6 February 2012

So why aren't you watching the ABC News?

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times has a lengthy piece on the massive shrinkage in the ABC News’ viewer numbers.

With WIN still doing well and no major format changes in the period tens of thousands of viewers have been lost no one seems to know here they’re going.

I’ve got a suspicion there’s just a lot of good things on around 7pm with all the new channels.

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Has anyone else noticed that Virginia can not say her name and maintain eye contact when she introduces herself at the very start of the news. SOMETIMES she can, but mostly she says Virginia and then looks down to say her last name.

And don’t get me started on the ‘Carmody-Hour’… I personally can not stand him, but find it amusing to see how long it takes him to stumble, and how quickly he can recover. There are also the awkward interactions between him and V. Classic! Heh.

Its mean, but it brings a little fun in to the evening weather.

Oh, and by the way – I record the news so I can watch it after I have fixed dinner and the kids. Never even thought to watch another news chanel, and maybe now I will. I guess the attraction to the ABC News is that there are no ads!

HenryBG said :

The ABC core audience is educated, thoughtful and discriminating. They’ve moved on. They have more options, they do more with their time, and they are quicker to take up new technologies. They’re also less likely to have the idiot box on during mealtimes.
The WIN core audience has less wit, less industry and therefore less options.

TV is going to follow print journalism into the dustbin of history.

Yes. I used to watch the 7pm ABC news religiously. Now, I listen to ABC news radio in the morning. I check out macrobusiness.com.au (sounding like a broken record here) for daily political and economic analysis at lunchtime. More ABC news radio on the way home. Then RiotAct for local news and gossip in the evening. I don’t feel that I need any more news than that in a day and consequently I haven’t watched the ABC news for 6 months or more.

Even when I did watch it, it seemed like there was only about 10 minutes of relevant news, and the rest was useless. I’m not interested in 95% of sporting news, and if I want information about the weather I have a link to http://www.bom.gov.au on my phone that instantly gives me the scoop about the weather right from the horses mouth, along with the latest radar picture.

In short, there are other mechanisms for getting the information that I feel is relevant to me in a more timely and efficient manner. And with RA, I also get to scream back into the void. 🙂

NoImRight said :

So your concern is they dont show as much interest in your particular hobby horse as another station does? I imagine if they did there’d be posters on here complaining about ABC bias towards Light Rail. So who would be right? Maybe some just dont consider it newsworthy? Or else maybe if you want your barrow pushed you amy have to grab the handles yourself?

Its not my concern that they show interest in my particular hobby horse, its my concern that they only show one side – the act govt side.

I shall explain it more simply, removing myself and the drums I beat from the equation. We have two news services:

News service ‘A’ makes contact, seeks info on matters of public interest. presents report with both/or more sides of topic.

News service ‘B’ does not seek out other views and presents one side of a topic.

Between ABC24 Breakfast, SBS News in the evening and online local news during the day (RiotACT and Canberra Times) I really do not have the stomach for any more news. Especially the infotainment on the commercial channels.
My Google Reader feed keeps me updated on the most important things.

I stopped watching at Christmas when they whipped up a story about a minor cyclone near Darwin “being another Cyclone Tracy” and they rolled out the old footage of Tracy’s devastation. You could almost feel their disappointment when the cyclone not only missed Darwin but caused no damage whatsoever. Not even Today Tonight has stooped so low.

I forgot to mention from my earlier post that another reason why I don’t watch as often is the quality has dropped. Since the ‘upgrade’ several years back to automate much of the production and have Journalists do their own editing etc – the quality is woeful. How many times have you seen the wrong name go up on the bottom of the screen for whoever is being interviewed?

Did anyone notice the high pitched buzz whenever Virginia’s mic was on last night? That’s right…..no one is watching

damien haas said :

ahhh my comment disappeared….

Its very simple – WIN cover local news more effectively than the ABC. In my experience with both the Belconnen Community Council and ACT Light Rail, WIN will contact us and show up to cover news. The same applies to 2CC and the CT.

The ABC have never contacted either the BCC or ACT Light Rail.

To be considered ‘news’ you need to do more than just parrot the ACT Govt press releases.

(These are my views, not those of the BCC or ACT LR)

So your concern is they dont show as much interest in your particular hobby horse as another station does? I imagine if they did there’d be posters on here complaining about ABC bias towards Light Rail. So who would be right? Maybe some just dont consider it newsworthy? Or else maybe if you want your barrow pushed you amy have to grab the handles yourself?

