60 Years of QLD TV

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Friday, August 27, 2021

Content Survey Live 2021: Lexicon News Night 5


  10 Week:
Brisbane-Sydney-Perth-Melbourne-Adelaide

Just when you thought it was safe to turn off the content survey for another year, here we are again together for a second week, albeit one with a difference.

This, is the fifth and final night of Lexicon News.

The Ground Rules:

The ground rules, for the Lexicon News event, are taken from a promo, in 1987: that compared Seven's second attempt at 1hr news in Brisbane, with Nine's 1/2hr product that became dominant at the exact same time.
As it described:
"If you are watching a half-hour news, take out the weather, sport, opening music, hello's and goodbyes and the commercials, and you could only get about 12 minutes of real news each night."

Thus the ground rules for the Lexicon News challenge are for five nights:
-Time the length of the bulletin, from the moment the first story intro begins at 6, to the time the throw to sport begins, on both bulletins.
-Write down every story on the 1hr version, and compare with the half hour version to see how much content is removed.
-Subtract the BNE timing from the regional timing to get the amount of time lost to regional QLD viewers each night by simply trimming the BTQ news bulletin.
-Ultimately: add up all the figures, and come up with a final set of numbers at the end of the week.

Now, lets get stepping towards tonight's look at news you can use... that won't ultimately make the final cut.




We now can reveal the fifth and final night of results of the Lexicon News survey. These results were done very much like we did for the first three nights.

Now, we have a chronological overview of the BTQ bulletin as it aired in Brisbane between the opener and sport. Stories shared with the regional cut, are marked in bold and red.


(Opener) Restrictions easing in QLD, Border Bubble review, the Boggabilla boot rider has defied the QLD Police again, somehow ending up in Warwick, Wellcamp quarantine hub controversy, a desk live cross, Pfizer vaccine for 12-16yr olds, Live cross at the Riverside Centre, a second piece on restrictions easing (from the business view), preview of the GC show piece later on, Afghan story, update on last night's Afghan story, Paralympics day three highlights, Paralympics medal tally, Burty live cross from the GC Show (end of Segment 1)
(Start of Segment 2) Toowoomba Grammar student lawsuit, footage of Pimpama accident from Wednesday, Dust control from Cross River Rail, Armenian parliament fight. (End of Segment 2)
(Start of Segment 3) Youth crime crackdown, Toll truckdrivers on strike, Weekend events, highlighted by Gold Coast Show (end of Segment 3)
(Start of Segment 4) Fuelcast/Finance, Clumsy thief (Mittagong) is jailed, NYC "Living With Covid" (opening with a uncut "Thanks, Michael (Usher)", which shows these pieces are actually shot in Sydney), King George Square Daffodil Day sales. (Throw to Sport)

The timing tonight in Brisbane added up to 30 minutes, 30 seconds.
The timing overall in Brisbane for all five nights of Lexicon News, added up to 153 minutes, 30 seconds. 

We again watched the regional cut on Friday night, from a recording we prepared on standby: which we timed and added up to: 10 minutes even.
The timing overall of the regional cut for all five nights of Lexicon News added up to 49 minutes, and 40 seconds

Therefore, Seven lexiconed from their Brisbane news hour tonight a grand total of 20mins, 30secs, with a total lexiconed this week by Seven News in Brisbane, of their 6pm newshour to regional QLD viewers... of 104 minutes and 50 seconds.

A astonishing figure, to look at and marvel at. The fact regional Queenslanders, lost over three days worth of news that metropolitan viewers got this week at 6pm, is a astounding achievement.

The common thread is seen plainly.
-The only window that is used by Seven for the regional cut is the first window: one that is often eighteen minutes in length.
-Anything worthwhile in later segments prior to 6:30 is simply ignored.
-The turnaround for Segment 1's editing is likely a mere 10 minutes, before it airs in regional Queensland.
There needs to be serious thoughts about introducing infrastructure, so BTQ's news can deliver a dedicated opener for regional viewers, and possibly record the links to stories in the 10min regional cut pre-6pm so stupid oddities are fixed: like how the story from Thursday night about creative ways GC residents are getting around the border closure, was shown in the opener in Brisbane and regional QLD, yet only aired in Brisbane.

Overall, a interesting challenge, and one that culminates two weeks of the Content Survey Live carnival. Will it be back next year: wait and see.
It is only fitting that we end this adventure... with a little fun.

The Finale from the Dream (featuring John Farnham) From Fully Farnham on Youtube.

Lexicon News Week:
Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.

But before we go: one more thing.


Join us, at midnight, on September 26, for our DST Guide (being given a extreme makeover, along with this site), and to get the ball rolling on towards this site's next significant event, we'll leave you with our hopes that the pandemic's end is nigh: and the world will wake up from history, and come back to our shores sooner rather than later.

From the Complete90s on Youtube.

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