uncle wally
2010-07-05 05:18:32 UTC
Exclusive: ABC News 24 will launch this month
http://www.mediaspy.org/report/2010/07/04/exclusive-abc-news-24-will-launch-this-month/?utm_campaign=msticker&utm_medium=msticker&utm_source=msticker
ABC News 24, the anticipated round-the-clock news service, will
reportedly launch this month.
An insider from the public broadcaster revealed exclusively to The Spy
Report, that the new free-to-air channel will commence on either
Wednesday July 7 or Wednesday July 14.
As previously reported in TSR, the launch date, first expected in
early July, was supposedly delayed due to recent troubles experienced
during the ABC‘s political leadership coverage.
The chosen date will likely depend on the network’s ability to fix
technical faults occurring from its new purpose-built digital play-out
centre. Managing director, Mark Scott, may also wait until results are
established from the review into how the department delivers breaking
news.
The commercial-free channel will be completely broadcast on a high-
definition system, airing on digital channel 24.
▬
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/abc-tries-to-get-its-new-channel-up-and-running-before-election-campaign/story-e6frg996-1225887771815
ABC tries to get its new channel up and running before election
campaign
THE DIARY: Caroline Overington From: The Australian July 05, 2010
12:00AM
ABC is desperately trying to get its 24-hour news channel to air
before the first week of the federal election campaign.
If only so its 800 staff and $900 million budget aren't again
outwitted by that ragged little upstart known as Sky News-- but events
of last week mean there is now a real risk that won't happen.
Diary understands there have been two tentative start dates for ABC
News 24 -- July 5, which has obviously been missed, and July 12, which
will almost certainly be missed due to a review of what went wrong
during Spillard.
Corporate spokeswoman Sandy Culkoff declined to say why the station
had been "delayed", adding that ABC boss Mark Scott had only said the
station would go to air "mid-year and while some would say July 1 is
mid-year, mid-year could be late July, it could be August".
"The earliest we ever said was sometime in July but the truth is, you
can't go until you are ready, and we are now reviewing last week's
events," Culkoff said. "A lot also depends on when they call the
election." The Liberal Party seems to think it will be soon, as the
first of its ads went to air yesterday.
News dilemma
PROBLEMS with new technology are predictable but senior ABC staff are
trying to get their heads around how things will actually work when
ABC News 24 goes to air. As things stand, Julia Gillard can do a big
interview with David Speers on Sky News at 4pm, and with Tracy
Grimshaw on Nine at 6.30pm because all roads still lead to ABC giant
Kerry O'Brien at 7.30pm. Now throw ABC News 24 anchor Chris Uhlmann
into the mix. Is he allowed to try for an interview with Gillard at
5pm? If he gets it -- unlikely, since Gillard's people will want her
to stick with The 7:30 Report -- does O'Brien interview Gillard again,
or does he use Uhlmann's tapes? The politics of it are making heads
hurt.
Premature praise
THE lacklustre performance of the ABC on the night of the spill --
mercilessly documented by Jonathan Holmes on Media Watch last Monday
-- knocked some of the gloss off ABC chief Mark Scott. He has had a
dream run at the national broadcaster, mostly because he's easy to
like and able to lead -- skills that Kevin Rudd could have used -- but
he shouldn't have sent out an email saying: "We did an outstanding
job", when the ABC clearly did not, if only because praise that isn't
earned makes the genuine stuff seem insincere.
Adams quits Labor
PHILLIP Adams used his column in The Weekend Australian Magazine to
reveal that Kevin Rudd had tried to get him to quit this newspaper in
protest at its editorial line. He has decided to quit the ALP instead.
Adams is also seeking an apology from Media Watch, which mocked him
last week for his coverage of Spillard on Late Night Live. Adams says
he did try to cover the spill (and he did -- you can read the
transcript of his show online) and Media Watch didn't contact him
before going to air. Jonathan Holmes told Diary the program "very
rarely contacts the journalists directly" before putting stories to
air, but had contacted the head of Radio National. He stands by his
report.
Ex-PM undies watch
IN The Australian Financial Review last week, Mark Latham claimed that
"Kevin (Rudd) didn't change his underpants without telling Hartcher".
