Content Survey Live 2022: Night Seven: Anything Other Than Mediocrity Is Too Civilized.

 Welcome to the seventh 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 (29/8) Sydney.
Tuesday (30/8) Perth.
Wednesday (31/8) Melbourne.
Thursday (1/9) Brisbane.
Friday (2/9) Adelaide.

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.

Perth last week set the standard, that all others should indeed follow. The only market this year to see it's ranking go up, and into record breaking territory too.

But, before we start: we have a plug for a WA-based Kickstarter effort, that is intending to capture the whole pandemic experience of Western Australians in one package. We aren't being paid to do this: we are only doing this to spread the word about this more widely.

Meet, HECKAMOSES!, the boardgame.

"HECKAMOSES!" is as the creator states: "A truly Australian, comical COVID inspired board game of lockdowns, panic buying and many priceless political moments." The crowdfunding phase is currently set to end in mid-September, and needs, just over $5k to get a production run happening.

To support the Kickstarter, head on over to the HECKAMOSES! project page, and help them reach their goal: after all, if we get them on TV and ultimately over the line, all it will take is a talk show host to play the game and it will go mainstream.
(The talk show strategy is how incidentally, Twister turned from a board game turkey, to a smash hit... thanks to Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor playing it on the Tonight Show in 1966.)

So, let us now look at the bulletin that is 10 News First Perth, on August 30, 2022.

We open the bulletin, with the most significant national story today: the culmination of the Chris Dawson trial (sparked by the Teachers Pet podcast), which got rerun at 6pm.

The local stories were well balanced, and included: a sentencing for a P-plater who did a hit and run last year, a stabbing on Saturday hitting court, more on the coroner's inquest that opened last Wednesday concerning a death at Perth's childrens hospital, a story on land being freed up for more housing... conditional on building some social housing, and the launch of Ampol's AMPCharge electric charge stations in Western Australia.

Only the AMPCharge story was not rerun at 6pm.

We also got, two V/O'd pieces (unlike last Wednesday, got no 6pm rerun): first on parental abuse driving teachers out of the profession and then a piece on WA Police's "Operation Education" concerning the unlawful use of off-road motorbikes.

Sport opened with a very key breaking story, on the road to the sold out Fremantle/Bulldogs elimination final at Optus Stadium: Fremantle captain, is out of the game with a injury. We also got a healthy reminder of the build to this final, along with a nice segment concerning finals for a non-broadcaster that makes Seven's Brisbane NRL review segment (the closest thing in the East running a similar concept to this) look less like the Good, Bad and the Ugly and more like a spaghetti western in comparison. The fact that it was shot outdoors at Optus Stadium makes it look more realistic. In addition, Scorchers and a WA surfer hitting it big make big headlines.

And, now we are onto the weather: Great presentation here from weather presenter trying to make a story work at a Ninja Warrior gym, which is preparing no less for a pull-up marathon on Sunday.

And, if you want to donate to the pull-up marathon's GoFundMe: here's the link.

In addition, Narelda Jacobs now doing parts of the Perth intro/outro in Noongar (WA indigenous language), is a very nice touch, and is very surprising: especially for someone watching who is too used to prerecorded openers or live openers for bulletins dependent on whether time is up their sleeve or not.

The scores:
five local stories (four rerun after six)
two V/O'd stories:
Another two point advantage for sport.
Three live crosses (and two attempted pullups by the weather presenter).

Last week 10 News Perth's score was 8.75/10.
Tonight's score for 10 News Perth: 9.25/10
Overall score for 10 News Perth during two weeks of survey: 18/20.

Ten News First again barely makes the OzTam 5-city overnight top 20 on Tuesday night: however the Perth 5pm bulletin is lagging behind 7/9 in the critical 5-6pm hour.

Yes, 10 Perth tonight outperformed last week, on a night with a story with big national significance, and a sports story that makes Fremantle's road to finals glory that much tougher.
Any wonder, Perth: without the interference of being part of a hybrid product is still the best bulletin 10 can put out, for three consecutive years. Paramount: you can either have five Perth's, or one Perth and four messes. I'd much prefer a Perth-style bulletin in Brisbane, than the disaster of the Sydney/Brisbane hybrid.

Tomorrow night, we change up to Melbourne, for a look at the final build to the AFL Finals: kicking off twenty four hours from then.

But, as we depart WA for the last time during Content Survey Live: we again find another advertisement, too extravagant for it's own good.

And, we aren't just giving you one commercial tonight: but two.

Observation City, was Alan Bond's big accommodation gamble in Scarborough, WA in the leadup to the America's Cup defence in 1987. But how to sell the hotel? Bondy's solution: Have your wife sell the hotel to potential guests. So, we have two classics with Eileen Bond trying to sell you a holiday and or business trip at Observation City just after the complex's opening.

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