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10 News First to trial 90 minute bulletins

Exclusive: 10 will test extended news bulletins from Monday. Celebrity Name Game heads to BOLD.

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EXCLUSIVE: 10 News First will trial a 90 minute news bulletin from Monday in all markets.

With the summer non-ratings, and various changes elsewhere by competitors, 10 has opted to test an extended bulletin.

Central to the move is the network’s long challenge with the 6pm slot.

Celebrity Name Game, which began in May, often rates lower than its predecessor Pointless. This impacts the entire evening schedule with the network having to rebuild its audience all over again.

On occasions 10 can even be leading with 7:30 and 8:30 shows, but still lose the night because of its early evening woes.

This isn’t the first time 10 has broadcast 90 minute bulletins. Back in 2011 it also broadcast 90 minute editions after shuffling 6pm with George Negus to a 6:30 slot (back then The Project aired at 7pm).

A Network 10 spokesperson told TV Tonight, “We have decided to take the opportunity of changes to the commercial news landscape along with an intense news cycle to better serve our audiences by offering a quality extended local news service in all states.

“This is a trial and in the meantime Celebrity Name Game will play on BOLD.”

Celebrity Name Game is understood to have a stockpile of episodes already completed which it could feasibly broadcast until April.

Other moves, including returning Neighbours to a 6pm slot, have been rejected with a view it would be unlikely to pull an audience higher than 200,000 -which is its current problem with Celebrity Name Game.

90 minutes of new may seem excessive, but given the bigger picture, and summer season underway from tomorrow, 10 effectively has nothing to lose with its trial and everything to gain.

57 Responses

  1. Ten is the only commercial TV news not overwhelmingly biased, pity it’s presented in a “news for dummies” format. Ten, you’re – sadly – our last hope. Doing half an hour well would be better than whatever you’re doing.
    PS: Sack KAK

  4. A 90-minutes news program on commercial TV would be 30 mins of commercials, 5 mins of weather, 7 mins of sport, 3 mins of promos and ‘coming up’, leaving 45 mins for ‘news’. So, really not much more than some ABC and many ABC24 News bulletins. WIN News in their full news markets will probably just take the first hour.They won’t be dropping, moving or changing channels for their 6pm local news.

  5. 5.00pm Local news
    5.30pm CNG/Neighbours
    6.00pm National News
    6.30pm The Project

    Or

    5.00pm Local news
    5.30pm CNG/Neighbours
    6.00pm The Project
    7.00pm National News

    Make the national news snappy. People don’t want filler these days. We already know the news from the internet.

    For me, the news is on too early. A lot of people are still commuting from work between 5-7pm..

  6. Do we have 90 minutes of news in Australia everyday or are they going to rely on more international news. How often will they repeat the stories within the 90 minutes. Just add sports tonight to the mix.

  7. I’m not sure about this…I feel like 90 minutes is just too long. 10 really needs to invigorate their 6pm-6:30pm slot but padding it out with news just won’t increase ratings. A good game show or drama might work but if the slot after the news isn’t great, people won’t watch the news in the first place!

  8. I’m skeptical as to how a long duration news bulletin would be able to find enough newsworthy content for the whole program without repetition and fillers. I see in the morning news programs that they repeat the same news many times throughout the program. When there are news bulletins in the late afternoon and the evening that are not far apart, many of the same news stories are shown in both bulletins on the same channels. The news channels like ABC News 24 also repeat news stories many times so it becomes tedious to watch for a long time.

  10. Wonder what happens for the folks in regional areas with this move?. As it is, here in regional QLD (rockhampton), we get ten news from 5-6pm, then a local news bulletin from 6-6:30pm and into the project at 6:30. Celeb name game has always been on eleven/boss/bold from 6pm leading into neighbours. Perhaps the local regional news will disappear over xmas/ summer break?

  11. In Tasmania we already have a 90 minute news service on Win. We have the Ten news until 6.00 and then we have local news. I hope it doesn’t cause the local Tasmanian edition to be cut. I have an idea, start with the news at 5.30 with National and international news and then local at 6.00. Wind the Project back to 30. Minutes and as other people have said here, start the entertainment program at 7.00. I watch ABC news for the half hour and then I will watch other things at 7.30

  13. Leave poor Neighbours alone. it already got shafted to Eleven/Bold.

    90 minutes of news? seems interesting. I don’t know why they don’t start it at 12PM after studio 10 and run it until the project at 6:30. We’re flooded with news on 7 and 9 so 10 might as well join them

    1. I agree leave Neighbours alone, on Peach or air the previous day episode at 4.30 on the main channel to see how it works. I feel that a lot of people have no idea of watching another channel apart from the main channel. The fact that Neighbours is screening 52 weeks a year doesn’t seem to be publicised much, whereas Homeyand Away stops shortly f not already and doesn’t start again until February.

      1. Wouldn’t cause any hassles to it as 10 already air the previous days episode of Neighbours on at 2:30pm before Judge Judy. So it would only be a matter of moving Everyday Gourmet With Justine Schofield (3:30pm) or Farm To Fork (4:00pm) a little to put that “Encore” on at a later time. Be 4pm for mine for Neighbours though not 4:30pm as it’d upset the The Bold & The Beautiful viewers too much and that’s been entrenched at that time and doing well for too long to move it (even to 4pm).

  14. With neighbours turning 35 next year, they should’ve tried it at 6pm and promote it like they do with MC, survivor etc over the summer. Or have the show at 5pm and the news at 5:30pm. Or move the project to 6pm and call it the project summer edition.

  15. Stupid and lazy idea! Hourly news is way too long with lots of padding and “coming up after the break” and “coming up later in the bulletin” segments, how painful will 1.5 hours be? With the internet, ABC News 24, etc. there’s no need for such a lengthy news show, 30 minutes would be sufficient.

  16. Guess this mirrors most local news in the US, which usually airs 5-6.30pm (sometimes 4-6.30pm), ahead of the national news at 6.30pm, with it effectively being an hour bulletin at 5pm and a 30 minute edition at 6pm.

  17. I think it’s a fantastic idea, and Summer is definitely the time to test the waters. At the very least, they might be able to retain some of those viewers from the 5pm bulletin who are tuning out at 6.

  19. I like they are addressing it but my soloution is to start entertainment programs at 7pm. The competition is weaker with ACA and HA. The Project moves from 6-7pm with a harder “opinion” edge to it. 90mins Survivor, Masked Singer, MC until 8.30, then HYBPA, Gogglebox, Bachelor until 10pm

        1. I usually skip over armchair programmers…but agree…this sounds very workable…
          Most of those reality shows mentioned, over run their supposedly 60 mins anyway.
          I would also be more likely to watch The Project at that time…on a more regular basis.

  21. I’ve already said elsewhere on this site, CNG should move to 5pm and then news from 5.30pm – 6.30pm, it can be split into 2 halves, first half state based/Aussie news, Aussie sport news and Aussie weather, the second half is world news, world sport and world weather. This is done overseas in a similar format. I would rather watch this type of news than watch 7 or 9 with filler news items as they do when there are no other news stories.

  22. 10 really should’ve stayed the course in 2011, they pulled the pin on their great news experiment way too early! The other big two networks had only 30minute bulletins at 6pm back then.

    It’s funny how the other media and everyone piled on about how dumb the idea was, but let’s take a look at present day, you’ve got 9news at 3pm, 9news at 4pm, 6pm 1 hour news – that’s saturation overload, 7s offerings are pretty much the same minus 3pm, but you could almost put The Daily Edition in that pile too.

    In effect 10s 2011 “failed experiment” kind of built the house that 7 and 9 now regularly play in!

    1. The people asking about regional news. Last time I watched 7’s 4pm news in Perth they had national from 4pm then at 4.30pm they leave the national news to present local news from Perth with our own presenter.

      They might do similar here.

  24. Summer non-ratings period is the best time to test out these sorts of things. I do hope that this 90 minutes News works out for 10. The 6pm slot unfortunately lets the station down most nights.

    Will there be 90 minute versions of the news on the weekends too (starting next weekend)? The 6pm slots on the weekends usually rate even lower than the various game shows 10 has aired on the weeknights.

  25. For me this won’t work. I start the news at 6pm, or a little later on time slip and I stop as soon as the sport segment commences. Why would I want to come into the last 30 mins of a 90min bulletin on 10?

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