My unscientific observation is that WIN turn up to a much higher proportion of local events.

Does that account for much higher viewership? I’m guessing being on half an hour earlier helps.

ahhh my comment disappeared….

Its very simple – WIN cover local news more effectively than the ABC. In my experience with both the Belconnen Community Council and ACT Light Rail, WIN will contact us and show up to cover news. The same applies to 2CC and the CT.

The ABC have never contacted either the BCC or ACT Light Rail.

To be considered ‘news’ you need to do more than just parrot the ACT Govt press releases.

(These are my views, not those of the BCC or ACT LR)

shadow boxer1:36 pm 07 Feb 12

Don’t you find it quite offensive that the ABC would roll out a Forrest Gump type character for people to laugh and point at during the weather.

You might as well have a short, balding, overly spray tanned ex surfie shout the weather at you…………..oh wait

Grandstand said :

* Virginia and the other fill-ins also have an total disrespect for Mark Carmody which is more than noticeable on screen and has been since he started. Whilst he ain’t the greatest TV talent, his quirky style is worth watching and is sometimes the nightly highlight on the box.

I like Mark Carmody too (he reminds me of someone’s grandmother) but I get the impression he and Virginia have quite a good relationship. She pokes fun at him and he plays up to it. They enjoy their banter!

* Virginia comes across as being cold. Yes TV Newsreaders should have authority, she does not engage you as a viewer. Lighten up!

* Virginia and the other fill-ins also have an total disrespect for Mark Carmody which is more than noticeable on screen and has been since he started. Whilst he ain’t the greatest TV talent, his quirky style is worth watching and is sometimes the nightly highlight on the box.

* Give us more local stories. Last night we were lucky to have 2 local items (and one of them was about kids returning to school for 2012 – hardly a big story). There is often too much emphasis on stuff that does not affect us (such as their story about something the the West Australian health system last night).

Myles Peterson10:39 am 07 Feb 12

So why aren’t you watching the ABC News?

Too many good alternatives (including ABC online and ABCNews24). Few people want appointment television any more (or appointment print for that matter).

If you can’t deliver your content over convenient platforms at convenient times, someone else will.

Bonejac said :

The state of decay in Aunties journalism and what seems to be a miss guided attempt to “go commercial” I think has the ABC core audience turning to alternatives.

Exactly. John Howard made the appointment he made for this purpose.

The ABC core audience is educated, thoughtful and discriminating. They’ve moved on. They have more options, they do more with their time, and they are quicker to take up new technologies. They’re also less likely to have the idiot box on during mealtimes.
The WIN core audience has less wit, less industry and therefore less options.

TV is going to follow print journalism into the dustbin of history.

For TV news (when I watch it)
For national/international news: SBS, and have just found Al Jazeera (dissenting voices are always the most interesting)
For local news: Win

As for the ABC TV news – locally they seem to run the ACT Government’s line on things, and if I wanted that I would just read the press releases.

Diggety said :

arescarti42 said :

It is funny isn’t it. The left reckons it is right biased and the right reckons it is left biased. Wiki reckons that of the 19 former ABC staffers that went in to politics, 10 joined the Labor Party and 9 joined the Liberal Party.

Indeed.

I don’t think the party flag bearers get the concept of scrutinizing the Government of the day, which the ABC does quite well.

However, ABC’s current affairs/etc are most certainly Left dominated.

I don’t think the ABC is left-wing, I think it’s fairly centrist. I think it’s that political debate in Australia is so overwhelmingly right-wing that anything centrist or even slightly left wing looks like rabid socialism. Have a look at Political Compass’s mapping of the 2010 election (http://www.politicalcompass.org/aus2010). The Greens have been repeatedly painted as ‘radical communists’ by large sections of the media and by many Coalition MPs, but in fact they’re only slightly left of centre. It’s second and third face of power stuff.

shadow boxer5:44 am 07 Feb 12

It’s a timing thing, 24 hour and internet news aside there are national news on commercial tv from 430 to 7 on almost all channels.

By 7 everyone is up to speed on the national news. All they are looking for is local news, hence WIN is rating well and abc mixed news is struggling.

That and my family cant change the channel fast enough when that buffoon Carmody comes on.

