"Information: our most valuable personal commodity. It affects our lives everyday more than anything else." Growing up, one male TV watcher in his 30s told 'Fairfax Media' in 1999, "I remember as kids we'd watch the news with Brian Naylor. It was like a holy ritual. We'd have tea with TV on (at 6pm) in the kitchen and my Dad would arrive home and start to shush us because the great icon of news was about to speak. Everything that was on the news was regarded as the word of God, even though my parents didn't trust '60 Minutes' or 'A Current Affair'. They still think Brian is the word of God, even now (in 1999), and you'd better not visit them before 6.30pm because you're forced to watch that … with them."
As the world changed by the hour, one thing remained constant in the 1990s - more Australians trusted the single news authority, Nine news, than any other source to be completely informed of the events of universal concern, the local issues of the day, politics, business, sports, entertainment or when news broke. Vicki Jones was in charge of programming at channel Nine in 1987 believed the network news and current affairs programs had mass appeal which cut right across the demographic board.
On reflection in 2000, Peter Manning maintained, "If you look at the content difference between 'A Current Affair' and 'Today Tonight', it's zilch. They are both running downmarket, popsy types of stories and have been since I ran it (in 1996). It's not a content difference, it's a perception difference. It's all shadows and mirrors. What the consumer is getting from Seven news and Nine news is almost identical. It's the perception that Nine has had a stranglehold on that hour (6-7pm) for 10 years (1990-99). The perception difference is so entrenched, it needs explosives to move it."
Previously media commentator Lee Burton begged to differ, "You can't expect a news service that is essentially the same as its rival, to beat it. It needs to be radically different. If you look at all the news we have on offer on television (in 1996), there are distinct points of difference. The ABC is a more comprehensive and analytical service, SBS is an international service, and Ten is an hour bulletin. Only Nine and Seven are the same. They have points of difference but are basically formulated the same way - they need to be different."
Peter Manning continued, "We tried to do a lot of that quality current affairs on 'Witness', and interestingly the best ratings results from around the country were in Melbourne. The only way they will make a difference is a long-term commitment to news in which the reporters are breaking bombshell stories that people must watch. While Seven commits itself to top-rate journalism in that hour and there are exposes, then I think people are going to sit up and take notice."
However by 1995, the average percentage of Australian households watching news at 6pm started to fall. Researcher Robert Chard reasoned, "Hours spent viewing have hardly changed, but the times we view are changing." Jennifer Byrne, a former reporter on '60 Minutes' observed, "As an industry we've been in cruise control for a while and maybe we've had to be a bit more challenging, more flexible … the scenery has been pretty constant for a while but where are the bright, hot new faces of current affairs? I would suggest that a lot of the talent coming through was snaffled for entertainment in the 1980s."
By 1998, "...We are very much coming to the end of a current-affairs boom, and clearly the audience is tired … But it's not like some disaster has occurred." At the time, news director Peater Meakin expressed, "My perception is that not a lot has changed, and there will be more news and current affairs in the years ahead if they rate." David White of channel Ten noted, "Fundamentally, the (Ten) network has a commitment to the 16-39 age demographic and it's people (aged) 40-plus who have a real appetite for current affairs. Given the cost of any current affairs program, it must run prime-time … The equation just doesn't stack up in commercial TV."
Lee Burton pointed out, "Channel Ten has done a remarkable job of attracting young viewers through its programming and its early evening news ('First at Five' concept) and that station is looking for ways to hold that audience as it grows up. Nine's audience is predominantly older, the age group that looks increasingly for more in-depth news and might turn to the ABC or the dedicated news stations on cable TV."
Peter Meakin continued, "You can't put serious in one box and trivial in another, there has to be a mix – and '60 Minutes' and 'A Current Affair' fit into that category. The biggest growth area at the moment (in 1998) is in lifestyle/reality programs, but even '60 Minutes' has done 20 heavy stories this year mixed in with the lighter stuff. If we just went for solid doom and gloom for an hour we wouldn't retain our audience. Return to the one-hour, one topic format and you'll get three men and a dog watching."