We put that to Peter Hartcher, political editor at The Sydney Morning
Herald, who said yes, of course he made the prime minister "check in
daily to be sure the undies were clean" but it was "nothing personal,
more a national interest thing".
Musical chairs
HERALD Sun business editor Malcolm Schmidtke quit last week to go
nowhere, always a sign that things are going well. Schmidtke told
Diary he and wife Rie would visit London to see their daughter. Asked
why he was leaving, he said: "I've been doing it a long time." Another
sign that all may not be well is the staff exodus at Herald Sun
business. Ben Butler has gone to The Age; George Lekakis to Alan
Kohler's Business Spectator (and to write a book that he won't let us
describe in case it gets jinxed) and Fleur Leyden to Andrew Butcher's
start-up, Butcher and Co.
Media Watch japes
ON Twitter last week, I compared this Diary with Media Watch, but said
Media Watch was mostly "what News Ltd did wrong this week", whereas
I'd take tips from everywhere. Media Watch did not think that was
funny, so let's be clear: I love Media Watch. I just wish I was on it
less often.
Barber's barbs
IN the chair for just a week, I'm already dismayed by the amount of
gossip about people's private lives other people expect me to publish.
For the record, I am not interested. I am interested in personal
style, which is different. The way a person chooses to present
themselves is clearly important (see Matt Preston or mega-seller Peter
FitzSimons, who has lately taken to wearing a fetching red bandana).
Which brings us to film critic Lynden Barber, who Tweeted last Monday:
"(Virginia) Trioli's spangly top and spiked hair (while hosting Q&A)
is way too tarty . . . makes her look like mutton dressed as lamb".
Barber got it in the neck from the Twitterati for being sexist but
told Diary: "TV is a visual medium. How people present is fair game."
He concedes that Trioli was impressive and set a ratings record.
Family circle
STILL with Q&A we hear that Chloe Bryce was in the green room last
Monday, in a pink dress, pink shoes and a pink phone, all of them a
perfect match. Now, see if you can follow this: Bryce is married to
Bill Shorten, who rounded up the numbers for Julia Gillard, who was
sworn in as first female PM by the first female Governor General,
Quentin Bryce, who is Chloe's mother, which makes Quentin Bryce the
grandmother of Bill Shorten's child.
Blow-dries and ties
THIS week brought the demise of one program -- Nine's Nightline won't
be back after Wimbledon -- and the rise of two others.
The ABC will today announce that Gruen Nation -- a series of "extra
length, extra strength" specials on the federal election, with
particular emphasis on the spin, the ads, even the blow-dries and ties
-- will replace the Gruen Transfer for a while; and Sky yesterday
launched Australian Agenda with David Speers (when does he sleep?) as
host, and journalists from The Australian as panellists.
Speers is obviously born to front the camera, but the first
program . . . well, how to put this? It's sure to improve! As for
Nightline's Kellie Connolly, she has taken a bag of money, turned down
other job offers, and tells Diary she is "happy to stay home with our
two small boys . . . while I decide what I want to do next."
Shoes to fill
I STEP into big shoes today. My colleague Amanda Meade edited Diary
without fear or favour for 10 years. It's going to take some time for
readers to get used to a new voice in this space, but I hope we end up
having some fun. Readers will immediately see that Talking Turkeys is
gone. That's my decision. I know it was popular but in its place, I
hope to celebrate media wit, and The Gold Coast Bulletin didn't have
much to work with in trumpeting its super prize: a $2 plastic horn.
▬
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/another-news-channel-wont-cure-abcs-lack-of-feel-for-its-audience/story-e6frg9ax-1225887756384
Another news channel won't cure ABC's lack of feel for its audience
Kevin Naughton From: The Australian July 05, 2010 12:00AM
ABC chief Mark Scott's assertion that ABC News 24 will solve the
weaknesses in Aunty's ability to handle breaking news is misguided.
The problems that beset the national broadcaster on the night Kevin
Rudd was knifed are broader and deeper than a few technical hitches.
Its inability to grasp the sense of national time, place and identity
demanded by the 1932 charter that created the ABC will not be cured by
another news channel.
The technology required to launch rolling live coverage of breaking
news has been around for decades.
Macquarie network broadcaster Murray Nicoll was part of a team that
rolled out 14 hours of continuous coverage of South Australia and
Victoria's 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires using two-way radios and tape
machines that are now museum pieces.
