Commercial Network News (again)

Should I ever be reminded of the fact that there is such thing as commercial news still baffles me. Up here in Canada, even the public broadcaster squeezes in a couple of commercials during their newscast, so it’s not just a choice but a matter of life.

In regards to the openers, they look a little more bold then what we have here. CBC News at Six is full of red, red, pictures of the city mentioned, and more red. Which baffles me given that their logo (It’s the broadcaster logo with “CBCNEWS” written on the bottom) has more of a blue tint.

CTV (Canada’s “Nine Network” that always brags it is the “number one television network” even though 99.9% of their programming other than news is American) has a blue and yellow colour opener that reminds me more of the flag of Ukraine than news. Never forget the shadow of the CTV News helicopter, which emulates many openers that date back to the 80s in Australia.

And last but not least, Global (which CanWest also owns along with Network TEN) recently created a new opener, and instead of a sea of red, they have a sea of green with red dots all over the place. Oh yes, third place ident for third place network, whose news no one watches.

For me, I stick to radio for news. Trust me, you guys down under have it better.

Great to see the news openers once again John

I think they are pretty good and i would have to say that these are better than the american ones and at least we have our newsreaders sitting at a desk and being more comfortable than standing.

Any way enough rambling
Well done John for bringing the 3 commercial network news openers again.

Cheers

While Nine’s is the newest, god they kept the old theme a while, it just doesn’t have the same high quality feel that 7 and even 10 have. They didn’t unpdate their news sets, just tried to copy 7 with updateable backgrounds, not even live cameras! And frankly, at least here in Melbourne, nine news and aca are taking a punding from the 7news and tt, and while many may say they are much the same, they are but there are differences in reporting, the order of stories, the presenters etc which are just not as good on 9. And it is great to see Chris Bath, she is one of my favourites, and since she switched roles with Ann Sanders (from 10.30 news to fri-sun 6pm news in syd) I hardly get to see her anymore. I do like the ABC news and cleary the quality is higher, but it is falling, Media watch is picking that up and they don’t have the budget for as many live crosses, exclusives etc and they seem to be taking more and more straight from the BBC etc. Frankly the best bulletin on commercial television is Seven’s 4.30 News with Rebecca Maddern (made at Melbourne’s digital broadcast centre where all the signals for every 7 stattion or affiliate come from) and that is a thought shared by Melbourne’s green guide and the ratings, it is the 2nd highest rating national bulletin (Ten’s Late News at no.1, for the Sandra Sully factor)

Seven News is by far the best news service in Victoria! their presenters are always dressed best and dont droan on like Peter Hitchner and Tony Joans. Peter Mitchel is Channel 7’s best asset in terms of news and current affairs! ten news is too blue and 9 news is old and outdated with crappy backdrops and sets! love sevens live cam feature!

Has Anyone seen the National Nine News (NNN) in Perth it makes you feel sorry for them with a crappy bluescreen set and horrible cheap graphics. South Australia’s NNN uses the PBL Graphics then why can’t WA do the same? rant over now.

The thing about Nine news is perth and adelaide is that the nine network doesn’t now own those stations and they are not a part of the network Whereas 7 and 10 own all their branded mainland capitol city stations ( and 7 in QLD) and thus the 9 heviweights have no control over what the station owners in Perth and Adelaide do! Either way 7 news is better nationally, especially in Melbourne and from what I’ve seen, Sydney and Brisbane

I heard a little wispper that Rebecca has been replaced by the LA corespondent, Mike Amour i think his name is, he is back from the US and Anna Corren has filled his posistion. so it looks like Bec is back to the newsroom! petty, we won;t get to see her lovely face everyday!

Not to worry, Rebecca Maddern is reading 7Melbourne’s weekend news while Jennifer Keyte fills in for Peter Mitchell while he has a break during mid year non ratings. I assume Rebecca will do the 4.30 on mon, tues, wed and then have a 2 day break before the weekend, 7 tends to have its anchors work no more than 5 days in a row

Yeah, her step dad is Rex Gorell isn’t he? I too live in Geelong. We bought our last two cars from him, a mitsu magna and more recently a Colt. I like Jen Keyte but prefer Rebecca, Jo Stone is just some reporter they cleaned up. But think that is how Rebecca got to where she is, filling in occasionally for David Johnston, and she was just as unsteady then.

Ahhhhh! just watching a seven news break, Bec is wearing the same orange thing she wore on the 4.30 news earlier in the week! oh well, most of the sunday news crowd proberly won’t have watched the 4.30 news, just me, the uni student with nothing else to do!

Yeah Geelong is bad! haha even the football team is shit! yeah naomi is bad for recycling her cloths! Warrnambool is great apart from the crapy TV reception and poor quality regional TV stations!

Yeah saw them, and they are asking for viewers to send in photos of their family’s watching seven news, all part of the ‘Make the switch’ campaign! all the info is on the news website.

