The Tasmanian branch of WIN Television tonight relaunches the weekend news bulletins that it axed over a year ago in favour of Nine News bulletins relayed from Melbourne.
Jonathon Kendall, formerly a reporter for WIN in Victoria and with past experience at Network Ten and ABC Radio, has made the move to Hobart to front the reinstated weekend bulletins. The network’s extended news coverage has also led to the appointment of three additional journalists.
Local news is basically a three-horse race in Tasmania, with Nine Network affiliate WIN competing with Southern Cross Television and ABC. Southern Cross News dominates the market, often hitting the top of the weekly ratings, with ABC News also in the top 20 programs.
WIN News has lately failed to make the state’s top 20 programs, something not helped by having weekend news beamed down from Melbourne while Southern Cross and ABC maintained seven-day news services in Tasmania.
WIN’s southern region general manager Rod Jerman said the station had always planned to review the status of the weekend news service after 12 months, although public feedback is also said to have played a role in the return of the local newscasts:
“We got a lot of feedback from the public and community groups. And obviously our service was missed. We are pleased to respond in a positive fashion.”
Source: The Mercury
