The Newsroom

Australian TV News

(August 2010)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
AE
Aerial
shows starting at 8.30pm (though in reality starting at 8.50pm)

What accounts for the massive drift between billed and actual on air time?
BR
Brekkie
shows starting at 8.30pm (though in reality starting at 8.50pm)

What accounts for the massive drift between billed and actual on air time?

The networks playing stupid games with each other and the viewers - 10 minutes late is the norm, 20 minutes later isn't that unusually and 40-50 minutes late happens a lot too - and generally overrunning live shows are not the reason behind it.

Australian TV traditionally programmes on the half hour but the 8.30pm slot is now generally billed as 8.40pm, but nobody expects them to meet it. In the last few years reality TV formats have dominated primetime, many of which started out as either once a week hour-long shows or nightly 30-minute shows but then expanded into airing 4-5 nights a week with hour-long editions, which in practice are usually 70-80 minutes with one edition a week often around the two hour mark.

In addition the 7pm landscape has changed - Nine moved their current affairs show there a while ago, while Ten has The Project from 6.30-7.30. Home and Away is just about holding on to the slot for Seven (though often nights are dropped and double or triple episodes play out on other nights), but rumour is that Seven are looking to move it from the slot next year, probably to 7Two.
DR
Drizzcool
shows starting at 8.30pm (though in reality starting at 8.50pm)

What accounts for the massive drift between billed and actual on air time?

The networks playing stupid games with each other and the viewers - 10 minutes late is the norm, 20 minutes later isn't that unusually and 40-50 minutes late happens a lot too - and generally overrunning live shows are not the reason behind it.

Australian TV traditionally programmes on the half hour but the 8.30pm slot is now generally billed as 8.40pm, but nobody expects them to meet it. In the last few years reality TV formats have dominated primetime, many of which started out as either once a week hour-long shows or nightly 30-minute shows but then expanded into airing 4-5 nights a week with hour-long editions, which in practice are usually 70-80 minutes with one edition a week often around the two hour mark.

In addition the 7pm landscape has changed - Nine moved their current affairs show there a while ago, while Ten has The Project from 6.30-7.30. Home and Away is just about holding on to the slot for Seven (though often nights are dropped and double or triple episodes play out on other nights), but rumour is that Seven are looking to move it from the slot next year, probably to 7Two.


Thank goodness, whenever I hear the start of the Home and Away theme I instantaneously switch to something else.
FO
fox1
TCN 9 Sydney - Nine News promo 2015

EY
the eye
7 News really annoys me, tabloid/commercial type news, over the top presentation and the constant use of nicknaming of their presenters. I don't see any professionalism what so ever.
TM
tmorgan96
Seven News used to be quite good between 2006 and 2010, but Nine's resurgence has meant Seven has been forced to go downmarket in order to compete.

Only ABC and SBS provide a quality news service nowadays. Up until a couple of years ago, Ten was probably the best commercial operation, but management has cut back so heavily on reporters that the service just isn't comprehensive enough to provide any meaningful coverage. At one stage there were just 4 journalists covering South East Queensland - an area comprised of Brisbane (2 million people), the Gold Coast (500k) and four other cities with populations above 100k people.
DR
Drizzcool
Can anybody explain the reasoning behind why the 9 News lower third has a thin, white bar under the logo? Here it is seen in a promotional post under "Tonight 6pm":

TM
tmorgan96
Branding? Just because?
FO
fox1
TEN Brisbane Eyewitness News Promo 2015

18 days later

FO
fox1
Eyewitness News Sydney 1991


Sunday Night News Part 1 (1991)


Part 2 (1991)


25 years on, still impresses to this day
FO
fox1
It's NBN Newcastle - recorded by yours truly on a family holiday Wink


When morning news was news


George Donikian


One and only Ten Eyewitness News
RS
Rob_Schneider
I've heard about that rumour to dump Home and Away off to 7TWO, to bring Today Tonight back to the East Coast. Surely that's just going to kill not just the show off, but the several dollars Seven get from international syndication? I heard that Channel 5 over here practically finance the thing.

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