Immediacy and simplicity were the key components of telling a story as
it happened.
ABC culture is the opposite. TV programs, radio programs, news
bulletins and current affairs shows exist in silos that prevent them
coming together swiftly and effectively. That's why coverage of Rudd's
demise was packaged for Lateline, a vehicle that wasn't able to handle
the task. The ABC missed the moment -- again.
In 1997, on the day Princess Diana died, ABC executives in news,
programs and sport spent most of the first six hours arguing about
football coverage. The dramatic turn of events that went from
accident, to injury to her confirmed death was missed.
Rudd's last night as prime minister was the latest example of how all
the best available technology and a small army of staff failed to
match Sky News with its camera, mobile phone and self-operated studio.
As soon as the balloon went up, someone needed to call the heads of
radio and TV to begin the process of launching live coverage.
Yet by the time the story had evolved into the end of a PM's career,
entire radio networks and TV networks remained in the dark. Listeners
and viewers who had text messages from friends watching Sky and went
searching on the ABC for more information found nothing.
News Radio, Radio National, local radio and Triple J all missed it.
These networks represent a combined share and reach of about a third
of the nation's radio listeners. But it didn't end there.
Coverage during the two days that followed repeatedly ignored the
existence of entire slabs of the audience as the ABC's news and
current affairs silo finally took ownership of the story.
After a night of missed opportunities, ABC Radio's flagship morning
current affairs program, AM, thumbed its nose at any Australians who
live outside the Eastern Time zone.
The presenter, Tony Eastley, opened the program with the
pronouncement: "At nine o'clock the ALP caucus will vote on the
party's leadership." He was wrong. Listeners outside the eastern
states heard that statement at 8am their time because AM is played "in
delay" so that it is heard at 8am wherever you are.
Delayed broadcasting was designed so that presenters can give time
calls and be accurate wherever the program is heard, and that programs
reach their intended audience at the appropriate time. During daylight
saving periods, the system is even more effective. Each program is
broadcast live in Eastern Time and then held in an electronic delay
system that re-broadcasts it at the matching time in other zones.
But it has its drawbacks.
When news breaks, the programs are out of date and out of synch with
hourly news bulletins that come from a local newsroom.
In Eastley's case, all he needed to say was "At nine o'clock Canberra
time". It's a basic broadcast discipline for a national presenter and
there is no excuse for ignoring it. But he was in the Sydney/Canberra
news and current affairs silo.
For years, the same failure of discipline has delivered broadcast
bloopers.
A breakfast presenter tells the audience Tiger Woods has just won the
Open and then later a national broadcaster relates that Woods trails
with two holes to play. Princess Diana was alive in one program and
dead in another. The system would work seamlessly if the national
decision-makers and presenters kept the national audience at the
forefront of their minds.
But the decision-makers have a long record of forgetting, over-ruling
and ignoring those outside their own physical surrounds.
Internally, that culture is referred to as the "SBC" -- the Sydney
Broadcasting Corporation.
It was at play again when it was decided on Friday, June 25 to replace
each state's Stateline program with a special edition of the 7.30
Report. The implied message to staff was "this is too big and too
important for you".
Yet each state was capable of running their local edition, including
Kerry O'Brien's interview with Tony Abbott and Heather Ewart's cut and
paste of Gillard news grabs from the day. Each could have then added
their own local touch. Instead they were left to sit in their own
newsrooms and twiddle their thumbs.
At least twice in the past 10 years there have been attempts within
ABC Radio for local stations to have the right to record delayed
programs such as AM or The World Today, play the relevant and not out-
of-date sections and roll live across the developing story.
The argument from the smaller states and territories has been that
national coverage almost always ignores the needs of the wider
audience.
And that's Scott's problem as the ABC gets ready to launch News24. The
ABC still doesn't understand the complexities of delayed programming
and when live, it doesn't understand the needs of audiences on 59
local radio stations and TV audiences in all six states and two
territories.
It proved that on June 24 and adding yet another network won't solve
the cultural problem.
As one of the ABC's longest serving technical producers regularly
says; "We've been doing this for more than 70 years, and sooner or
later we'll get it right."
