You may recall that I reported last week that WIN Television pushed WIN News back to 6:30, and decided to take Nine News live at 6pm. At the time they were advertising it as an effort to provide the best live coverage of APEC.
Well, the weekend painted a different light on the situation. A look at any online TV guide shows WIN News has permanently moved to 6:30 just about everywhere, and even more interestingly, Nine and WIN announced that they had settled their ongoing syndication fee dispute on Friday, one day after their sudden change to the news. How it will affect WIN’s ratings is hard to say as WIN don’t broadcast in metro areas where ratings are actively reported.
The press release didn’t make any mention of WIN’s deal with Seven in South Australia, so I suppose we will have to wait until mid-October to see if they make the change to Seven programming. The only thing we can say for sure is WIN’s attack on Nine’s market share forced their hand.
It would also appear that the new deal between WIN and Nine may see the reintroduction of shows such as Mornings with Kerri-Anne to the WIN network. WIN removed Kerri-Anne from the network and replaced her with their own pre-recorded talk show “Susie” a couple months ago as part of the dispute.
WIN Television in Canberra have made a strange decision tonight to swap the broadcast times of their two news bulletins. Instead of having WIN local news at 6pm and Nine News from Sydney at 6:30, they are running Nine News at 6pm and WIN News at 6:30.
Apparently this is so that Canberrans can get all the APEC news half an hour earlier than they otherwise would have, although if that is the case, I can’t understand why they didn’t make the decision yesterday.
I think WIN have made a mistake with this decision, as I think a lot of people would have tuned out when they discovered Nine News in the place of the local bulletin. Many people may have come to the false conclusion that WIN have dumped local news, something the other commercial stations in Canberra did a few years ago.
You may recall that back in April, WIN Television threatened to pull the plug on their affiliation deal with Nine, mainly due to a combination of a price hike and a drop in ratings. At the time, WIN dumped Nine’s Quizmania and The Catch Up in order to prove that they were being serious (and get some less than useful programming off the air).
Well, WIN Television have now announced that they have dumped Nine in South Australia in favour of the Seven network. From AAP:
Regional television network WIN Corporation has signed a programming deal with the Seven Network .. which will replace the current Nine Network schedule in South Australia.
The deal includes major sports coverage like the AFL .. the Australian Open tennis and Beijing Olympics .. and Australian and US programs.
WIN Corporation chairman ANDREW GORDON says he’s confident the broadcaster’s South Australian audience will welcome the new line-up.
I have to say that the jump to Seven is very peculiar considering that WIN Corporation own Channel Nine’s Perth station and shares Channel Nine Adelaide with Southern Cross Broadcasting. That being said, it does give Seven an easy way to expand in to many of the regional South Australian areas that they don’t have a presence in, and probably has Nine a bit concerned. The only good news Nine can take away from this is the knowledge that there are only a handful of markets that don’t already have a Seven presence, making this move rather difficult to repeat elsewhere…after all it wouldn’t be possible to have both Prime and WIN running Seven programming in Canberra.
WIN say that they will make the change to Seven programming “sometime in October 2007”. They said this in a press release, and if you’re wondering why I used the AAP version of the story and not the press release…well, take a look at the press release…it is an incredibly long-winded puff piece advertising the virtues of the Seven Network and WIN News:
Andrew Gordon, WIN Corporation Chairman today announced a programming deal with the Seven Network to deliver Seven Network programming to WIN regional South Australia viewers, replacing the current Nine Network schedule.
WIN’s regional South Australia program line-up will be headlined by major sports coverage, the highest-rating new series in the current American television season and the biggest programmes on Australian television from the Seven Network.
WIN Corporation Chairman, Andrew Gordon said Seven is acknowledged as the leader in sports television.
“Sports coverage leads the assault on Seven, alongside a host of great Australian programmes and some of the biggest shows on television as the network moves towards its coverage of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008,” Mr Gordon said.
“South Australians love AFL and AFL dominates Seven’s sporting commitment.”
“We’re confident our South Australian viewers will welcome this new line-up”.
David Leckie, Chief Executive Officer of Seven Media Group and the Seven Network, said: “We are pleased to have secured a partnership with WIN Corporation in South Australia. Seven is the market leader in Australia, with a commitment to local news and public affairs, Sunrise, AFL and the best in primetime programming, and we look forward to extending this leadership throughout South Australia.”
Seven delivers all-encompassing coverage of the Australian Open (along with four other major Australian tennis events and the Davis Cup), and delivers a one-two punch with the biggest sport in Australia – the Australian Football League, with coverage of the pre-season NAB Cup, the AFL Premiership Season and the AFL Finals Series; and the fastest-growing spectator sport: V8 Supercars.