Lee Burton added, "Television is all about moving pictures but it has become fixated on them. The general audience will accept talking heads and panel discussions – some of the stuff on 'Lateline' is excellent – but the trouble is that commercial TV producers have a very negative view of the audience, that they will be bored and switch off.
"My research shows that people are hungry for this type of television and it's time that current affairs woke up and went back to some of these solid analytical tools. Basically, current affairs has got into the gutter and it can't get out. At the moment they're giving us a McDonald's view of life – news McNuggets. They go to the television medium to find out … but feel that it isn't informing them any more."
Mike Willesee made known the biggest pressure was to deliver daily promos "before the audience to say you must watch tonight." Jill Singer of 'Today Tonight' remarked, "If we believed the promos, cancer would have been cured, nobody would be overweight and everyone would know how to pay off their mortgage in three days." Gary Rice's mentor Gerald Carrington insisted, "I have been around long enough to know that each rating points takes time to win."
By 2000, one point was said worth an estimated $22 million in advertising revenue.
Peter Manning continued, "If the audience wants to know about suburban housing estate battles, about diets, about the woman with 500 cats as well as what's happening on the wharves and what John Howard's doing with the GST then I haven't got a problem with that. Getting pointy-headed and snotty nosed about how could that possibly be defined as current affairs is irrelevant."
Jennifer Byrne continued, "I hate the notion of a divide. I don't see why it should be all or nothing, commercial or ABC, quality or tabloid. You hear this dumbing down business and I've always been pretty resistant about it. Where? How? Who measures the dumbing? I get very resentful about people being dictatorial that people must/should watch these things because it's good for them.
"It ('60 Minutes') forces you to be realistic. They were the great years (1987-1993), in terms of money and focus and ratings. I went there realistic. I never looked down my nose like Stuart Littlemore at tabloid journalism. I think there's nothing wrong with it. Well done, its as proud as broadsheet journalism, it just happens to be what you want to do. I detest the down the nose snooty dismissal of a lot of what '60 Minutes' does."
Paul Lyneham offered, "There is nothing wrong with reporters telling good, hard-hitting stories but the problem is that it often looks tired and passe because the formats haven't changed for years. Certainly the people haven't changed very much. The same generation that was there in the 'This Day Tonight' days (1967-1978) are by and large still controlling things today (in 1998), and, with all due respect, some of them are long overdue for a good sabbatical. Current affairs has got to reinvent itself. There has got to be a revolution … We need a generational change, and not just young bimbos out the front. There have to be some young people with attitude behind the scenes."
By 2000, one network employee revealed, "There's evidence young people (the 16-24 age bracket) don't like current affairs. These people are doing something else, they are not watching telly. They might be going on to the Net, they might be playing video games on the telly. Kids are far more canny consumers. There are media departments in schools. They dissect the media intelligently and carefully. It's a changing of the guard. It's the importance Nine pays to the whole news profile, its commitment to shows like '60 Minutes', 'Sunday', 'Today'."
Jim Waley declared in 1997, "I consider 'Sunday' the flagship of the network, not '60 Minutes' or 'A Current Affair'." Producer Stephen Rice made the point, "We ('Sunday') survive, not because the ratings are terrific and not because we get a couple of million bums on seats, but because the advertisers like what we do … Our aim has always been to provide quality television, but by doing that we have provided the AB demographic that the advertisers love."
The network employee continued, "There is a perception out there that if you want to buy news and current affairs, Nine is the place to buy it from. That's why Nine figures go up when there's a big story. We'll have to get modern to meet the tastes of the generational split. Maybe it (current affairs) will go out in a different form. I'm sure there's no fewer people interested in the affairs of the world, it's just that delivery systems are changing for them."
During the 2000 Sydney summer Olympics,
Peter Cornelius of Zenith Media made the comment, "There might be some residual (audience) that crosses over (from other networks to Seven), but largely things will return to normal and people will evaluate programming on an individual basis. People are generally more program-loyal than network-loyal so will watch 'Friends' whether it's on Nine, Seven or Ten." Peter Wilmoth reported in 2000, "With an interactive world looming (such as Internet of Things, IoT), perhaps the idea of mass-market free-to-air TV may be outdated. Future television, says the Nine employee, 'will be like going to a specialist store rather than a supermarket.'"
