Nine News Melbourne
Nine News Melbourne is the weeknight, flagship news bulletin of the Nine Network. It is screened in Melbourne and Tasmania, and across Victoria (weekends only).
| Nine News Melbourne | |
|---|---|
 Opening title | |
| Genre | News |
| Presented by | News: Peter Hitchener (weeknights) Alicia Loxley (Weekends) Sport: Tony Jones (weeknights) Clint Stanaway (weekends) Weather: Livinia Nixon (Mon - Thurs) Madeline Slattery (Fri - Sun) |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 54 |
| No. of episodes | Every day since 1957 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Melbourne, VIC |
| Running time | One hour (including commercials) |
| Release | |
| Original network | Nine Network |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original release | 1957 (as Television City News) 1970 (as National Nine News) 1976 (as 9 Eyewitness News) 1980 (as National Nine News) 2008 (as Nine News) – present |
Like all Nine News bulletins, the Melbourne bulletin runs for one hour, from 6PM every day.[1] It comprises local, national and international news, as well as sport, weather and finance.
History
The late Brian Naylor presented National Nine News Melbourne for 20 years from 1978 following his resignation from HSV-7 to 1998. Following his retirement, he was succeeded by Peter Hitchener as weeknight presenter, while Jo Hall took over from Hitchener as weekend presenter. Hall scaled back her work with Nine to news updates and fill-in duties in November 2011, with Weekend Today newsreader Alicia Loxley taking over as weekend presenter. Rob Gell formerly presented the weather until 2003, when he was replaced by Nixon; Gell subsequently defected to the rival Seven News Melbourne bulletin presenting the weather on weekends.
In March 2011, the GTV studios moved their base from Bendigo Street, Richmond, to a new building in Bourke Street, Docklands.
In May 2017, the station launched its first local afternoon news bulletin, Nine Afternoon News Melbourne, putting it head to head with rival station Seven's local afternoon news. The bulletin is presented by Alicia Loxley (Monday-Wednesday) and Brett McLeod or Dougal Beatty (Thursday & Friday).
Ratings
For many decades, Nine News Melbourne was the most dominant local news service, often drawing a peak audience of more than 400,000 viewers. However, in the mid-2000s, the bulletin started to lose ground to the rival Seven News Melbourne, winning only 24 (out of 40) weeks in 2006 and then narrowly losing in 2007 when it won 19 weeks (to Seven's 20 weeks, with the other week tied).[2][3] Even during the years when Nine News struggled nationally, the Melbourne bulletin remained competitive, being the only metropolitan bulletin to win any weeks against Seven News in 2008 and 2009.[4][5][6] By 2012, however, Nine News Melbourne had re-established its ratings dominance, often leading their rivals by an average margin of over 100,000 viewers.[7][8]
Current Presenters
| Role | Bulletins | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| News | Peter Hitchener (1998–present) | Alicia Loxley (2011–present) | |||||
| Sport | Tony Jones (1990–present) | Clint Stanaway (2011 – present) | |||||
| Weather | Livinia Nixon (2003 – present) | Madeline Slattery (2020 – present) | |||||
Fill-in presenters
- Tony Jones (news)
- Brett McLeod (news)
- Dougal Beatty (news)
- Corey Norris (sport)
- Alicia Muling (sport)
- Ayrton Woolley (sport)
- Justine Conway (weather)
Past Presenters
- Sir Eric Pearce (1956–78)
- Brian Naylor (1978–98)
Reporters
News
- Stephanie Anderson
- Dougal Beatty
- Reid Butler
- Justine Conway
- Jo Hall
- Andrew Lund (state political reporter)
- Brett McLeod
- Lana Murphy
- Maggie Raworth
- Allan Raskall
- Emily Rice (medical reporter)
- Eliza Rugg
- Mark Santomartino
- Melanie Slade
- Madeline Slattery
Sport
- Braden Ingram
- Alicia Muling
- Corey Norris
- Ayrton Woolley
References
- Kalina, Paul; Ellis, Scott (6 January 2014). "Nine quietly switches to hour-long news". The Age. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- "How Seven trumped Nine". The Age. Melbourne. 14 June 2007. Archived from the original on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- Ziffer, Daniel (3 December 2007). "Seven tops Nine in week-night news". The Age. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
- Knox, David (24 August 2009). "Nine News to unveil new Melbourne set". TV Tonight. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
- "I am Peter Overton?: Calamity at Nine News Sydney". Crikey. 15 January 2009. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
- "Nine urges viewers to change back". AdNews. 12 December 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
- Bodey, Michael (20 July 2015). "TV ratings: Nine's the one again when it comes to news". The Australian. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- MrTvAus (22 July 2017). "Congrats 👏 🎉 Won 21 weeks out of 40 (ratings survey): • @9NewsSyd #1 for 7 years running. • @9NewsMelb #1 for 6 years running. #9News". Twitter. Retrieved 24 July 2017.