Content Survey Live 2022: Night One: You Can't Buy Mediocrity From Johnnies.

Welcome to the first night, of the ten best nights of 2022 in our books: the third edition of Content Survey Live. This year's changes are significant, but the ground rules always stay the same here.

The Ground Rules:

Our focus, in Content Survey Live traditionally has been monitoring Ten’s five capital city news services (a benefit of technological change, now allowing us to watch interstate bulletins on delay), in order of their ratings position within the network (with each market covered once) over a week, using the same criteria we used in the “Great Local News Study” from Kuttsy's Pitch XI in August, 2019.

-Locally sourced stories: that is stories reported by local journos. Really big local market stories with national impacts, also fit here. Voiced over local stories are counted separately.
-Live crosses: stuff that is used to embellish a story.
-Weather is not counted.
-Sport is not counted if it’s done by obviously freelance journos, or voiced over pieces: you gotta have dedicated reporters there, with their mug on air reporting a sports story for it to count.
-And finally: Ten Brisbane will have it’s Gold Coast content tracked again during it’s nights: something that has become a tradition in itself.

However in 2022, we have expanded to a two week format, with a entirely new way to rank bulletins
The first week, will seed bulletins based on comparisons with 2021 figures.
The second week, will seed bulletins based on comparisons with pre-pandemic and pre-centralization figures sourced from 2019.

A reminder now of this week's seedings:
Monday (22/8) Adelaide.
Tuesday (23/8) Brisbane.
Wednesday (24/8) Perth (which will also mark a significant milestone for Kuttsywood's Couch).
Thursday (25/8) Melbourne.
Friday (26/8) Sydney.

Now, let's begin today's heaping bowl of broadcast news mediocrity.

And, a reminder: to purchase merchandise related to Content Survey Live 2022, head on over to our shop over at Redbubble.

It is somewhat amazing that this year's Content Survey Live opens (and will close next week) with Adelaide. In it's first two years, we've opened with Sydney, and Brisbane (famously branded as a Brisbane edition of a Sydney news service in 2021), but never with the "City of Churches".

Yet, the fall of 10 News First in Adelaide, is more reminiscent of that of the department store kind: where David Jones purged Adelaide of the John Martins brand over a three year period in the mid-late 1990's (through suburban store sales and suburban conversions to David Jones), ultimately closing the Rundle Mall John Martins store in early 1998, to make way for a new David Jones store in Adelaide's heart at the start of the 21st century, that retained some traditions of the store that once thrived on the site.

Ten's news in Adelaide has slumped dramatically since centralization: especially assisted by the fact that Nine's 5pm-6pm hour of news (the first market to make the change: long before 10 centralized) now comfortably outrates 10, as well as the fact that we discovered last year, that 10's news in Adelaide has no ability to go live with a local story until 6pm, due to how tightly production is done with both Adelaide and Melbourne's news.

So, let us now look at the bulletin that was 10 News First Adelaide, on August 22, 2022.

We kick off the bulletin, at 5pm with something that was lacking in 2021: immediacy. We have a live cross, that looks like it was done in a Melbourne commercial break (judging by a visible "17:32" in the background of the newsroom. This live cross is again done (almost word for word) at 6:02, with a visible "18:33" in the background of the newsroom. The first segment when that live cross ended, however turned into a parade of court stories: criminal neglect, a social worker assaulted in prison on the previous day (culprit going to court), a story on a taxi smash that finally made it to a courtroom, and a coronial inquest kicking off. In fact, the only story that wasn't a courtroom piece in that first segment, was talking about boosting numbers in a 000 call centre. It all culminated in a Adelaide-specific rundown for 5:45... which is about to air in Melbourne anyway.

That, is when it began to go downhill. Once segment two started, we wouldn't even see a skerrick of Adelaide news until the delayed 5:45, talking with a Power player set to hit free agency. Delayed news from Melbourne is the bain-marie of watching 10's Adelaide news service, and most likely makes a viewer flick the dial to a live and kicking news bulletin on Nine. In addition, the fillers for where Melbourne has traffic updates still exist: viewer photos, speed camera locations, even the sports quiz is duplicated: with the answer in the 6pm segment.

And, then we reach 6pm, with one fresh V/O'd story, some rerun material from segment 1 inc. one as a v/o'd piece, while the post 6pm sport actually has a piece (no reporter's mug though) on Crows/Power free agency... with very little mention of this past weekend's Showdown local derby that ended the home and away season, but yet mentions the All Australian longlist.

Overall, it's a news bulletin that had more local stories than last year: but still is topheavy on delayed content for nearly a third of the bulletin.

The scores:
Five local stories (four rerun in some fashion post-6pm)
One live cross duplicated first at five, then after 6.
Two V/O'd pieces: both after 6pm
Post-6pm sports section far more relevant than delayed 5:45, but no local mug on screen.

In 2021, Adelaide got a 3/10.
The first of two surveys this year, Adelaide got a 2.75/10.

Ratings figures for 10's news are outside the 5-City Metro top 20 on Monday, thus no access to ratings figures.

Adelaide's news on 10, is potentially now on the right track towards once again battling Brisbane for the wooden spoon. The lack of story variety in the first segment (court story overkill) and the lack of a fresh news story in the 6pm segment alongside the attempts to fill time that Melbourne has occupied by traffic reports has again led to a poor showing. Last year showed the lack of immediacy was a problem. This year, it was a lack of variety. In addition, the problems plaguing Melbourne-presented weather (tiny screen, compared to Sydney's beast: even a chromakey would be better than what exists now) makes the job far harder. Will the finale of Content Survey Live, next week, bring home the mediocrity crown to Adelaide?

Any wonder, when 10 Adelaide announced their move from the Adelaide CBD to Eastwood earlier this year, all the comments had a common theme: all wanting 10 to come back home, because much like John Martins: a locally presented and produced news service on 10 in Adelaide... is indeed sorely missed by many viewers.

Tomorrow: is our home bulletin, Brisbane. But before we swing over there, let's take a gander at a theme this year for our closing videos. Local advertising that was too extravagant for it's own good.

It all begins, with John Farnham's attempt to sell Rundle Mall as "The Biggest Variety Show in Town": which fittingly ends, outside John Martins on the mall itself.

(But, on a serious note now: Farnsey, we are thinking of you at this time. The Voice needs to play to win this cancer fight: and we are all standing with you.)

Video, from Pepper Studios TV on Youtube: