Lexicon News 2: Night 3

Welcome, one and all to the third night of Lexicon News 2. Let's go over once again, the ground rules of our experiment.


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 four 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.

And, one more thing. Enjoying Lexicon News 2? Come on over and buy the merchandise for this event over at our Redbubble store.

Another day, another chance for the ratings to tell the story. Seven's Brisbane news took out last night between 6-7pm in Brisbane with 172,000 viewers to Nine's 169,000 viewers, a gap of just 3,000 viewers. Nine also announced for next week another one of the cash giveaways (which I absolutely hate is a gimmick in this day and age, by the way) that they are known for, when ratings are dire.

Amanda Patterson: It's only the second week of ratings next week, and you already roll out the cash? I reckon a better use for the cash would have been to revisit a few people that Extra made household names in our neck of the woods.

Today: the 9th of Feburary 2022, is another big news day. Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins are the speakers at the National Press Club in Canberra: fresh off yesterday's apology from both the major parties on issues within Parliament House in Canberra... while Queensland announced their deadliest day of the pandemic so far... while throwing more money at the tourism industry hoping the overseas border reopening on February 21 finally kickstarts a recovery, while the rugby league world is mourning the loss of original NRL Immortal, Johnny Raper.

Now it's time, for Night 3 of Lexicon News 2.

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

Opener, QLD COVID deaths/Jeta Gardens Bethania, a in studio live cross about QLD Health vaccine exemptions for employees, A live cross concerning school COVID issues (whose time (6:03) is covered up in regional QLD, along with no description of where the live cross was), QLD tourism blitz, Grace Tame/Brittany Higgins National Press Club, Qld Parliament piece on ongoing integrity issues, live cross to the PA concerning the Sunnybank accident reported yesterday (6:11pm), Johnny Raper obituary, petrol price pain, Live cross from China (4:15pm), Winter Olympics story, Jakara comes home after her gold medal. (end of segment one)

(Start of segment two): Accident on Greenbank-Springfield Arterial, Update on Ukraine situation, British man getting caught drinking a bottle of champagne while driving a van, that ultimately crashed.(end of segment two)

(Start of segment three) Bribie Nissan Patrol driving into sinkhole driver is charged, Live cross (6:29) to court concerning Whiskey Au Go Go inquiry, Level crossing incidents in SE corner, fire in Oklahoma City, Oscar nominations arrive. (end of segment 3)

(Start of segment four) Fuelcast/finance, Tritium (QLD-based manufacturer of electric car charging points) opening a US factory, Drug mule jailed in NSW, Fixerupper houses going for a pretty penny, Gold Coast council ramping up off leash fines. (intro to sport)

The timing in Brisbane added up to 30 minutes, 15 seconds.

The regional cut added up to 10 minutes, 35 seconds.

The amount of content Seven lexiconed out, of their Brisbane newshour in regional QLD tonight: 20minutes, 20 seconds.

The amount of lexiconed content this week so far by Seven: 39 minutes, 45 seconds.

Again, Seven lexiconed out of the regional cut of the 6pm news, a QLD political story. Not a good look, Neil Warren.

As we end tonight's Lexicon News 2, we pause to remember a champagne life and career, that was none other than NRL Immortal Johnny Raper with one of his best achievements post-rugby league: being a spokesman for a young Australian tyre firm that is now massive: Jax Tyres.

At the time of  this commercial's filming: this was the most profitable tyre commercial in Australian television history.
Johnny Raper, selling Jax Tyres before their national expansion.
(from Jax Tyres and Auto on Youtube)

Tomorrow night: Night 4... and, there is a extra-ordinary reason to join us.