A competitor entering the local TV news market could see WIN Television cut back on its coverage, according to media analyst Steve Allen.
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This week Southern Cross Austereo – a pairing of Southern Cross and Nine – announced it would launch 15 regional news bulletins from early next year.
The hour-long programs are expected to focus on local news and sport before taking stories from Nine's existing Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane bulletins.
It marks a challenge for WIN, which has had the regional TV news market largely to itself after Prime axed its bulletins in 2001.
WIN's 16 local news bulletins are seen as a flagship for the regional broadcaster and CEO Andrew Lancaster had pledged to continue to produce them despite losing its Nine affiliation and instead having to partner with Channel Ten.
Media analyst Mr Allen, managing director of Fusion Strategy, said the SCA bulletins would provide a serious threat to WIN's longtime news dominance.
"They've now got a significant competitor and they've lost the prestige and what's attached to the Nine logo in its news and current affairs leadership," Mr Allen said.
"So it makes it real competition and I think somewhere in the future WIN will have to decide how extensive its local news coverage is from early next year onwards."
The new SCA bulletins will air from 6pm, placing it in direct competition with WIN's own half-hour local news programs in most markets.
Mr Allen said he felt SCA had chosen the 6pm slot for its one-hour news bulletin because there was nowhere else in the schedule to place it, rather than a deliberate move to go up against WIN's local news.
But Mr Allen said the decision could cause problems for WIN and believed the effect would be apparent "within days" of SCA beginning to air its news bulletins
"The fact is that it then directly impacts WIN which means it's going to be a very hard road for WIN as soon as this goes to air," Mr Allen said.
Mr Allen said the move into news would be an expensive one for SCA but added it reflected an awareness of the popularity of local content.
"Local news services do out-rate the nationals," Mr Allen said.
"If you look at half an hour of national syndicated news and a half-hour of local news, the local news will practically always out-rate the national news.
"The more we go down the network route in any media type and the less there is of local stuff, the more it's sought out.
"You want to know what's happening in your own backyard."
WIN Television was contacted for comment.
