Ten says Newsnight is old news

Only a few days ago Network Ten had all guns blazing about a new-format late night news program to be hosted by journalist Hamish Macdonald (pictured).

The program was to be called Ten Newsnight and debut on Monday, 4 June at 10.30pm.

Now it seems that while the bulletin is still going ahead, the name is not.

Instead, Ten Newsnight will just be the far more traditionally-named Ten Late News, the same title of the late night news bulletin that Ten axed last September.

Ten is reported to have said that the Newsnight name was merely a working title for the purpose of getting news of the show’s launch out to the press, insisting that the last-minute name change was to reflect a simpler, more concise brand for the new program.  One wonders if the network was somehow assuming that the viewing audience would not have the cognitive skills to figure out what a program called Ten Newsnight might specifically entail?

While it is certainly not uncommon for new programs to launch to the public with different titles to those proposed in the development stages, Ten’s media release issued on Monday left no doubt as to what they intended to call this program.

However it has come to light via the online forum Media Spy that Ten’s change of heart may have potentially been prompted in part by the Nine Network trademarking the names “Newsnight” and “9 Newsnight” several years ago – while pay-TV news network Sky News Australia also has an established program called News Night, although such similarities didn’t stop Ten naming its early morning show Breakfast when ABC already had its own ABC News Breakfast.

Despite Ten opting for the pre-loved title for the new program they claim it will be a different news experience compared to its late night predecessor presented for many years by Sandra Sully, with the new program incorporating a mix of news, interviews, entertainment, sport and interaction with social media.

Ten Late News is, at this stage, still set to debut on Monday, 4 June, at 10.30pm and will screen Monday to Thursday nights.

Source: Media Spy, TV Tonight, The Australian

Breakfast battle takes on an early start

The Ten Network’s new Breakfast show debuts today (Thursday) following news last night of the resignation of Kevin Rudd from the position of Foreign Minister.

The new program was originally scheduled to launch on Monday.

Breakfast co-host Paul Henry (pictured, second from left) confirmed the sudden programming change on Ten’s The Project last night:

“This is a hugely exciting evening.  We are not launching Breakfast on Monday.  Ten are launching Breakfast tomorrow morning at 6am. How good is that!”

Joining Henry on Breakfast will be Andrew Rochford, Kathryn Robinson and Magdalena Roze. 

And in an interview published in this week’s TV Week, Sunrise producer Michael Pell is not overly concerned about his show’s new competitor.  “We just concentrate on what we do and what we’ve got coming up.  We don’t look over our shoulder,” he said.  And in comparison to the successful chemistry between Sunrise presenters Melissa Doyle, David Koch, Natalie Barr, Mark Beretta and Grant Denyer, Pell says Ten’s combination is an unknown quantity.  “The presenters on Ten’s new show… we haven’t seen them work together.  So it’s anyone’s guess how it will turn out – chemistry is the key.”

Meanwhile, Today co-host Karl Stefanovic welcomed the addition of the new Ten program as it will force all players to be at their competitive best and viewers will be the winners there.  “The more competition in the slot, the better it is for everyone,” he said.

Currently, Sunrise still dominates the breakfast slot nationally, and while Today is ranked second nationally it is now leading in the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne.  ABC News Breakfast is coming a distant third.

Breakfast.  Weekdays, starting today, 23 February, 6.00am.  Ten.
Sunrise.  Weekdays 6.00am, Seven.
Today.  Weekdays 5.30am, Nine.
ABC News Breakfast.  Weekdays 6.00am, ABC1, and 6.00am (live, AEDST) on ABC News 24.

Source: Network Ten. TV Week, 25 February 2012. The Age.

Ten’s ready to rise for Breakfast

Network Ten’s new breakfast news program, creatively titled Breakfast, is set to debut on Monday, 27 February at 6.00am.

Breakfast will be fronted by Andrew Rochford (The Block, The Project and recently breakfast co-host at Mix 106.5 in Sydney), Kathryn Robinson (Ten News), Magdalena Roze (The Weather Channel, Ten News) and outspoken New Zealand presenter Paul Henry, who was signed up for the new program for $NZ1 million by Ten’s interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch.

