anthonysimilion Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,10...703-462,00.html PBL Media, the media spin-off of James Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, has come up trumps against regional rival WIN Corp in its bid for Newcastle-based broadcaster NBN Television.NBN's owner, SP Telemedia Ltd, today said it would sell the network and its Outside Broadcasting and Productions operations that trades as One80 Digital Post, to PBL Media for $250 million.
Champion_R Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 Hopefully it'll be a case of don't "fix" what ain't broke. I can see PBL doing a lot of harm here if they start changing things but I really don't see the point of them changing anything, NBN dominates it's market and is a much better buy than STW-9 in Perth where they'd have to push s**t up hill to try and win over the Seven zealots.
dkint3 Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 PBL have paid $250 mil (which I think is too much - it's only supposed to worth about $170 mil) for NBN and will be looking to cut costs as much as possible to recoup some of its' investment. The rumour is that NBN will be re-branded as Channel Nine as early as next month. The 1 hr NBN news format will become 30 mins under the banner of 'National Nine News' and the 'Nine Northern NSW' schedule will mirror TCN9 Sydney. NBN's kid mascot 'Big Dog', is also likely to get the flick (as Nine already have Humphrey B Bear).
Champion_R Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 NBN's kid mascot 'Big Dog', is also likely to get the flick (as Nine already have Humphrey B Bear). Ditching Big Dog would definitely bring complaints. I know people in Perth complain if Seven don't show Fat Cat going to bed at 7:30
digitalj Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 Hopefully HD Bitrate isn't reduced, and hopefully a VPG isn't added.
Big Dan Posted May 3, 2007 Posted May 3, 2007 Ditching Big Dog would definitely bring complaints. I know people in Perth complain if Seven don't show Fat Cat going to bed at 7:30 Something tells me they won't care too much about what people think. I think they've paid too much and viewers will lose out.
anthonysimilion Posted May 3, 2007 Author Posted May 3, 2007 Centralisation makes even more sense for Nine, now.
austruckie Posted May 3, 2007 Posted May 3, 2007 Centralisation makes even more sense for Nine, now. This (purchase) will allow PBL, IF THEY CHOSE, to broadcast league in native HD in house through one80 and level the playing field with 10 and AFL. They may chose to do this for finals and comprehensively next year. cheers alan.
dkint3 Posted May 3, 2007 Posted May 3, 2007 Apparently, NBN's OB broadcast operation isn't large enough for events like NRL and cricket.. not sure what they've got it for then??
matturn Posted May 3, 2007 Posted May 3, 2007 Hopefully it'll be a case of don't "fix" what ain't broke. I can see PBL doing a lot of harm here if they start changing things but I really don't see the point of them changing anything, NBN dominates it's market and is a much better buy than STW-9 in Perth where they'd have to push s**t up hill to try and win over the Seven zealots. The NNSW market also has more viewers than Perth IIRC.
austruckie Posted May 3, 2007 Posted May 3, 2007 Apparently, NBN's OB broadcast operation isn't large enough for events like NRL and cricket.. not sure what they've got it for then?? its a base to be expanded and in the interim gain some experience, hence the suggestion, maybe the finals this year. Think it was a foot in the (HD) water by Lamb family when they had NBN , they were progressive. if they get rid of big dog will there be ****ing? ( sorry ).
Big Dan Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 its a base to be expanded and in the interim gain some experience, hence the suggestion, maybe the finals this year. Think it was a foot in the (HD) water by Lamb family when they had NBN , they were progressive. if they get rid of big dog will there be ****ing? ( sorry ). From the sounds of things, yes, poor old Big Dog is getting the arse, as is the 60 minute news hour, replaced as of June 3 I believe by a local 30 minute version National Nine News, minus the irrelevant Sydney stories and replaced by a few local stories. If this fails, you'd hope Prime would get an opportunity and jump back in with a local news service. We can only hope though.
Champion_R Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 From the sounds of things, yes, poor old Big Dog is getting the arse, as is the 60 minute news hour, replaced as of June 3 I believe by a local 30 minute version National Nine News, minus the irrelevant Sydney stories and replaced by a few local stories. This is exactly why I was so against PBL acquiring STW-9. Sounds like NBN is going to get gutted to the minimum and they may very well lose their market dominance. It will be sad to see all of the hard work from the staff at NBN destroyed in a matter of weeks by this takeover.