I like 7’s the best…it just seems modern, upbeat, and fresh.

Quick question coming from this American: is this a newscast for all of Australia (like NBC Nightly News or ABC’s World Tonight) or a regional newscast (like WNYW, etc.) If those aren’t regional, what do your regional idents look like?

The newscast contains a mixture of local, national and global news. for instance during state election times, Seven News in Victoria would have a major focus on Victorian Elections, whilst New South Wales and Queensland may only focus a small part of the bulitin on the victorian election. Each state has its own presenters, For instance Melbourne and Victoria’s Seven News is presented by Peter Mitchell Whilst Sydney and New South Wales is presented by Ian Ross. i think that the news theme comes from a partnership Between Seven and NBC.

7news uses a variation of the John Williams’ composition The Mission. The rights were sold to both seperately. However, when seven commissioned a revamp of their on air news image, 2-3 years ago, they had the song altered and re orchestrated. Seven and NBC have had a close relationship over the years, and still do with news sharing. In the past however they have shared on air slogans etc. As for the question on regional indents, unlike America, the Australian networks maintain a uniform on air image for all their stations. for example, the seven Network owns and operates stations, all branded as 7 with the same programming etc, in each of the five mainland capitols (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) as well as stations in regional Queensland. This arrangement is the same for the Ten Network, not withstanding Queensland. Nine however only owns its Stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and strangely, Darwin. However there are Nine branded stations in Perth and Adelaide, they just aren’t network owned. ABC and SBS are government owned and operate in all major and regional markets with wholly owned stations. As for the regional (country) areas, each of the commercial networks have a close affiliate agreement with one or two regional networks, 7 has Prime, 9 has NBN/WIN and 10 has Southern Cross Ten. These regional networks operate stations in most large regional markets under a uniform brand, taking almost all content from their network affiliate. Some of their stations produce local news bulletins (eg. Prime News Albury) but most just show the news from their network from each state’s capitol city. All the networks produce a local news bulliten in each capitol city to be shown throughout the state. Each of these have the same graphics, and share resources etc. In addition to this, 7 and 9 have national breakfast programmes, Sunrise and Today respectively. Both made in Sydney, Sunrise being the successfull one. Also 7, 9 and 10 each make national news bulletins throuout the day, eg. 7 Morning News at 10.30, Nine and 7 have the 4.30 news or as nine calls it The Afternoon edition. 7 makes an extended news update at 10.30 everynight, while Nine has Nightline (very crappy) and Ten has Ten’s Late News. The ABC also makes state based 7pm bulletins and a national Midday News. SBS however only makes one, SBS World News at 6.30pm, for the whole country with no regional editions. In addition to this 7 and 9 make public affairs programmes at 6.30pm. Today Tonight on 7 and A Current Affair. ACA is a national broadcast hosted by Tracy Grimshaw, which is very successfull. tt has three versions, one for the east coast (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne) hosted by Naomi Robson out of Melbourne then another version for Perth and another for Adelaide. This is getting long and complicated, for more info go to http://www.abc.net.au, http://www.sbs.com.au, http://www.yahoo7.com.au, http://www.ninemsn.com.au and http://www.ten.com.au also wikipedia has alot of info and pictures.

Yeah bring back Bec. I don’t understand why Sydney is the HQ for all the networks, whats wrong with Melbourne or Brisbane people! i understand that Sydney is fairly centeral but given that all Sevens programing comes out of the digital thing in Melbourne, it would make sense to have your HQ there as well! anyway i am writing to 7 as well, i think they need to put Bec in Sat and Sun all the time, give Jen Kyete the flick!

Yeah i did notice the way they tried to pretend we were still getting a Melbourne production. Mike Amour is bland and boring. everyone knows that the 4.30 news is now coming out of sydney so why do they keep pretending.

Yeah i noticed that he was on the 10.30 today, how many jobs does the man want, and you forgot Anne Saunders who has been reading the 10.30 for a while as well. i will now go and have a peek in the Sun, missed it yesterday! Has anyone else noticed that Win in Western Vic is no longer showing the 11.00 news from nine? we seem to be getting Gutty Ranker ads!

I think Ann Sanders is just on Holidays, but who knows, Mike could be gunning for her job too!

I was wondering, what is the name of the music that 9 News uses for its newscast?

you’re right jarrod! plus i like mike amor! far better than kelly connoley on nine afternoon news

Could anyone please tell me if Melbourne Ten News newsreader Helen Kapalos is filling in for Sandra Sully from tonight 22/1/07 on Ten’s Late News.

7’s theme song is The Mission by John Williams i beleive, however 7 has re worked it from the original many times over the years to what it is now

Glad that someone out there took note of the news openers in my hometown, HK.

TVB has, FYI, changed its news opener twice since that time, and it’s transmitting in 16:9 full widescreen now on digital. International news, though, is still in 4:3.

And yes, the morse code IS identified as ‘News Today’, in english.