Even before Henry makes his Australian TV debut, his appointment to the network has already sparked divisive debate largely due to controversial comments made while host of TVNZ’s own Breakfast program which led to his resignation from the national broadcaster and subsequent million-dollar offer to cross the Tasman.  He will also continue to appear on New Zealand television with plans to host a weekly comedy show on commercial network TV3.

Ten’s head of news and current affairs, Anthony Flannery says Breakfast aims to be ‘must-see’ TV for Australians as they start their day:

“Breakfast is a tough, competitive environment and we can’t wait to get into the game. Already, the opposition is taking cheap pot shots – I couldn’t be happier that they’re taking us so seriously, so soon.”

“We plan to make Breakfast a must-watch part of Australia’s day. From fact to fun, it’s going to be a fresh start to the morning TV schedule.”

The new show will have a tough job ahead of itself, entering a market dominated by the long-running Today and Sunrise programs as well as alternatives ABC News Breakfast and Sky News’ First Edition and AM Agenda.

Ten’s new show will also be under pressure to deliver numbers to lead in to mid-morning show The Circle which currently suffers by not being handed a large audience from the preceding early morning children’s shows.  The Circle, despite winning a TV Week Logie last year for Most Popular Light Entertainment Program, is currently rating well behind Seven’s The Morning Show and Nine’s recently-launched Mornings.

Ten to tackle Today and Sunrise?

The Ten Network is reported to be looking at reworking its early morning timeslot with plans to launch a breakfast news program.

Just a week ago the network announced it was cutting its workforce by around 100 while it continues to undertake a strategic review of its on-air offerings.  It has axed weekend stalwart Video Hits and, while nothing has been formally announced, is believed to have also cut Sports Tonight.  The network has also recently walked away from AFL coverage beyond the end of this season and has been re-working its high-definition channel One away from a purely sports-oriented format.  But despite the cuts there is hope that a revitalised early morning timeslot will tap into additional advertising revenue while utilising news resources already in place at the network.

Ten currently presents one-hour bulletins at 6.00am and 9.00am each weekday but the proposed new program – tentatively titled AM – appears set to replace them both and may provide an improved lead-in to talk show The Circle.

But Ten’s planned new venture is entering into what is already a crowded marketplace – with Sunrise and Today leading the morning ratings and ABC News Breakfast and Sky News’ First Edition and AM Agenda providing an alternative.

The network is believed to have Today co-host and TV Week Gold Logie winner Karl Stefanovic (pictured) at the top of its wish list for hosting the new program, though this is unlikely to come to fruition given his apparent desire to move away from breakfast television and the prime-time exposure he has gained at Nine – through A Current Affair, 60 Minutes and Nine News coverage.

Breakfast news television is not exactly new at Ten.  In 1981 the network launched Good Morning Australia, a program that re-ignited the format in Australia several years after the Seven Network had axed its Today show in the mid-1970s.  The launch of Good Morning Australia was later followed by Nine launching The National Today Show (now Today) in 1982, with Seven launching TVAM in the late ‘80s and then Sunrise which has continued in various formats since the late ‘90s. 

Good Morning Australia continued until it was axed at the end of 1992 and the name was then re-assigned to Bert Newton’s mid-morning chat show.

Source: The Australian

ABC For Kids becomes ABC 4 Kids

ABC’s channel re-branding continues, with ABC For Kids On 2 to be re-named ABC 4 Kids from Monday 2 May.  The new logo bears a resemblance to that of ABC’s children’s channel ABC3 which launched in 2009.

The change is timed to coincide with the expansion of digital channel ABC2’s pre-school children’s line-up to include early mornings.  From 2 May, ABC2 will broadcast ABC 4 Kids between 6.00am and 7.00pm as the early-morning ABC News Breakfast moves to ABC1.

Highlighting ABC 4 Kids new early-morning line-up is the new animated series of Bananas In Pyjamas followed by a new series of US program Sesame Street.

ABC 4 Kids will present programming aimed at pre-school age children, while ABC3 continues to broadcast programs directed at children age 5 and above.

The re-branding of ABC 4 Kids follows the recent logo updates of ABC1 and ABC2.

ABC swaps early morning programming

National broadcaster ABC is about to make its anticipated swap of early morning programs between its primary channel ABC1 and digital channel ABC2.