Big Dan Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 This is exactly why I was so against PBL acquiring STW-9.Sounds like NBN is going to get gutted to the minimum and they may very well lose their market dominance. It will be sad to see all of the hard work from the staff at NBN destroyed in a matter of weeks by this takeover. Not if no-one else starts a local TV news service, and Prime and Southern Cross don't look likely to start one until hell freezes over. The only way they'll lose local dominance is if more people vote with their remotes and aerials and watch Seven's news either on Prime or Seven (depending on how your have your aerial). That could happen. The Herald does a decent job, as does ABC radio, so you could fill in the gaps left by Nine. You won't believe this, but guess who is the only rival in TV-esque news services around here? A 5-minute ABC Newcastle podcast. The AB-friggin-C. Pathetic. The powers that be are toothless tigers. I can get 2 competiting services in Bathurst/Central West market, which is smaller than the Newcastle/Hunter market, but I can't get the same in an area that could support two competiting services if they pull their fingers out of their arse.
dkint3 Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 Prime reportedly said about 12 months ago that they would not rule out returning to a full local bulletin in the Newcastle market 'if the conditions were right' - or words to that effect (but then conditions obviously weren't right). And what better conditions could they have to win over viewers than an Newcastle audience who have been disenchanted by PBL's move to 30 minute news. I also think PBL will ditch local news in the Tamworth/Armidale market (where they would relay Sydney's news), as Prime already have a commanding lead over NBN at 6pm. This is in addition to the Gold Coast, where (I think) it is a foregone conclusion that local news on NBN will also be axed. The North Coast should be safe as NBN currently rates strongly at 6pm, but I'm not so sure about the Central Coast. Wollongong and Canberra also have no effective commercial TV competition, but smaller markets like the Sunshine Coast, Townsville/Cairns, Wagga Wagga and Orange/Dubbo as Big Dan mentioned, do well to have 2 competing local services at 6pm despite smaller populations. The ABC does very well with it's own 7pm bulletin in Canberra though.
sulimo Posted May 5, 2007 Posted May 5, 2007 The 1 hr NBN news format will become 30 mins under the banner of 'National Nine News' and the 'Nine Northern NSW' schedule will mirror TCN9 Sydney. Bloody hell. That'll suck. They might as well scrap the whole thing and just rebroadcast the Sydney news. Now there's no reason for me to checkout any commercial news. Of course...if WIN had won, wouldn't the effect have been the same?
dkint3 Posted May 5, 2007 Posted May 5, 2007 Please note the above hasn't been confirmed by PBL. It's still just speculation. I think if WIN had bought NBN, there would be 2 separate bulletins, as WIN currently do in most markets ie. local news at 6pm and 'National Nine News' from Sydney at 6.30pm. I think they would have kept local news in all markets as well.
Skid_MacMarx Posted May 5, 2007 Posted May 5, 2007 I think there would be more complaints if they ditch the hour news bulletin with Ray than big dog... it is actually the only decent local news service on tellie... if in fact it does go it will illustrate the effects of Howard's new media concentration laws....
dkint3 Posted May 6, 2007 Posted May 6, 2007 if in fact it does go it will illustrate the effects of Howard's new media concentration laws.... If local news is cut, it will be due to the local content rules, which are not demanding enough of the 'incumbent' broadcaster. NBN is only legally required to produced 120 points of local content per week (on average). This equates to 60 mins of local news or 120 mins of programming related to other local matters (or any combination of the two). Points can be accrued at ANY TIME between 6am and midnight. I'd rather see this changed to require the 'incumbent' broadcaster to provide a 30 min local news bulletin (or equivalent eg. 50% local content in a 1hr bulletin) after 5pm weeknights in their 'heritage' market ie. NBN would have to do this in Newcastle/Hunter, Prime in Tamworth/Taree and SC Ten in Coffs Harbour/Lismore/Gold Coast. Other stations would be required to provide 'headlines' on weeknights and local weather reports 7 days a week. All stations would be required to provide emergency warnings eg. storms, floods etc (which can be done via a 'ticker' message across the bottom of the screen) .
RF Burns Posted May 6, 2007 Posted May 6, 2007 Just to throw my 2 bob's worth in. Regarding the NBN News, anyone who thinks that Newcastle local news will stay is kidding themselves, it may not go tomorrow but I predict it will be gone within 12 months. Just to put a different perspecive on it, other than local job loses would it be much different? In the 1 hour bulletin how much "local" news & sport is there included every night? I estimate a rough guess averaged is 5-8 minutes of news & 5-8 minutes of sport, local weather isn't counted, the only difference between Sydney 30 mins news & Newcastle 1 hour news is more ads. I can get both NBN Newcastle & Nine Sydney & for those of you who can't, I can tell you that the National & International news stories are presented (not reported) word for word exactly the same on both stations, it's just read by different people. Even the stupid little jokes & comments between presenters at the end of the news is word for word exactly the same on both Nine Sydney & NBN Newcastle. Regarding programing, NBN more or less became Nine a few years ago. Engineering is where the difference still is & where most local job losses will be, if NBN becomes Nine, there will probably still be a couple of local News reporters, & a local sales & comercial production team. This is only a guess by me, I think that all the Engineering & NBN owned transmission sites most likely will be handed over to TX Australia to operate & look after or possibly sold off to Broadcast Australia to operate. Cheers GlennP.