Seven’s year in sport also includes coverage of all major horse racing events including the Melbourne Cup Carnival, major golf events, including The Australian Open, the Australian Masters and the PGA Championship of Australia and the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. Seven will also follow the Wallabies’ test campaign in rugby union, including The Bledisloe Cup and The Tri-Nations Series.
WIN Corporation CEO George Papadopoulos said Seven will continue its success and momentum in regional SA with an extremely strong program line-up.
“Seven’s new and regular programs have been going from strength to strength and the Network’s commitment to Australian produced entertainment such as City Homicide, All Saints, Dancing With the Stars, It Takes Two, Kath & Kim, Australia’s Got Talent, Border Security and Home & Away is unmatched,” Mr Papadopoulos said.
“We’re very pleased to deliver these programs to our regional South Australian viewers.”
The entertainment keeps coming with My Name is Earl, Las Vegas, Scrubs, Heroes, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters and Shark joining the established favourites – Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Bones and Prison Break.
WIN General Manager, South Australia, Robin Reid reinforced WIN’s commitment to delivering local news across the Limestone Coast including Mount Gambier, Naracoorte, Millicent, Bordertown, Riverland, Berri, Loxton, Barmera and Renmark.
“WIN News produces ‘live’ half-hour bulletins each weeknight from 19 different regional centres across the country plus a 7-day a week bulletin in Tasmania,” Reid said.
“Every WIN News bulletin provides comprehensive local news, sport and weather and our commitment to local news will not waver in South Australia.”
WIN Network’s regional South Australian viewers should expect the new schedule sometime in October 2007.
AAP’s writers might not have the best track record, but they deserve a commendation for turning that pointlessly long press release in to a concise article.
All that is left now is to wait for the fallout at Channel Nine.
A lot has been said in the last few days about the comments made by John Laws on Friday morning about Chinese drivers, and in particular, a Chinese lady by the name of Helen who had driven through the Cross City Tunnel multiple times without ever noticing the prominent signage saying that it uses electronic tolling. Helen was calling because she is shocked that she has to pay for driving through the tunnel.
Anyway, as I was saying, a lot has been said about John Laws’ comments, but it would appear to me that the majority of people who have commented did not hear the entire segment, and instead heard (or read quotes) various bits of the segment which make up less than 30 seconds, and were therefore used out of context, at least to some extent. I have been asked for my views on the matter a number of times now, and I will outline it below, but first, I would like you take take six minutes and listen to the segment, and then make up your own mind.
I believe, and I’m sure ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority) would agree, that you can only come to a reasonable conclusion if you have heard the entire segment. For your convenience I have included it below.
So, were John Laws’ comments racist? I don’t think so. I think he was generalising and I disagree with most of what he said, but the bottom line is that it was his opinion and based on his own observations. I personally think that there are a lot of very good Chinese drivers, and some pretty poor ones (like the one I met one night who was driving a taxi and thought that the lane markers were supposed to go through the middle of the car), and the same can be said for pretty much any other race.
If you do think John Laws was being racist, then please let me know, and tell me where you draw the line on racism. For example, if I were to witness fifteen robberies in the space of a year and 11 of them were done by people of a certain race, would it be racist of me to be a bit more wary of people of that race than people of another race? And would it be racist of me to come to the conclusion that people of that race were more likely to commit robberies?
As I said, I disagree with Lawsie’s generalisation, and to be perfectly honest I usually have better things to do than take notice of the race or age of the people driving cars in a manner that annoys me (I do notice the vehicle though, which is much easier to get a good look at than the occupants), but what he said was based on his observations, so I don’t think he was being racist.
And for what it’s worth, his caller, Helen, really shouldn’t be driving if she managed to miss all of the rather prominent signage about the Cross City Tunnel being electronically tolled on multiple occasions, and now wants to complain that she has been charged an administration fee for the time that various staff have spent reviewing footage, tracking down her number plate, putting together the list of fees for her number plate, and sending her an invoice, and the time they will have to spend processing her payment or chasing it up.
The Cross City Tunnel even has signs which say something along the lines of “Did you pay your toll? If not call (phone number)”. I don’t expect her to remember the phone number, but surely that would be enough of a reminder to find out who to ring. Helen, please read the signs or get off the road.
Back to Lawsie’s comments for a moment. I heard the comments when they went to air and it was instantly obvious to me that they were going to generate a lot of controversy. Personally I think Lawsie is taking advantage of the fact that he will retire soon in an effort to get some of his more controversial pet peeves off his chest, in which case his final few months should make for some very interesting and very provocative listening.
It is also interesting to note that it only took a few moments after Lawsie made the comments on Friday for people who didn’t even hear the comments to start berating him. If I had written the exact same things here as an editorial I would probably have received an angry email and a handful of angry comments, but it certainly wouldn’t have started a national debate. This, to me at least, proves that John Laws is still one of the most influential people in the country.
By all accounts Mark Carmody was very good at presenting the gardening show on 666 ABC Canberra, but he is really quite dreadful when it comes to the weather…it really does come across as an audition for the book reading role on Play School. He talks down to the audience, and insists on cluttering the weather reports with useless information about which newspapers are produced in which towns, and what movie he was reminded of when he woke up this morning and looked out his window.
Mark has taken over as the weather presenter from John Ringwood. John retired on the same day as WIN Television’s newsreader Peter Leonard, and I commented in the linked article that:
Rumour has it that 2CN’s (666 ABC Canberra for those of you not familiar with the callsign) garden expert will take over as the weather presenter. That might sound odd, but considering that last night they presented a five minute editorial from federal political editor Jim Middleton as news, no change in that place would surprise me.
Clearly I was wrong because Mark Carmody retired in April last year and his return to the airwaves did surprise me. It would appear to have split the ABC audience as well, as his return has prompted a mixed reaction on the ABC Canberra guestbook.
I personally found John Ringwood’s style of presenting the weather with the facts, and only the facts, as quite mundane, however I liked it. When John read the weather, it was clear and concise. Unfortunately Mark Carmody is being given free reign over his script and is producing garbage. His interactions with Virginia Haussegger are forced and completely unnatural, his weather presentation is cluttered and unclear, and the ABC would have been much better off doing the same thing WIN Television have done…have the newsreader present the weather from the news desk. I’m certain that Virginia would do an excellent job presenting the weather.
And if they must have Mark Carmody on the air and can’t ship him off to the Play School set…well they could easily move him to Stateline and give him a two or three minute weekly gardening segment, similar to the one David Young presented on Ten Capital News before it was axed. I’m sure Mark’s scripts would work much better in that kind of segment.
Incidentally, in case you didn’t spot it towards the end of the video embedded above, take a look at the following image. Does anything strike you as odd?
On the left of screen is a 2CC microphone.
I suppose it’s not really odd, but it was rather amusing.
It would appear that quite a number of people are concerned that the current Pirate BBC Essex broadcast could be the final pirate radio reunion. Personally I think we will see another one in ten years time when we reach the 50 year anniversary of the outlawing of British subjects working on pirate radio, but I can also see some merit in the idea of having an annual Pirate BBC Essex broadcast.
A petition has been setup at http://www.piratelv18.com/ in support of an annual pirate broadcast, so if you are interested in that, you know what to do.
The BBC’s celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Marine Offences Act making it illegal for British subjects to work on pirate radio is on the air and has been for a few hours. Amongst the former pirate DJs broadcasting from the LV18 Lightship is 2UE’s John Kerr.
Times listed on the pirate schedule are Essex local time, which is GMT+1 as they are currently observing Daylight Saving Time. Due to this, John Kerr will be heard for the first time between 10am and 1pm Canberra time tomorrow (Friday).
I would just like to take a moment here to thank and congratulate Southern Cross Ten here in Canberra who saw fit to run an unpaid community service ad for the Guide Dogs as part of an otherwise full ad break during one of their highest rating programs, Thank God You’re Here.
I suppose it is entirely possible that they just didn’t manage to sell that spot, in which case they could easily have run any of the standby generic commercials they would have had available, but they decided to run a community service ad, for which they should be congratulated.
Why am I making a big fuss over one 30 second commercial? Quite simply because I am sick to death of seeing virtually every community service ad dumped in a set of ad breaks after between 11pm and Midnight when most of the audience have switched off but it’s too early to run the adult services commercials. Admittedly each spot can be worth hundreds of dollars (I recall doing some research on this a couple years back and was quoted $500 per 30 seconds during MacLeods Daughters) and it is therefore costly to sacrifice a spot to a non-paying organisation, however it is the right thing to do.
For this reason I congratulate Southern Cross Ten Canberra. Very well done.
The first week of the second Canberra radio ratings period for 2007 is well and truly under way, and it is therefore as a good a time as any for me to inform you about my plans for radio reviews.
Anyone who has been reading this blog since the last radio ratings period knows that my previous round of radio reviews was a disaster. Allocating time blocks of one hour to each station and then spending longer than that reviewing it was an interesting way of taking a snapshot of the station, but didn’t do an awfully good job of comparing stations…and I never found the time to review most of the stations. A number of those reviews have been postponed (again) until after the current ratings period to avoid confusion.
I have a new scheme which should work an awful lot better than the previous scheme. Canberra, conveniently, has a four-week ratings period, and it is generally accepted that there are four sections of the day during daylight hours, breakfast, morning, afternoon and drive. I will be reviewing each of those sections at a rate of one per week and the following times have been allocated to these sections:
Breakfast: 6am-9am
Morning: 9am-Midday
Afternoon: Midday-3pm
Drive: 3pm-6pm
Each section will be reviewed as it is going to air, and each of the nine stations involved in the ratings will be reviewed during this time. This will work based on a rotating roster, with each station being assigned a random number from 1 to 9, and given a set of four minute segments. So, to give you an example, in the afternoon shift the roster would look like this:
Midday: Station 1
12:04: Station 2
12:08: Station 3
12:12: Station 4
12:16: Station 5
12:20: Station 6
12:24: Station 7
12:28: Station 8
12:32: Station 9
12:36: Station 1
12:40: Station 2
12:44: Station 3
***etc etc etc***
This way each station will get five segments over the course of four hours, effectively giving each station a 20 minute review in direct comparison with every other station. I could have used five minute timeslots, however this would have led to some stations having more access to the :00 and :30 marks than other stations which would be quite unfair as these tend to be the times that the news is broadcast.
Over the course of four weeks, each station will get a different spot in the rotating roster, and each station will get an effective review period of 80 minutes. It will not be possible to guarantee a rating for individual components of the broadcast such as news, music, general talk etc as I can’t guarantee that the sampled segments will contain all of those things, so an overall rating will be used instead. Each segment will get a rating out of five, those ratings will contribute towards an overall rating for each day part, and an overall station rating.
Reviews will be released at 9am on the weekday following the review, and will be faxed to the program director of each radio station involved in the reviews.
I should emphasise that these reviews are my opinions of the stations. I don’t expect you to agree with them, in much the same way that you wouldn’t expect a film reviewer to hold the same views as film watchers, or even other film reviewers. These things are personal opinions.
Good luck to all stations involved. Whilst I hope that radio stations and listeners alike will find my reviews interesting and possibly even useful, I’m sure that it will be the official ratings, and not my reviews, which the stations and the majority of listeners will take notice of.
Today is the 72nd birthday of John Laws, and most likely his last birthday as a radio broadcaster.
Interestingly he is absent today, and George Moore is filling in. One does have to wonder if George, as the regular fill-in presenter prior to Tim Webster being appointed as the regular fill-in for Laws, is being trialled in the timeslot. It would certainly explain why Tim Webster and George Moore are now seemingly taking turns at filling in for John Laws.
In somewhat unrelated news, congratulations to Stuart Bocking, John Gibbs and Greg Alexander. Stuart’s show, along with the final hour of Sports Today hosted by John Gibbs and Greg Alexander, recorded a rather impressive 2.7 point increase in ratings from 7.6% to 10.3% of the available audience. This also means that they have jumped from equal third to exclusive outright second.
Unless my flu has confused me, today is Tuesday, in which case it is WIN Television who are confused.
Currently they are screening a repeat of Bert’s Family Feud, and the episode they are screening is one of the “Mad Monday” episodes, so Bert can be heard constantly referring to today as “Monday”.
It reminds me of something which happened nearly ten years ago on WIN when they had fallen behind Channel Nine in episodes of Sale Of The Century, so they ran two each day. Monday and Tuesday on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday on Tuesday, Friday and Monday on Wednesday (very strange having Glenn Ridge say at 5:29 “see you next week”* and then say at 5:30 “Welcome to a brand new week, how was your weekend?”*) etc etc.
Game shows, along with news bulletins and current affairs show make constant mention of the day of the week, and even the date (the game shows seem to enjoy sponsoring charity days), and yet of the shows in this category, only game shows get repeated. Usually the stations manage to synchronise the days of the week, and it is quite amusing when they don’t.
I do have to wonder though, if stations can repeat game shows, why can’t they repeat the news? It could be a very interesting nostalgia program, perhaps repeating a bulletin from this date last year and this date ten years ago. I think it would be quite interesting.
*Quotes in this article marked with an asterisk are paraphrased.
I just saw an advertisement for the Transborder Express bus service on WIN Television advertising a bus service they run between here and the snow fields. Normally such an advertisement wouldn’t be of much interest to me as I’m not particularly fond of visiting places which are colder than Canberra, however on this occasion it was quite interesting as the background music they were using was the same as one of the pieces 2CC use to return from ad breaks.
A short time later, at the conclusion of WIN News, Nine News was due to start, however instead of the start of Nine News, WIN’s Canberra viewers were treated to the middle of an antique show. The problem was corrected a few seconds later, but not before viewers had missed an one of the headlines.
2UE’s John Kerr is now on holidays for four weeks, which will include a week (or thereabouts) broadcasting from a boat off the coast of Harwich, as part of the 40th anniversary of the criminalisation of British subjects being involved in pirate radio.
During John’s absence Clive Robertson will be broadcasting on weekdays, with 2UE’s News Director Clinton Maynard running the weekend show.
I rang John this morning to wish him “bon voyage”:
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/JKPirateFarewell20070730.mp3] Download MP3
BBC Pirate Essex will have a webstream and will apparently be accepting emails, so I’ll give you more details when the time comes.