From Monday 2 May, ABC1’s weekday morning children’s programming block – 6.00am to 9.00am – will be shifting to ABC2.  At the same time, ABC2’s broadcast of ABC News Breakfast (hosted by Michael Rowland and Virginia Trioli, pictured) is moving to ABC1, while continuing to broadcast live each weekday morning on high-definition channel ABC News 24.

For ABC1 it marks the end of forty years of children’s programming in the early weekday hours – a morning schedule started with the debut of Sesame Street in 1971.  ABC1’s afternoon children’s programming block – 3.00pm to 6.00pm weekdays – will continue.

ABC News Breakfast has been broadcast on ABC2 since it debuted in November 2008 and started on ABC News 24 when that channel launched last year.  The move to ABC1 will coincide with some new segments on the program, including a regular political discussion ‘The Party Line’, featuring leaders and decision makers, as well as increased emphasis on local and regional news.

ABC’s Director of News Kate Torney said the move of ABC News Breakfast brings it in line with the broadcaster’s other news and current affairs programs which also feature through the day on ABC1:

"ABC News Breakfast's move to ABC1 strengthens the network's live news coverage on the main channel, and offers more quality news from the start of the day, and right throughout, with the Midday News, regular news updates during the afternoon, the 7pm News bulletins, and completing the day with 7.30, Lateline and Lateline Business."

The move of the early morning children’s programming to ABC2 basically extends ABC2’s children’s schedule, predominantly aimed at viewers up to age 5, to 13 hours a day – starting at 6.00am and going through to 7.00pm.  This is in addition to the broadcaster’s dedicated children’s channel ABC3, aimed at the older end of the children’s age bracket and young teens, which broadcasts from 6.00am to 9.00pm every day.

The move of the early morning children’s line-up to ABC2 will coincide with the world premiere of the animated series of Bananas In Pyjamas, screening weekday mornings at 8.00am from 2 May, followed by a new series of Sesame Street.

ABC2 gets a new look

Following the rebranding of ABC1 earlier this year, the national broadcaster has now launched new branding for digital channel ABC2.

It is the first visual revamp for the channel since 2008.

Adopting the slogan ‘Always Brighter’, ABC2 is taking on a brighter, quirkier image and aiming at a more contemporary audience than its more conservative counterparts at ABC1.

ABC2 is essentially a prime-time only channel as early mornings are currently occupied by a simulcast of ABC News Breakfast with ABC News 24, and during the daytime the channel is programmed by ABC For Kids.  ABC will soon be swapping the early morning schedules of ABC1 and ABC2, so that ABC News Breakfast moves to the primary ABC1 channel and ABC1’s early morning children’s programs move across to ABC2.

YouTube: NewOnABCTV, NewOnABCTV, NewOnABCTV

Farewell 2010… and “hello” to ‘11

It’s New Year’s Eve and another year comes to a close.  We saw the launch of more digital channels – 7mate, GEM, ABC News 24.  There was another hit season of MasterChef Australia, joined this year by Junior MasterChef.  Hey Hey It’s Saturday was back for a longer run but failed to match the ratings high of its reunion shows of 2009.

Neighbours celebrated 25 years and SBS turned 30.

Bert Newton was back as host of the TV Week Logie Awards.  Home And Away’s Ray Meagher won the Gold Logie and the late Brian Naylor was posthumously inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.  A Current Affair celebrated Reg Grundy.

GTV9 said farewell to 22 Bendigo Street and ATN7 moved out of Epping.

Television turned 50 in Tasmania.  ABC celebrated 50 years in Adelaide, Perth and Hobart – and analogue television was switched off in Mildura, regional South Australia and Broken Hill.

Kerry O’Brien signed off from The 7.30 Report.  Talking Heads wound up after six years. 

The Winter Olympics were on Nine, and the Commonwealth Games were on Ten.  Nine said farewell to Wimbledon after more than thirty years.  Sport was given the 3D treatment on free-to-air and Foxtel.

Right here we documented the year 1990 as reported in the pages of TV Week – and will continue the theme into 2011 as we follow the corresponding period in 1991.

2011 brings with it the long-awaited launch of Network Ten’s new digital channel, Eleven, across most of Australia – and the launch of Ten’s expanded news portfolio with a new 6.00pm program with George Negus and city-based 6.30pm news bulletins.

There will be more MasterChef, but will Hey Hey It’s Saturday be back?  Will Neighbours survive the transition to Eleven?  Will the revamped The 7.30 Report make up for the loss of Kerry O’Brien?   

Will Hamish and Andy, having walked away from most of their radio commitments, make a determined shift into TV?

There will be more drama from Underbelly on Nine, East West 101 on SBS and a new series, Winners And Losers, on Seven. Packed To The Rafters will try to move on from the death of character Melissa (Zoe Ventoura) – and what will become of the bubbling sexual tension between Nina Proudman (Asher Keddie) and Chris Havel (Don Hany) in Offspring?  Will Ten’s planned prison drama come to fruition?

ABC’s Four Corners will celebrate its 50th anniversary, while ABC News Breakfast plans to move from ABC2 to ABC1.  Regional television in Victoria will turn 50 and will farewell analogue transmission. Television in Darwin will turn 40.  And it will be 20 years since aggregation came to Northern NSW and the Gold Coast.

US show Sesame Street will reach 40 years on Australian television – and The Simpsons turns 20.

Digital television turns ten years old on 1 January – while certain areas of Australia are still yet to see the benefits of the new technology.

And one blogger will – shudder – turn 40 years old!

May you all have a happy new year and a great 2011!

Coming soon… the 7.30 refresh

ABC’s long-running current affairs program The 7.30 Report is about to get a refresh – with new hosts and a new name.

From March next year, the program will be re-named 7.30 and will have two hosts, Leigh Sales and Chris Uhlmann, replacing Kerry O’Brien who is soon to finish up on the program after 15 years.

Sales, currently a presenter of ABC’s Lateline and a contributor to The Drum, will front the new-look program from Sydney, while Uhlmann, with more than 20 years’ experience at ABC and currently a presenter on ABC News 24, will be the show’s Political Editor based in Canberra.

Also joining 7.30 will be ABC Online’s Chief Political Writer Annabel Crabb, providing her own take on political events.

The changes come as The 7.30 Report reaches its 25th anniversary.  The program was launched in January 1986 from the remnants of the short-lived news and current affairs experiment, The National, which had wound up after less than a year on air.

The 7.30 Report began as a state-based current affairs program from each capital city and from 1996 was re-launched as a national program, hosted by O’Brien.

The change to the 7.30 brand will also affect the Friday night current affairs program Stateline, though it will continue to cover local issues each Friday in each state and territory – and if a big local story breaks during the week, 7.30 will cover the news at a local level.

As well as 7.30, the new year will signal another change for ABC news and current affairs – with morning program ABC News Breakfast being moved from digital channel ABC2 to the main ABC1 channel.  The transition will allow the block of children’s programming that currently appears on ABC1 each weekday morning to move to ABC2, coinciding with the expansion of the ABC For Kids brand on the digital channel.

In another program milestone, next year will also mark the 50th anniversary of current affairs program 4 Corners.

Source: The Australian, ABC

ABC News 24 programming unveiled

The initial program schedule for ABC’s news channel, ABC News 24, has been unveiled just a few days before the channel’s launch.

The new channel, broadcasting on high-definition channel 24, kicks off at 7.30pm AEST this Thursday. The launch special will air in simulcast with ABC1 at 7.30pm (local time).

The prime-time schedule for the first five days of ABC News 24 looks like this (all times in AEST):

Thursday 22:
7.30pm ABC News 24 Launch: ABC News Special (repeated 12.05am Friday 23 June on ABC24), 8.30 The Drum. A spin-off from ABC’s news opinion website The Drum, 9pm The World. International news, 10pm ABC News, 10.30 Newsline With Jim Middleton (from the Australia Network), 11pm ABC News, 11.28 One Plus One

Friday 23:
6pm ABC News, 6.05 The Drum, 6.45 The Quarters, 7pm ABC News, 7.32 One Plus One (rpt), 8pm ABC News, 8.32 Australian Story (rpt), 9pm The World, 10pm Four Corners (rpt), 10.46 Media Watch (rpt), 11pm ABC News, 11.30 Foreign Correspondent (rpt)

Saturday 24:
6pm ABC News, 6.32 Australian Story (rpt), 7pm ABC News, 7.32 7.30 Select (rpt), 8pm Documentary: Terror In The Skies, 8.54 The 7.30 Report (rpt), 9pm The World,
9.32 Foreign Correspondent (rpt), 10pm ABC News, 10.32 Dynasties (rpt), 11pm ABC News, 11.32 Message Stick (rpt)

