In this op-ed, former TV executive Laurie Patton says that the decision by WIN to cut down its Newcastle news operation could hurt local advertisers.
There’s a saying in commercial television: ratings equals revenue.
In regional viewing areas, around 40 percent of television advertising money is drawn from “direct sales” by local businesses. The bulk comes via advertising agencies on behalf of national clients.
News bulletins contain prime advertising slots, commanding premium rates.
What’s more, the evening news is often referred to as ‘the raft’ on which the rest of the evening’s ratings floats. It’s long been observed that many viewers tuning into the nightly news stick with the channel when it’s over.
Multichanneling has diminished this effect, and the viewer loyalty that networks once enjoyed. Nevertheless, news remains a particularly potent drawcard.
So it’s a curious move for WIN to be dumping its local news on weekends in Newcastle (and adjacent sub-markets) after it recently acquired NBN.
They will shortly begin running a half hour local bulletin (reduced from the current hour) followed by an hour long bulletin full of Sydney news from Monday to Friday.
I suspect that many viewers will miss out on their local news because they are still heading home from work at 5:30. And how many people want to watch 90 minutes of news?
Having run a regional television network, pulling local bulletins on weekends seems counterintuitive.
Regional audiences tend to have greater station loyalty than those in our capital cities. Local businesses are able to leverage that audience loyalty.
In my experience, regional viewers want to know about local sport, weather and news, in that order. For a sport-loving community like the Newcastle region, this just seems a weird decision.
I don’t think Newcastle viewers see themselves as merely a satellite city of Sydney. They are likely to be more interested in hearing how their local teams performed than the results of a Swans or GWS match!
For local businesses the lost opportunity will not just be on weekends. They will be competing for slots against cashed-up national advertisers and potentially paying higher rates under the new program format.
Laurie Patton is a former Seven Network executive, having run Seven Sydney and regional network Seven Queensland. He was also the network’s first marketing director.
