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Seven News Sydney signs off from Martin Place studios

Updated: Seven wraps 19 years at its studio, ahead of a brand new home from tonight.

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Seven News Sydney has signed off its final bulletin at Martin Place studios, wrapping 19 years and 6,873 days of broadcast.

From tonight its new broadcast home is at a purpose built studio at Eveleigh headquarters. The new space is five-times larger than Martin Place, allows for permanent sets for all programs, with two complete control rooms and more than 40sq m of LED screens, while all newsroom operations will now be located on a second entire floor.

Seven West Media Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, James Warburton, said: “Today marks the beginning of a landmark chapter in Seven’s history. For the first time in over 40 years, we’re uniting our entire Sydney operation under one roof.

“Martin Place has served as an exceptional home for us but as we aim to unite even more Australians across our much-loved news and public affairs content, our transition to the purpose-built, state-of-the-art studio space in South Eveleigh is a pivotal move.

“7NEWS’s relocation to South Eveleigh marks the start of this exciting phase and we look forward to Sunrise and The Morning Show joining our cutting-edge, new location soon.”

Network Director of News and Public Affairs, Craig McPherson, said: “Since first turning the lights on at Martin Place on August 30, 2004, Seven’s News and Public Affairs team has broadcast a mammoth 70,000 hours of television from the Martin Place studio. Hundreds of careers started there, as did programs. Not all lasted but the constant demand for the content never wavered. It was a wonderful workplace for all of us, but it had served its time.

“Today marks a new beginning for 7NEWS. Monday, 26 June 2023 will be the first night our flagship 6.00pm bulletin will beam across Sydney from the state-of-the-art South Eveleigh studio. A big thanks to James and the Board for supporting and investing in the new home for Seven’s News and Public Affairs operation.

“It is a world class facility. Floors two and five are purpose-made for functionality with the studios and control rooms on the second floor. The space on the studio floor – five times bigger than Martin Place – allows our sets to remain intact, unlike Martin Place where the small alleyway of studio floor required the constant bumping sets in and out, morning and night. You will see the difference that makes on-air. And the entire editorial teams on floor five, for the first time, assembled on one floor.

“This is Stage One of a two-stage process with Sunrise, Weekend Sunrise and The Morning Show still broadcasting from Martin Place. They will join their 7NEWS and Seven Network colleagues in Eveleigh at the end of July when the new beginning will be truly underway.”

News director Jason Morrison also recently signed off after 8 years at the helm, to pursue other opportunities outside of the network.

A morning bulletin came from Melbourne today, with Sport out of Sydney.

Updated.

13 Responses

  1. “For the first time in over 40 years, we’re uniting our entire Sydney operation under one roof”.

    Has Sales moved there too!

    In any case, when I ran Seven Sydney it all “under one roof” at Epping.

    I never understood the CBD studio move. Someone must have watched too much NBC. Sydney is not NYC and Martin Place is not Rockafella Plaza!

  2. Yes these days that part of Martin place is very dead traffic wise it’s been a ghost town every time I have been therein recent months.

  3. It was sad to see the end of 7 News at MP studios. I looked at some archived footage of 7 News openers and m can see how much it has changed over time. We all knew what happened when 7 News relocated from Epping to MP studios in Aug 2004. That was the start of the ratings rise. That year after the conclusion of Athens Games, they still aired WOF. I wondered if WOF aired at Epping Studios following the Olympics?

  4. Seven got quite messy in Sydney during the 2000s and 2010s: Epping + Martin Place + Jones Bay Wharf/Pyrmont + Eveleigh + Docklands in Melbourne + tape archives in a facility in Brisbane plus all the other local metro and regional stations/offices. Much more efficient having consolidation! But there must’ve been more teams located elsewhere pre-2000 with “first time in 40 years” referenced in that release.

    1. … yep, I must admit to being a bit puzzled by that “first time in 40 years” reference … I spent a lot of time at 7 Epping in the early nineties and, as far as I was aware, other than Bob Campbell’s office and national sales and traffic, which was at 1 Pacific Highway, North Sydney where I was also located, all of the “Sydney” operation was there …

      1. At one point, with H&A & All Saints at Epping, drama dept had some production offices located in the inner west (can’t remember which suburb or what the shows were), and excess set storage was in a warehouse, also in the inner west, with a twice daily truck between Epping and the warehouse. Grand master tape library was also away from Epping in a fire-proof facility for insurance reasons. About two days’ worth of ingested on-air programs, constantly updating, were on a Telstra server somewhere in Sydney as a crash standby, also not at Epping nor Melbourne Presentation.

        1. … of course, in the days that I was talking about “servers” didn’t exist, it was all tape and they didn’t even have back-up for that … and speaking of insurance, I remember a “disaster recovery” exercise held at Epping, the scenario was that a 747 had crash-landed on the site – but with no loss of life!!!

  5. Feels like a step backwards but you have to be as efficient as possible in TV these days. Shame Today didn’t go through with plans for a street view at North Sydney.

    1. As with too many business decisions –

      New kids on the block come in –
      think they know more than anybody else in the business –
      They change everything –
      it’s not effective –
      they make the all too often TV tonight readers’ response: “Who would have thought…??””
      And announce a great new innovation –
      to return it back to the way it was

  6. “our flagship 6.00pm bulletin will beam across Sydney “. I have to wonder why Seven brand their news “Sydney” and as above, refer to their news as “Sydney”, when in fact it probably has more viewers across “NSW”, on stations that Seven owns, across NSW. Same applies to their weather which they brand as “Sydney Weather”. Perhaps to appeal to their Oztam households?

    1. Not really. That part of the CBD is kinda dead now and construction has killed the view. Plus it doesnt look like its a functional space anymore, given how much content comes out of there.

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