Kevin Naughton was a broadcaster and presenter for ABC Radio and TV in
Adelaide, Darwin and Sydney for 16 years
▬
http://www.mediaspy.org/report/2010/07/04/exclusive-abc-news-24-will-launch-this-month/?utm_campaign=msticker&utm_medium=msticker&utm_source=msticker
ABC News 24, the anticipated round-the-clock news service, will
reportedly launch this month.
An insider from the public broadcaster revealed exclusively to The Spy
Report, that the new free-to-air channel will commence on either
Wednesday July 7 or Wednesday July 14.
As previously reported in TSR, the launch date, first expected in
early July, was supposedly delayed due to recent troubles experienced
during the ABC‘s political leadership coverage.
The chosen date will likely depend on the network’s ability to fix
technical faults occurring from its new purpose-built digital play-out
centre. Managing director, Mark Scott, may also wait until results are
established from the review into how the department delivers breaking
news.
The commercial-free channel will be completely broadcast on a high-
definition system, airing on digital channel 24.
▬
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/abc-tries-to-get-its-new-channel-up-and-running-before-election-campaign/story-e6frg996-1225887771815
ABC tries to get its new channel up and running before election
campaign
THE DIARY: Caroline Overington From: The Australian July 05, 2010
12:00AM
ABC is desperately trying to get its 24-hour news channel to air
before the first week of the federal election campaign.
If only so its 800 staff and $900 million budget aren't again
outwitted by that ragged little upstart known as Sky News-- but events
of last week mean there is now a real risk that won't happen.
Diary understands there have been two tentative start dates for ABC
News 24 -- July 5, which has obviously been missed, and July 12, which
will almost certainly be missed due to a review of what went wrong
during Spillard.
Corporate spokeswoman Sandy Culkoff declined to say why the station
had been "delayed", adding that ABC boss Mark Scott had only said the
station would go to air "mid-year and while some would say July 1 is
mid-year, mid-year could be late July, it could be August".
"The earliest we ever said was sometime in July but the truth is, you
can't go until you are ready, and we are now reviewing last week's
events," Culkoff said. "A lot also depends on when they call the
election." The Liberal Party seems to think it will be soon, as the
first of its ads went to air yesterday.
News dilemma
PROBLEMS with new technology are predictable but senior ABC staff are
trying to get their heads around how things will actually work when
ABC News 24 goes to air. As things stand, Julia Gillard can do a big
interview with David Speers on Sky News at 4pm, and with Tracy
Grimshaw on Nine at 6.30pm because all roads still lead to ABC giant
Kerry O'Brien at 7.30pm. Now throw ABC News 24 anchor Chris Uhlmann
into the mix. Is he allowed to try for an interview with Gillard at
5pm? If he gets it -- unlikely, since Gillard's people will want her
to stick with The 7:30 Report -- does O'Brien interview Gillard again,
or does he use Uhlmann's tapes? The politics of it are making heads
hurt.
Premature praise
THE lacklustre performance of the ABC on the night of the spill --
mercilessly documented by Jonathan Holmes on Media Watch last Monday
-- knocked some of the gloss off ABC chief Mark Scott. He has had a
dream run at the national broadcaster, mostly because he's easy to
like and able to lead -- skills that Kevin Rudd could have used -- but
he shouldn't have sent out an email saying: "We did an outstanding
job", when the ABC clearly did not, if only because praise that isn't
earned makes the genuine stuff seem insincere.
Adams quits Labor
PHILLIP Adams used his column in The Weekend Australian Magazine to
reveal that Kevin Rudd had tried to get him to quit this newspaper in
protest at its editorial line. He has decided to quit the ALP instead.
Adams is also seeking an apology from Media Watch, which mocked him
last week for his coverage of Spillard on Late Night Live. Adams says
he did try to cover the spill (and he did -- you can read the
transcript of his show online) and Media Watch didn't contact him
before going to air. Jonathan Holmes told Diary the program "very
rarely contacts the journalists directly" before putting stories to
air, but had contacted the head of Radio National. He stands by his
report.
Ex-PM undies watch
IN The Australian Financial Review last week, Mark Latham claimed that
"Kevin (Rudd) didn't change his underpants without telling Hartcher".
We put that to Peter Hartcher, political editor at The Sydney Morning
Herald, who said yes, of course he made the prime minister "check in
daily to be sure the undies were clean" but it was "nothing personal,
more a national interest thing".
