A sneak peek of the new-look 6pm news bulletin on Three.
Two of New Zealand’s biggest media companies have given a sneak peek of their new-look 6pm news bulletin on TV3 - along with a warning that the first bulletin this Saturday night won’t be “everything we want it to be”.
Stuff owner Sinead Boucher and Warner Bros Discovery’s New Zealand boss Juliet Peterson appeared on Wednesday in front of an audience of advertising and marketing industry professionals, explaining how they came together, the power of collaboration, and what to expect in the weeks ahead.
The pair talked of their excitement about their new partnership - and the opportunities for broader commercial opportunities - but also spoke of “tension points” and set expectations about what audiences would see when the new-look Three News bulletin, produced by Stuff, makes its debut on Saturday night.
“The reality is that on Saturday night you’re not going to see something that’s everything we want it to be - that will take time to grow,” Peterson told the Comms Council’s Media Spotlight seminar at Auckland’s Aotea Centre.
A live Warriors NRL game at 5pm would not help ratings, she added.
The new bulletin - a half-hour at weekends, fronted by Laura Tupou and a full hour on weekdays fronted by Samantha Hayes - replaces the Newshub at 6 bulletin.
Newshub shuts down this Friday, with the loss of almost 300 jobs across Warner Bros Discovery’s newsroom and other departments.
Peterson said she and Boucher had been looking intently at rehearsals for the new bulletin, which is using a new virtual reality set.
Boucher and Peterson played a video at the conclusion of their presentation, featuring Hayes in a VR studio set-up, with a dark blue colour scheme. The video also featured new imagery of Hayes at a newsdesk.
“It will be new and it will be different but not so different that it scares that existing audience away,” said Peterson. “And I think that’s another interesting balance and a fine line that we will continue to walk.”
Boucher said the project had been “really, really exciting” but there had been “no shortage of comments from the sidelines”.
“Everything from ‘why are you going into it?’, ‘why are you doing this?’ or people trying to understand what this actually is.
“We’ve been amazed at the assumptions that we’ve had that we are taking over television ... but actually we are creating something that is new, that is fitting into a slot where an audience is looking forward to getting news.
“We’re not standing up there to do an interpretive dance at 6pm.”
The pair based their slide show on a blossoming relationship, where they could be candid with one another, working through inevitable “tension points”.
They also talked of time pressures.
“We haven’t much time, let’s be honest,” said Peterson.
“The pressure for our business of still making a product and having to move into a new way of working with what quite honestly is a diminishing workforce and everything that’s ahead of those people ... the pressures of that have been immense.
“They are visceral, and they are also birthing something new. That tension in itself has been quite something. Throwing another party into that as well ... that just kind of amplifies it.
“I can’t believe we are here and we’ve got this far.”
Boucher said external commentary could create ripple effects through the team.
“They start to listen to some of those things ... we’ve just made sure that we get everybody focused on what we’re actually trying to do.”
Boucher said it was an enterprise-wide project for Stuff, with the newsroom and other departments fully involved.
“There is a new energy that’s coming through as people have really enjoyed learning new skills and thinking about how they can tell stories in broader and more expanded ways.”
Boucher said she had also received a lot of support from the public, happy that a company had stepped in.
“At the same time, we’ve had to be really, really conscious that over in Juliet’s world, there’s a lot of big emotions and things happening this week. Not everything that we’re thinking about and doing or considering necessarily important is what’s front of mind for you this week.”
Peterson: “Again, that’s a balance. At WBD, we have taken great care, through this process, of our people.
“That is absolutely our number one priority and we’re incredibly proud and we want to make sure that that continues, but on the other hand, we have to make sure that we’re looking forward.”
As reported by Media Insider earlier, with Warner Bros Discovery closing Newshub on Friday – and the launch of Stuff’s new 6pm news bulletin on Saturday – a battle for TV advertising revenue has been reignited.
Under its new 6pm TV news arrangements, Warner Bros Discovery will pay Stuff a flat fee to provide the new bulletin on Three – understood to be in the range of $6 million to $8m a year.
That leaves Warner Bros Discovery free to gather as much advertising revenue as possible in and around the bulletin - and retain the lot.
Unshackled from running an expensive newsroom, it has been offering some big cut-price advertising deals for July-September – in some cases between 35%-45% off its normal rate card, according to Media Insider sources.
As demand has grown, it is understood those rates have returned somewhat closer to normal levels more recently.
Warner Bros Discovery would not confirm specifics this week but a spokesman said: “We regularly assess and update our rate card by looking across our full range of broadcast and streaming platforms. This means rate card base rates tend to fluctuate depending on a wide variety of elements, such as viewer behaviour, the current state of the wider market and economy, and even seasonal factors.”
TVNZ is also said to be competing strongly for advertising revenue, although one senior source said its rate card concessions were in single-figure percentages.
The big question remains just how the 6pm bulletins will perform, ratings-wise, in the coming weeks - and how much advertising revenue will be up for grabs by the end of the year in a very subdued economy.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
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