Sunday 25:
6pm ABC News, 6.32 Foreign Correspondent (rpt), 7pm ABC News, 7.32 One Plus One (rpt), 8.02 Insiders (rpt), 9.02 The World, 9.33 Asia Pacific Focus (rpt), 10pm ABC News, 10.32 7.30 Select (rpt), 11pm ABC News, 11.32 Family Fortunes (rpt). (Note: The Sunday schedule is now likely to be affected by live coverage of the federal election debate, scheduled for 6.30pm)

Monday 26:
6pm ABC News, 6.05 The Drum, 6.45 The Quarters, 7pm ABC News, 7.32 Catalyst (rpt), 8pm ABC News, 8.32 Lateline Business, 9pm The World, 10pm ABC News, 10.30 Newsline, 11pm ABC News, 11.28 The 7.30 Report (rpt)

Two-minute news updates either on the hour or on the half-hour feature throughout the day and evening.

Mornings will include ABC News Breakfast (simulcast with ABC2 in EST states) and overnights will include news and current affairs programming from BBC.

ABC News 24 will also include time-shifted schedules for regular ABC programs including Midday Report, Landline, Stateline, At The Movies, Talking Heads, Message Stick, Compass and Q&A.

More detailed program listings are online at Yahoo7 and YourTV, while complete guides for the first week of ABC News 24 can be downloaded from TV Tonight and What’s On The Tube.

ABC previews News 24

The launch of ABC’s long-awaited 24-hour news channel, ABC News 24, is getting closer.

While no official announcement of a launch date has been made by ABC, earlier this week MediaSpy reported that an ABC insider had advised that the channel could be on the air as early as this Wednesday or next.  The channel’s launch, originally rumoured for early July, was said to have been postponed after concerns were raised over the broadcaster’s reporting of the recent political leadership challenge.

The coverage of the political upheaval highlighted some of the technical hitches in ABC’s transition to a new centralised playout facility, MediaHub, being set up as a joint venture between ABC and regional network WIN and which will co-ordinate the on-air presentation for the channels of both broadcasters, including ABC News 24.

Meanwhile, a preview of the new channel is now online on ABC’s YouTube channel and is now being rolled out across Australia on digital channel 24, the future home of ABC News 24.

ABC News 24 will feature a mix of live, continuous news reporting plus exclusive programming and time-shifted news and current affairs programming from ABC’s existing channels.

Some of the presenters to appear on ABC News 24 include ABC newsreaders Juanita Phillips and Jeremy Fernandez, 7.30 Report political editor Chris Uhlmann, ABC News Breakfast co-hosts Virginia Trioli and Joe O’Brien, former foreign correspondents Scott Bevan and Jane Hutcheon and Lateline Business host Ali Moore.  The channel will draw on the resources of 800 journalists based in over 60 locations throughout Australia and from a dozen international bureaux.

The channel will be based in a new purpose-built studio inside ABC’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney.

Source: ABC News 24, Media Watch

Sun now rises on Saturday

The battle between breakfast rivals Sunrise and Today steps up another notch this week, the first week of the official ratings for 2010, with the announcement that Sunrise is now extending to Saturdays.

The move now sees the two perennial rivals competing seven days a week.  Today has, for a while, had a seven day presence, while Sunrise initially expanded only to a Sunday edition, Weekend Sunrise, leaving the Saturday early morning timeslot to long-running children’s program, Saturday Disney.  It is not known at this stage what will become of Saturday Disney, a show which has been on-air for 20 years now, in the wake of Weekend Sunrise extending to Saturday mornings.

The battle between the two shows also intensified last month with Sunrise re-launching, with a new-look studio, refreshed on-air presentation, the return of former weather presenter Grant Denyer and a move towards a more serious news focus – although the show’s recent “election”, over the issue of whether or not male presenters on the show should wear a tie, does blur this focus somewhat, but there has to be a balance between serious and flippant.

And while Sunrise and Today are fighting it out – and summer ratings data indicates that this year’s ratings battle will turn out to be the tightest yet between the two, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne – national broadcaster ABC continues its very serious ABC News Breakfast on ABC2 and gears up for the launch of its new 24-hour news channel.