Musical chairs
HERALD Sun business editor Malcolm Schmidtke quit last week to go
nowhere, always a sign that things are going well. Schmidtke told
Diary he and wife Rie would visit London to see their daughter. Asked
why he was leaving, he said: "I've been doing it a long time." Another
sign that all may not be well is the staff exodus at Herald Sun
business. Ben Butler has gone to The Age; George Lekakis to Alan
Kohler's Business Spectator (and to write a book that he won't let us
describe in case it gets jinxed) and Fleur Leyden to Andrew Butcher's
start-up, Butcher and Co.
Media Watch japes
ON Twitter last week, I compared this Diary with Media Watch, but said
Media Watch was mostly "what News Ltd did wrong this week", whereas
I'd take tips from everywhere. Media Watch did not think that was
funny, so let's be clear: I love Media Watch. I just wish I was on it
less often.
Barber's barbs
IN the chair for just a week, I'm already dismayed by the amount of
gossip about people's private lives other people expect me to publish.
For the record, I am not interested. I am interested in personal
style, which is different. The way a person chooses to present
themselves is clearly important (see Matt Preston or mega-seller Peter
FitzSimons, who has lately taken to wearing a fetching red bandana).
Which brings us to film critic Lynden Barber, who Tweeted last Monday:
"(Virginia) Trioli's spangly top and spiked hair (while hosting Q&A)
is way too tarty . . . makes her look like mutton dressed as lamb".
Barber got it in the neck from the Twitterati for being sexist but
told Diary: "TV is a visual medium. How people present is fair game."
He concedes that Trioli was impressive and set a ratings record.
Family circle
STILL with Q&A we hear that Chloe Bryce was in the green room last
Monday, in a pink dress, pink shoes and a pink phone, all of them a
perfect match. Now, see if you can follow this: Bryce is married to
Bill Shorten, who rounded up the numbers for Julia Gillard, who was
sworn in as first female PM by the first female Governor General,
Quentin Bryce, who is Chloe's mother, which makes Quentin Bryce the
grandmother of Bill Shorten's child.
Blow-dries and ties
THIS week brought the demise of one program -- Nine's Nightline won't
be back after Wimbledon -- and the rise of two others.
The ABC will today announce that Gruen Nation -- a series of "extra
length, extra strength" specials on the federal election, with
particular emphasis on the spin, the ads, even the blow-dries and ties
-- will replace the Gruen Transfer for a while; and Sky yesterday
launched Australian Agenda with David Speers (when does he sleep?) as
host, and journalists from The Australian as panellists.
Speers is obviously born to front the camera, but the first
program . . . well, how to put this? It's sure to improve! As for
Nightline's Kellie Connolly, she has taken a bag of money, turned down
other job offers, and tells Diary she is "happy to stay home with our
two small boys . . . while I decide what I want to do next."
Shoes to fill
I STEP into big shoes today. My colleague Amanda Meade edited Diary
without fear or favour for 10 years. It's going to take some time for
readers to get used to a new voice in this space, but I hope we end up
having some fun. Readers will immediately see that Talking Turkeys is
gone. That's my decision. I know it was popular but in its place, I
hope to celebrate media wit, and The Gold Coast Bulletin didn't have
much to work with in trumpeting its super prize: a $2 plastic horn.
▬
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/another-news-channel-wont-cure-abcs-lack-of-feel-for-its-audience/story-e6frg9ax-1225887756384
Another news channel won't cure ABC's lack of feel for its audience
Kevin Naughton From: The Australian July 05, 2010 12:00AM
ABC chief Mark Scott's assertion that ABC News 24 will solve the
weaknesses in Aunty's ability to handle breaking news is misguided.
The problems that beset the national broadcaster on the night Kevin
Rudd was knifed are broader and deeper than a few technical hitches.
Its inability to grasp the sense of national time, place and identity
demanded by the 1932 charter that created the ABC will not be cured by
another news channel.
The technology required to launch rolling live coverage of breaking
news has been around for decades.
Macquarie network broadcaster Murray Nicoll was part of a team that
rolled out 14 hours of continuous coverage of South Australia and
Victoria's 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires using two-way radios and tape
machines that are now museum pieces.
