Prime7 scoring a big win in the coveted 6pm local news timeslot last week is not a concern for WIN CEO Andrew Lancaster.
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Last week, Prime7’s state news bulletin had a market share in Wollongong of 44.5 per cent.
This was substantially ahead of WIN's Wollongong news bulletin, which finished in second spot with 30.9 per cent of the viewers’ eyeballs.
Nine national news was third with a 24.7 per cent share.
However, over the month since WIN began broadcasting Network Ten programs, the 6pm gap is much smaller, with Prime7 at 30.9 per cent to WIN’s 27.1 per cent.
The local news has been used by some as a benchmark of the success of the recent changes in affiliates between WIN and Southern Cross.
From July 1, Southern Cross began transmitting Nine Network shows while WIN signed a deal with Channel Ten.
As part of the big change WIN moved the Wollongong local news from 7pm to 6pm, a factor which Mr Lancaster said was a reason for last week’s rating win by Prime7.
“We’ve moved our news into a different timeslot and we would expect that would have caused some disruption to viewers,” he said.
“If another network wants to tout that they’ve had a good week, then good luck to them."
The WIN CEO said he felt viewers would come back to the network’s local news bulletin.
“I think there’s a real demand for local news in the Illawarra and all regional Australia, which is why WIN produces more regional news bulletins than any other broadcaster,” he said.
“I expect that they would find their way and they find the programs they would want to watch.”
The changeover to Ten has seen WIN lose the chance to show NRL matches, which had been tagged as a big loss for the network.
However, Mr Lancaster didn’t see it that way.
“Rugby league is a great product but the problem with rugby league this year is that Nine did a deal with Fox Sports to simulcast all of their games, which was great for Nine because they were compensated by Fox Sports for doing so,” he said.
“But a net result in the Illawarra is a decrease in audience on free to air watching the rugby league of around 27 per cent, which makes the rugby league a little bit less attractive to a regional broadcaster.”