Prime7 News

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prime7 News
Prime7 News 2017.png
Division of:Prime7
Opening Theme:The Mission (theme music)
Founded:1960s
Headquarters:Head Office: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Area served:Regional Australia
Broadcast programs:Prime7 Local News
Prime7 News at 6:30
Parent:Seven West Media

Prime7 News is a local television news service in parts of regional Australia, produced by Prime7. A statewide national bulletin, 5 full local news bulletins, and news update services are presented from Prime Media's National Headquarters in Canberra to viewers in Regional NSW, ACT, Regional VIC and Gold Coast QLD.

As a Seven Network affiliate it also broadcasts:

  • Seven Early News
  • Sunrise (Weekdays) & Weekend Sunrise
  • Seven Morning News
  • Seven Afternoon News
  • Seven News at 5
  • Seven News
  • Sunday Night

Regional services[]

Prime7 Local News[]

The Prime7 Local News logo used 2017–present
Former Prime News reporter Ashlea Brown interviewing Wagga Wagga Mayor Kerry Pascoe

Prime7's flagship bulletin airs at 6pm in five distinct local editions for the Border, Central West, North West, North Coast and Wagga Wagga broadcast regions. The bulletins are presented by Madelaine Collignon and Elly Wicks, with Kirstie Fitzpatrick as the weather presenter. Each region has five reporters while the North Coast has four separate bureaus with its own reporter, such as Port Macquarie's Samantha Crowe. Since the closure of the Tamworth studios in April 2015, the North West edition of the bulletin broadcasts live from Canberra.

After being broadcast on television, the latest bulletins from each of the five regions become available to watch on their respective YouTube pages.

In its website posted on 2 February 2017, Prime7 announced that the presentation of Northern NSW and Southern NSW local bulletins will be consolidated into a unified presentation format, known as Prime7 Local News, by 13 February, beginning with the introduction of dual presenter roles for Madelaine Collignon and Kenny Heatley (both of them began their career as the network's weather presenters), as well as Guy Fenton introduced as its interim weather presenter. This also comes after Southern NSW's final news presenter Freya Cole left Prime7 to contribute reports for Seven News. The 6.30pm national bulletin, however, remained under a single presenter format. More adjustments saw Lijnders, who was weatherzone.com.au's founding moderator and a former meteorologist at ABC News, replacing Fenton in presenting local weather forecasts from 20 March.

Due to family reasons, Heatley resigned from Prime7 with his final television appearance occurred on 31 July 2018. Reporter and non-bulletin regional news updates presenter Liz Gwynn took over his place afterwards, making a dual-female presenter role with Collignon (a rare instance in Australian television news services).

Prime7 News at 6:30[]

Until 21 February 2014, Prime7 broadcasts a delayed Seven News into areas that receive full Prime7 Local News bulletins on weeknights. Since 24 February 2014, Prime7 has produced its own live bulletin due to the extension of Seven News to one hour on the eastern seaboard. This is presented by Daniel Gibson at 6:30pm, and covers national and international news that are being broadcast by Seven News in its metropolitan counterparts. Meteorologist Elly Wicks presents the expanded weather forecast, which features state, East Coast metropolitan cities and national weather.

The statewide edition, however, does not cover across the entire New South Wales. Albury (which is served by sister station AMV in Victoria) does not receive this bulletin and continues to receive an edited version of Seven News Melbourne, which has been trimmed down to 30 minutes.[1] The edited version features the first half before joining live for sports and weather.

Local news updates[]

The Prime News logo used 2001–2011

The news bulletins for the Gold Coast was axed in 2000, and those for Newcastle, Canberra, and Wollongong were discontinued in 2001. At the same time, the network's Moree news bureau, which provided stories for the Tamworth bulletin, was closed.[2] This, as well as the closure of bulletins by Southern Cross Ten in parts of Queensland and New South Wales, prompted an investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Authority. New rules were later set out requiring regional stations to offer minimum levels of local content, over a six-week period.[3]

Two-minute news updates were introduced to Newcastle, Wollongong and Canberra in 2004. There are also updates presented for Western Victoria, Central Victoria and Gippsland. These are presented by Phoebe Deas [4] with weather presented by Daniel Gibson. Craig Moore presents weekend weather updates across the Prime7 broadcast area. The Gold Coast service does not current have any news updates and relies primarily on the BTQ news update telecasts, as well as Seven News Gold Coast.

Notable personalities[]

A number of well-known news presenters and television personalities began their careers at Prime7 News, including:

References[]

  1. ^ Knox, David. "Prime adds new bulletin". TVTonight. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  2. ^ Macguire, Toby (9 June 2001). "Regional TV news gets axe". The Daily Telegraph. p. 17.
  3. ^ "Local content conditions on regional commercial television broadcasters". Australian Communications and Media Authority. Retrieved 15 September 2007.
  4. ^ "Prime7 Local News - 8:30pm Newcastle News Update (15/11/2021)". YouTube.
  5. ^ "Jessica Rowe". Ovations!. Retrieved 15 September 2007.
  6. ^ "The Morning Show: Kylie Gillies". Yahoo! 7. Retrieved 15 September 2007.
  7. ^ "It Takes Two Hosts". Yahoo! 7. Archived from the original on 1 September 2007. Retrieved 15 September 2007.
Retrieved from ""