Gungahlin Al10:47 pm 06 Feb 12

The difference between the effort ABC Radio make at covering local issues and ABC TV’s efforts is chalk and cheese. The radio crew do such a great job. The TV news seem to do little more than turn up at whatever media opps the ACT Government has put out releases on. Mouthpiecing the govt is not ‘news’.

That’s why WIN continues to get good support.

arescarti42 said :

It is funny isn’t it. The left reckons it is right biased and the right reckons it is left biased. Wiki reckons that of the 19 former ABC staffers that went in to politics, 10 joined the Labor Party and 9 joined the Liberal Party.

Indeed.

I don’t think the party flag bearers get the concept of scrutinizing the Government of the day, which the ABC does quite well.

However, ABC’s current affairs/etc are most certainly Left dominated.

creative_canberran said :

arescarti42 said :

I personally find the commercial news stations tend to to run a lot of un-newsworthy, “Little Timmy finds his lost dog” type stories.

Hey! Don’t knock those stories. I happen to think Miranda Kerr telling us that “bright” colours “are pretty” and in this season is absolutely vital, as was tonight’s story about Jodi Gordon and Rachel taylor wearing similar dresses on the red carpet. This is hard hitting news, Woodward and Bernstein would be feeling inadequate!

Oh wow. Infotainment at its finest.

justin heywood said :

arescarti42 said :

… Wiki reckons that of the 19 former ABC staffers that went in to politics, 10 joined the Labor Party and 9 joined the Liberal Party.

Really? Got a link for that aresecarti?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Broadcasting_Corporation#Politics_and_criticism I haven’t checked the citation, so it may or may not be true.

tv before about half eight, with a toddler to feed bathe and get to sleep, then dinner to cook for the grownups? ha!!

but i fancy the abc watchers have redistributed among the other media platforms offered by aunty…

Why aren’t I watching the ABC news? Because it’s very, very boring.

justin heywood7:01 pm 06 Feb 12

arescarti42 said :

… Wiki reckons that of the 19 former ABC staffers that went in to politics, 10 joined the Labor Party and 9 joined the Liberal Party.

Really? Got a link for that aresecarti?

Although as noted in the story news24 is pretty low rating. Could be the audience is being distributed through the day though.

I can hear the ABC news playing right now in the living room.

Probably reduced ratings for 7pm news compared to 2009 because in 2009 there was no ABC24 – now you can watch the news whenever you want. The demographic that gravitates to WIN don’t have that option.

creative_canberran6:26 pm 06 Feb 12

arescarti42 said :

I personally find the commercial news stations tend to to run a lot of un-newsworthy, “Little Timmy finds his lost dog” type stories.

Hey! Don’t knock those stories. I happen to think Miranda Kerr telling us that “bright” colours “are pretty” and in this season is absolutely vital, as was tonight’s story about Jodi Gordon and Rachel taylor wearing similar dresses on the red carpet. This is hard hitting news, Woodward and Bernstein would be feeling inadequate!

I-filed said :

I can’t bear to watch the ABC news because I like silly old Mark Carmody and Virginia’s responses to his friendly banter are cringeworthy – in fact, rude. Lighten up V – he’s a nice guy!

It’s because she’s still carrying a torch for John Ringwood.

p1 said :

Also, the ABC is far too biased towards the left end of the spectrum…

Nah, the ABC is smack in the centre. The true leftists wouldn’t work for an oppressive fascist state run propaganda mouthpiece like the ABC.

It is funny isn’t it. The left reckons it is right biased and the right reckons it is left biased. Wiki reckons that of the 19 former ABC staffers that went in to politics, 10 joined the Labor Party and 9 joined the Liberal Party.

I personally find the commercial news stations tend to to run a lot of un-newsworthy, “Little Timmy finds his lost dog” type stories.

Maybe the demographic that used to watch the local ABC news now watches ABC News 24.

I can’t bear to watch the ABC news because I like silly old Mark Carmody and Virginia’s responses to his friendly banter are cringeworthy – in fact, rude. Lighten up V – he’s a nice guy!

Little_Green_Bag said :

Too many stories about the Middle East and suicide bombers. Too many tokenistic PC stories about Aborigines. Too much left wing bias in general.

What an odd post. “I dont like this news bring me other news”.

qbngeek said :

I stopped watching news about 2 years ago because I got sick of it all being doom and gloom or opinionated self-interest rubbish. I started to think nothing good happened in the world.

Unfortuantely most online news sources are no better.

Present company excluded, right? RIGHT?!?

Same as SigmaOctantis – Virginias’ overly opinionated shrillness has me muting the TV and skimming the website for info. For unbiased global news I tend to watch the Al-Jazeera feed at 3:30 on SBS and watching the SBS main news broadcast. The state of decay in Aunties journalism and what seems to be a miss guided attempt to “go commercial” I think has the ABC core audience turning to alternatives.

creative_canberran said :

Kinda surprised no one here has pointed out that Nine News is at 6, Win News is at 6:30, ABC at 7.
Isn’t is possible more people are watching the earlier news and tuning out for dinner by 7? Surely that would explain why Win is actually gaining audience share while ABC is losing it.

That’s a good point.

I watch ABC news fairly often, but less than I used to. Between the 24hr news radio stations, websites and TV channels, the 7pm ABC news rarely tells me anything new.

I switched to SBS news years ago. Much better than the ABC.

and a bit of Schadenfreude on behalf of the CT

Rawhide Kid Part35:08 pm 06 Feb 12

Why cant ABC Canberra just produce local news and leave the rest on ABC 24? That would get a few viewers back.

they shouldn’t have scheduled Spicks and Specks re-runs on ABC2 at the same time

creative_canberran4:55 pm 06 Feb 12

RegGrundies said :

ABC Canberra news these days has very little Canberra content

WIN news is all Canberra news

Oh don’t be silly. Win News has cut down the Canberra content. They’re running more stories rebranded from Nine and they’re now putting in the pre-prepared finance segment from ComSec. Still more than ABC but let’s not give them more credit that is warranted.

Kinda surprised no one here has pointed out that Nine News is at 6, Win News is at 6:30, ABC at 7.
Isn’t is possible more people are watching the earlier news and tuning out for dinner by 7? Surely that would explain why Win is actually gaining audience share while ABC is losing it.

As for ABC News, get rid of that awful Mark Carmody, and that reporter who sounds like they barely passed primary school english and perhaps I’ll tune back in. I swear they could fit two extra local news stories into each bulletin in the time it takes Carmody to finish his verbal wankfest about the old ladies and flowers that he found that day.

Little_Green_Bag4:48 pm 06 Feb 12

Too many stories about the Middle East and suicide bombers. Too many tokenistic PC stories about Aborigines. Too much left wing bias in general.

If the TV is on ABC1 but I’m nodding off due to a couple of reds do I still count towards the ratings?

Either way, I might have stumbled across a cure for insomnia…

ABC Canberra news these days has very little Canberra content

WIN news is all Canberra news

Diggety said :

ABCNews24 for national news and The-RiotACT for local news.

Pretty much covered.

This. I hate watching WIN, Prime, and SC10. They are poorly produced, the content is well short of newsworthy, and most of the “journalism” is amateurish.

Also, the ABC is far too biased towards the left end of the spectrum…

Nah, the ABC is smack in the centre. The true leftists wouldn’t work for an oppressive fascist state run propaganda mouthpiece like the ABC.

It always bias when the news is not just repeating your opinion it seems.

I like the ABC TV news, but with daylight saving, if the sun’s up, I’m outside doing stuff. I don’t think I’ve seen any TV news since October, other than the late night SBS world news and the bit they tack onto Lateline.

7pm is bed time for the boy. Teeth, toilet and stories take about half hour.

I’m lucky if I catch the weather these days.

The article’s true as far as I’m concerned; WIN’s the only game in town for proper local news, even if it is sometimes fairly dull. Then I switch over to the ABC for war, riots, death, destruction, politics, Mark Carmody’s antics etc.

I don’t want world news along with the local news. I have already read about he world news in the paper/online, I don’t need to see it again.

The interesting thing is WIN’s numbers are still holding up well.

So it’s not a general “the evening TV news bulletin is obsolete” thing going on.

I read the news on the ABC site (well, I browse the headlines, skim the articles that look interesting, and actually read the ones that still look interesting after a skim). Nothing in the TV news that I haven’t seen online before then, even if I happen to have the TV on, and not showing a recorded downloaded show.

If I do feel like watching a TV news report, I tend to hit the “down” arrow on the remote till I find one.

ABCNews24 for national news and The-RiotACT for local news.

Pretty much covered.

Its the new channels for me, only watched the news because nothing better was on.

I stopped watching news about 2 years ago because I got sick of it all being doom and gloom or opinionated self-interest rubbish. I started to think nothing good happened in the world.

Unfortuantely most online news sources are no better.

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