REVIEW: How the TV networks covered the fire disaster on the first night of ratings season

Tim Burrowes

February 9, 2009 9:13

The most extraordinary first night of the ratings season in Australian TV history yesterday saw programmers seeking to balance planned schedules with updates on the unfolding Victorian bushfire disaster.

And while none of the big free-to-air channels abandoned their schedules entirely, all moved to keep viewers up to date. Seven and Nine were most reactive, while Ten mostly stuck with its lineup.

Seven

Among the shows facing the biggest challenge (and opportunity) was Seven’s new hour-long public affairs show Sunday Night, which made its debut at 6.30pm. It dumped previously promoted stories about tennis star Jelena Dokic, British band Coldplay and cycle legend Lance Armstrong to lead with coverage of the tragedy.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.

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4 COMMENTS

nextbrett 9 Feb 09

Hey Mumbles.

Where’s the ABC breakdown? They have set up a twitter account, great radio coverage, dedicated web coverage, TV special report @ 7. Kicked in to disaster mode very nicely. They were reporting updates a good half an hour before any TV news was, and working direct with emergency services.

I also think – it was a bit peculiar switching from horrific bushfire news updates to fist pumping cricketers.

.brett

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mumbrella 9 Feb 09

Hi Brett,

A fair question. The reason we were specifically monitoring Seven, Nine and Ten last night was that we were already planning to look at the advertising offerings for the first night of ratings season. Obviously events took everyone in a slightly more serious direction.

Credit too to SBS. As far as I could tell, they were the first to put anything online about Brian Naylor

Cheers,

Tim – Mumbrella

CJ 9 Feb 09

774 in Melbourne was awesome. Full coverage, and a key source of information for people in the fire-affected areas.

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nextbrett 9 Feb 09

Fair enough Tim.

I noticed those big movers in PR kicked straight into gear with FP press ads, huge donations. It’s def interesting to see how advertisers respond aswell as the content providers.

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