ShaneM Posted May 6, 2007 Posted May 6, 2007 With the sale of NBN to channel 9, I am wondering what will happen on the central coast. Will they end up with two channel 9's? Also wouldn't channel 9 be in breach of acma rules in that they would have two stations operating in the same market.
digitalj Posted May 6, 2007 Posted May 6, 2007 With the sale of NBN to channel 9, I am wondering what will happen on the central coast. Will they end up with two channel 9's?Also wouldn't channel 9 be in breach of acma rules in that they would have two stations operating in the same market. if they really can't have 2 stations in the same market, then NBN will probably be taken off-air. same on the Gold Coast.
RF Burns Posted May 6, 2007 Posted May 6, 2007 With the sale of NBN to channel 9, I am wondering what will happen on the central coast. Will they end up with two channel 9's?Also wouldn't channel 9 be in breach of acma rules in that they would have two stations operating in the same market. If NBN becomes 9, PBL won't really have 2 stations operating in the same market, they'll have one operating on two channels & as there would be no benifit to that, I'd imagine one channel/frequency will be turned off & the licence handed back to the ACMA. If they stay the same as they are now, as for 2 stations in the same market on the Central Coast, as far as I can find, it's not an issue because they don't have 2 in the same market. The Central Coast is not a separate market (even though NBN have tried to make it one), it's classed as an "overspill" area between the Sydney & Newcastle markets, all transmitters on the Central Coast are only translators not Main Transmission sites, that's also why the Central Coast can have translators from both the Newcastle & Sydney markets, as adequate signals from the main Transmitter site in both these markets reach into & are serviceable on the Central Coast. As far as I'm aware (& have been trying to get confirmation on this for years) NBN technically shouldn't be broadcasting different programs (News) & commercials into the Central Coast, their service should be a mirror of the Newcastle service, same as Prime & SC10 & the Sydney ones being a mirror of the Sydney services of 7, 9 & 10. The radio markets are different to the TV markets, in radio yes the Central Coast is a market on it's own, even though it shares the same allocated frequencies as Newcastle. Cheers GlennP.
dkint3 Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 On QLD's Sunshine Coast, both Seven Queensland and Seven Brisbane transmit from Bald Hill for southern Sunshine Coast residents. The Seven Network own both of these services. So I highly doubt that PBL will (or have to) 'hand in' one of it's licences on the Central Coast or Gold Coast. They would still have to compete against 4 other commercials - Seven, Prime, Ten and Southern Cross Ten in both. Also, it will simply result in a reduction in ad revenue for them - one less station counted in the ratings and one less station to sell ad spots on.. In the 1 hour bulletin how much "local" news & sport is there included every night?I estimate a rough guess averaged is 5-8 minutes of news & 5-8 minutes of sport, local weather isn't counted, the only difference between Sydney 30 mins news & Newcastle 1 hour news is more ads. I can get both NBN Newcastle & Nine Sydney & for those of you who can't, I can tell you that the National & International news stories are presented (not reported) word for word exactly the same on both stations, it's just read by different people. Even the stupid little jokes & comments between presenters at the end of the news is word for word exactly the same on both Nine Sydney & NBN Newcastle. Yes, NBN has never been really big on local news. I make it about 10 mins of local news & sport (WIN does about double this amount in their 6pm local news bulletins). Other news that isn't sourced from Nine's 30 min Sydney bulletin comes from a mix of Nine Melbourne, ABC America or ITV Britain to 'fill up' the news hour. However, I'm concerned at reports that PBL are considering a 30 min version of 'National Nine News' for Newcastle. I can't see how they can adquately cover ALL news in 23 mins (excluding ads).
matturn Posted May 8, 2007 Posted May 8, 2007 However, I'm concerned at reports that PBL are considering a 30 min version of 'National Nine News' for Newcastle.I can't see how they can adquately cover ALL news in 23 mins (excluding ads). That's all the major capitals get from Nine, Seven, the ABC and SBS of an early evening.
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