. This is a real strange move this one,why change something that works real well.In Melbourne where Channel 9 does extremely well this surely will have a effect in the long run.I can see Melbourne’s Channel 7 making inroads on this change for sure.As a watcher of nine news for many years i’m seriously thinking now to watch Sky News instead.1 hour is to long….Notice the stories now just last longer and why they can split them as separate programs is a joke.

  6. @ Secret Squirrel. Partially agree with your assertion. OzTam should just show the minute by minute ratings for all channels plotted on a graph over 24 hours. The bottom axis can contain program start times. That would take all the guesswork out of who’s up who and who hasn’t paid the rent. Oh wait, then the network PR spinners would have nothing to do

    As for a one hour 9 news taking views away from 7 news Perth… forget it. Unless Suzannah Carr and Rick Arden (7 news anchors) get hit by an out of control low orbit tactical nuke weapon, 9 has no hope of winnings a ratings war here.

  7. I tend to agree that 10 have a massive opportunity to own 7pm again, but would hate that to come at the expense of a 1 hour version of The Project, I think the quality of the stories and the chemistry of the hosts are fantastic at the moment.

    Could it maybe be moved to 10pm each night, with the late news screening at 11pm?

    Then 6pm – 7pm could make way for their new family entertainment show.

  8. If Seven moved “Home and Away” to kiddie time, it would kill it and the slightly adult themes in the show would have to be diluted even more. I doubt Seven would even consider playing with one of its most powerful and long running franchises. Who suggested 5 30pm? Only this column I am guessing.!!! I feel moving it to 7 30pm is wrong as essentially its when adults start to watch TV and if H&A was there any more than one half hour a week (Thursdays) it would also kill it.

  9. WA has on GWN GWN news at 530PM 6PM Monday to Friday. 7news 6PM today tonight 630PM home and away 7PM. Now if they put 7news 6PM to 7PM we’re does TT or haa go

  10. Ten need to take the opportunity to schedule Biggest Loser at 7pm. Ten launched the 7pm reality tv schedule back in the day when it had Big Brother and early seasons of Biggest Loser also started at 7pm. Another move won’t impact on The Project, shift it to 6pm. 4000 repeats of The Simpsons don’t cut it anymore.

  11. Im thinking if this move is successful for 9, then 7 have no choice but to follow suit. Whether that means TT is 7-7.30 or gone remains to be seen. 7 are already happy to make H&A 4 nights a week (7-8 on Thurs) so they can cover AFL, what difference is 7.30?
    As for MKR, My House Rules etc, people will still watch them whether they start at 7.30 or 8.

  12. @James S – WIN runs Nine News 6-7, WIN Local News 7-7:30. ACA is on GEM. NBN runs locally-produced News 6-7, ACA at 7. Last year NBN delayed network 7pm programs to 7:30. WIN moved ACA to keep shows at 7 in line with Nine.
    @brenton – Prime joining 7 at 6:30 would be pointless. The news is over by then. They could either drop out at 6:30 (missing the fillers, promos and repeats) or shaft TT to 7Two in place of – er, more news. Or, record 6-6:30 & playback at 6:30-7.

  13. The only good thing is that we wont have to put up with the stupid 7oblock anymore as for the hour news the obvisouly don’t have enough news if they have to resort to weather snapshots sport snapshots and promos for what’s coming up in the news they drive me up the wall it is a shame that nines 1 hour news didn’t have the same massive success as ten being a news network

  14. Today show and Sunrise have been coded in separate parts for years and no one seems to mind.
    Today – 5.30am (which is the 5.30am – 6am bit)
    Today – Early (which is the 6am – 7am bit)
    Today (which is the 7am – 9am bit)

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