Lexicon News Goes Fourth: Night 1: Captain and Greenhalgh.

Baldrick, why the hell is Lexicon News back... Going Fourth, sounds like a funny farewell.
Words not said by a Blackadder descendent...

Welcome, to the first night of what will be the final season of Blackadder... I mean, Lexicon News.

But yet the questions I still am getting (after five years of doing these events) is the following...

"What the hell is Lexicon News?"

Lexicon News's genesis

Lexicon News, initially came about as a way to extend the Content Survey Live format into a second week, but it's catalyst, was a move I made in August 2020: from Brisbane to regional Queensland, where 7's news service is not only omnipotent, but probably has been the most successful local news product in aggregated Australia for the last decade, as bulletins were added in markets that were once heartlands for WIN Television (Rockhampton in 2010, and Toowoomba in 2015) while the regional television sector played two games of musical chairs with Southern Cross and Win concerning the Nine chair in Victoria, Southern NSW and Queensland in 2016 and 2021: consigning Nine to a very deep ratings hole in our part of the world.

But it hasn't been without some growing pains, especially when Seven News in Brisbane expanded to one hour in 2014, which eventually (once Toowoomba gained a local news service in December 2015) resulted in Seven's 6pm hour in Brisbane being heavily edited into a 1/2hr service to air at 6:30, with Brisbane's sport/weather airing live statewide.

From this position (and a little help from a PVR recording the directors cut and 7+'s full bulletin), we will find out how much Queensland regional viewers don't see in the (news) directors cut of BTQ's 6pm news.

"Why the name, Lexicon News?"

The inspiration for the name: came from the most unusual source: a Christmas tape, someone uploaded to Youtube.

(There is nothing to be ashamed about people outside the industry watching TV Xmas tapes, broadcasters: especially, as even the BBC celebrated their own, back in 2018.)

This particular Christmas tape, came from BTQ in Brisbane, in 1986: and probably lines up with some of the best ever done by the Beeb (less titilation, but more of a cohesive story)

The story, is simply: parodying Bondy's Sky Channel, with their own idea... "The Lexicon Channel".

"The Lexicon 1200: unrivalled in it's performance, can time compress your favorite programs, so you the viewer can enjoy more programs in less time than any other network. Imagine Gone With The Wind being telecast in one hour, Imagine 26 minutes of commercials, and eight minutes of station promotion per hour, that's The Lexicon Channel's promise. A new generation of broadcasting has been born.

The Lexicon Channel: Taking on the challenge, taking entertainment to new... lengths."

Quote from the afore mentioned Christmas tape's intro.

The whole idea was, simply a channel that actively edited programs so as much programming could be screened as possible in as little time as possible: as famously explained by the eccentric idea of condensing the four hour epic, "Gone With The Wind", into a one hour slot... only to stick 34 minutes of non program content in, leaving only 24mins of the film.

Hence why this week is called "Lexicon News": where a hour news bulletin is condensed into a small time frame: in a small timeframe, so it can be gotten out of the way, because 7 doesn't want to move Home and Away.

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.

In addition, we will be tracking how many coverups of live cross timings (usually seen as giant "LIVE" graphics superimposed) are made by Seven on the 10 minute edit during this period.

Tonight's tale...

Captain and Greenhalgh (because we couldn't afford Tennile).

Stuff that aired in the regional cut: is underlined.

So it looks like Greenhalgh couldn't be there when the battle turned hot...

SEGMENT 1: Iran war, live cross Tel Aviv (unedited regionally), live cross Washington (unedited regionally), Washington response/Texas shooter, Live cross London (unedited regionally), Stranded Australians in Middle East, petrol price pain, Emirates travel halted, insurance chaos, Live cross CBUS Stadium (Iran V South Korea, Womens Asian Cup), Live cross Parliament House (redrafted hate speech acts)
Segment 1 length in Brisbane: 20min 40secs.

SEGMENT 2: GC tower VIP visit, property price story, SAG Awards.
Segment 2 length in Brisbane: 3min 10secs.

SEGMENT 3: Simon Whitfield explainer on Iran War, zipline failure inquest, Toy show puff piece.
Segment 3 length in Brisbane: 5min 50secs.

SEGMENT 4: Business wrap, Super gap, City of Hobart shipwreck found off Gippsland.
Segment 4 length in Brisbane: 3min 10secs.

Overall pre-sport length in Brisbane: 31min 50secs.
Overall edit for regional Queensland: 11min 55secs
Overall content lexiconed tonight by Seven from the Brisbane 6pm news for regional viewers: 19min 55secs.

Seven still up to their old habits concerning lexiconing QLD state political stories out of the 6pm news when it comes to regional consumption.

In fact: more news was lexiconed tonight than night 1 in 2023.

Well, that's it for Night 1 of the last time for Lexicon News.
See you again, tomorrow night.

A reminder of our socials:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kuttsywoods.couch

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/veritasonkw.bsky.social
Substack: (Where yesterday's Veritas on KW on Sunday is BTW): https://veritasonkw.substack.com/