The Melbourne News Room War…

Six o’clock every night is the time when the Seven verses Nine battle really heats up as the two networks begin broadcast of their respective news services. One of the hardest markets for this competition is the Melbourne one, which is traditionally Nine Network territory, with National Nine News in Melbourne winning every year for the last 27 years. However this year things have been a little tighter with Seven News gaining major audience share meaning Nine had to go from “Melbourne’s No. 1″ to “Melbourne’s Best”, a slogan you may think Nine has conceded defeat.

The success of Seven News didn’t just happen overnight, it has had quite a shaky history which can be seen all the way back from July 16 1987, when Greg Pearce replaced Mal Walden as newsreader. Then only months later on November 27, Pearce announces that he has been replaced, he was replaced by co-hosts Jennifer Keyte and Glenn Taylor. This team delivered the best results for the news service since 1986 so it was decided on August 14 1989, that the news would be moved from 6:30pm to 6pm to go head to head with National Nine News. May 30 1990 Taylor is given the boot and Jennifer Keyte is then made the first woman to read a solo bulletin on Australian commercial television. This lasts until December 10 1995 when Keyte quits Seven to pursue other projects’ and David Johnston takes over on January 15 1996. The news under Johnston falls away ratings wise and so Anne Fulwood is brought in from June 21 1999 to co-anchor the news, which only lasts until November 13 2000 when they are removed for Peter Mitchell to take over, with Keyte returning to Seven on August 23 2003 to present the weekend bulletin.

The one of the key’s to Nine’s success has been while all this chopping and changing has been going on at Seven, Nine has only had the two news readers Brian Naylor and Peter Hitchener since 1987. This provides the viewer with a consistency and therefore the view will place their trust into that news reader.

These days the ratings are neck and neck, and Seven News Melbourne boss Steve Carey saying the 2007 ratings war has already been won, as opposed to his counterpart Michael Venus who states that Seven’s victory chant is premature. To show how close things are, Seven News average audience is 385,595 compared to Nine’s 382,844, with official figures saying that Seven has won 20 week to Nine’s 17 with 1 draw which Nine claims as a victory by just 419 viewers.

Nine News reader Peter Hitchener has said he realised that he is in a visual medium, with himself and sports presenter Tony Jones starting a fitness drive which Hitchener believes has given the news service a fresher look.

Nationally Nine has lost 8.5% of its audience share which is a record, and can be contributed to a long line of dud shows the network has broadcasted and therefore a loss in forward momentum.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to what the viewers want and the viewers decide with their remote controls. What does this all mean for 2008? Who knows, either the audience share will stay neck and neck, Seven may very well be the dominant force in news and current affairs, or will Nine bounce back and re claim its crown? Only time will tell…

Source: Herald Sun, Wednesday November 21 2007, The Guide, Page 3.

Technorati tags: Seven News, National Nine News, Peter Hitchener, Peter Mitchell, Nine Network, Seven Network, Channel Nine, Channel Seven, Melbourne

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