Australia’s media sector has been rocked by mass sackings over the last month. The culling started at Seven and continued a week later at Nine. Even nightly news hosts were let go.
Then Seven decided to shake up its flagship 6pm bulletins with a weekly Friday night comedy segment and daily horoscopes.
The move had many in the industry shaking their heads in disbelief.
On this episode of The Briefing, Colin Vickery, a TV and entertainment veteran explains how nightly news is changing:
Colin Vickery has over thirty years’ experience in TV and entertainment. Vickery says 7News’ new horoscope segment is a small part of wider changes within the media entity.
“If seven had of introduced a number of different changes and then down the track, horoscopes came in, then people might have a different attitude,” Vickery said.
“It’s sort of symbolically big. It sort of goes, This is where we’re heading. This is the direction we’re heading and I think that sends the wrong signal,” he said.
Vickery said the segment aims to bring in younger viewers, as traditional news formats scramble to compete with social media, podcasts and online publications.
“It’s high risk, I think, because my view is that news success is about consistency,” he said.
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