Immediacy and simplicity were the key components of telling a story as
it happened.
ABC culture is the opposite. TV programs, radio programs, news
bulletins and current affairs shows exist in silos that prevent them
coming together swiftly and effectively. That's why coverage of Rudd's
demise was packaged for Lateline, a vehicle that wasn't able to handle
the task. The ABC missed the moment -- again.
In 1997, on the day Princess Diana died, ABC executives in news,
programs and sport spent most of the first six hours arguing about
football coverage. The dramatic turn of events that went from
accident, to injury to her confirmed death was missed.
Rudd's last night as prime minister was the latest example of how all
the best available technology and a small army of staff failed to
match Sky News with its camera, mobile phone and self-operated studio.
As soon as the balloon went up, someone needed to call the heads of
radio and TV to begin the process of launching live coverage.
Yet by the time the story had evolved into the end of a PM's career,
entire radio networks and TV networks remained in the dark. Listeners
and viewers who had text messages from friends watching Sky and went
searching on the ABC for more information found nothing.
News Radio, Radio National, local radio and Triple J all missed it.
These networks represent a combined share and reach of about a third
of the nation's radio listeners. But it didn't end there.
Coverage during the two days that followed repeatedly ignored the
existence of entire slabs of the audience as the ABC's news and
current affairs silo finally took ownership of the story.
After a night of missed opportunities, ABC Radio's flagship morning
current affairs program, AM, thumbed its nose at any Australians who
live outside the Eastern Time zone.
The presenter, Tony Eastley, opened the program with the
pronouncement: "At nine o'clock the ALP caucus will vote on the
party's leadership." He was wrong. Listeners outside the eastern
states heard that statement at 8am their time because AM is played "in
delay" so that it is heard at 8am wherever you are.
Delayed broadcasting was designed so that presenters can give time
calls and be accurate wherever the program is heard, and that programs
reach their intended audience at the appropriate time. During daylight
saving periods, the system is even more effective. Each program is
broadcast live in Eastern Time and then held in an electronic delay
system that re-broadcasts it at the matching time in other zones.
But it has its drawbacks.
When news breaks, the programs are out of date and out of synch with
hourly news bulletins that come from a local newsroom.
In Eastley's case, all he needed to say was "At nine o'clock Canberra
time". It's a basic broadcast discipline for a national presenter and
there is no excuse for ignoring it. But he was in the Sydney/Canberra
news and current affairs silo.
For years, the same failure of discipline has delivered broadcast
bloopers.
A breakfast presenter tells the audience Tiger Woods has just won the
Open and then later a national broadcaster relates that Woods trails
with two holes to play. Princess Diana was alive in one program and
dead in another. The system would work seamlessly if the national
decision-makers and presenters kept the national audience at the
forefront of their minds.
But the decision-makers have a long record of forgetting, over-ruling
and ignoring those outside their own physical surrounds.
Internally, that culture is referred to as the "SBC" -- the Sydney
Broadcasting Corporation.
It was at play again when it was decided on Friday, June 25 to replace
each state's Stateline program with a special edition of the 7.30
Report. The implied message to staff was "this is too big and too
important for you".
Yet each state was capable of running their local edition, including
Kerry O'Brien's interview with Tony Abbott and Heather Ewart's cut and
paste of Gillard news grabs from the day. Each could have then added
their own local touch. Instead they were left to sit in their own
newsrooms and twiddle their thumbs.
At least twice in the past 10 years there have been attempts within
ABC Radio for local stations to have the right to record delayed
programs such as AM or The World Today, play the relevant and not out-
of-date sections and roll live across the developing story.
The argument from the smaller states and territories has been that
national coverage almost always ignores the needs of the wider
audience.
And that's Scott's problem as the ABC gets ready to launch News24. The
ABC still doesn't understand the complexities of delayed programming
and when live, it doesn't understand the needs of audiences on 59
local radio stations and TV audiences in all six states and two
territories.
It proved that on June 24 and adding yet another network won't solve
the cultural problem.
As one of the ABC's longest serving technical producers regularly
says; "We've been doing this for more than 70 years, and sooner or
later we'll get it right."
Kevin Naughton was a broadcaster and presenter for ABC Radio and TV in
Adelaide, Darwin and Sydney for 16 years
▬