Canberra viewers have voted with their remotes on WIN TV's controversial decision to move presentation of its weeknight local news bulletin from Kingston to Wollongong.
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And the result? You win some, you lose some.
Overnight ratings for the first week of WIN's 6.30pm ACT bulletin presented by Wollongong newsreader Kerryn Johnston show the half-hour program averaged 39,600 viewers a night last week.
That's down on the previous week, when the bulletin - then anchored in Canberra by Danielle Post - averaged 43,574 viewers a night, but up on the program's nightly audience of 37,282 the week before that, and on its 2012 average of 38,297.
Johnston and co-anchor Amy Duggan, a former Canberran, began presenting ACT news and sport from WIN's Wollongong studio on July 1.
WIN chief Andrew Lancaster said the regional network had to ''improve efficiencies in order to remain viable''.
The move was attacked by ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher who predicted ''a strong reaction from the local WIN audience''.
The Tuggeranong Community Council accused WIN of treating the national capital like ''a hick country town'' and started an online petition calling for the network to reinstate Canberra-based newsreaders.
WIN, owned by Bermuda-based billionaire Bruce Gordon, did not want to comment on Monday on its Canberra news ratings.
A spokeswoman said that while the network was happy with the program's audience, a more accurate measure would come after four weeks of ratings data had been compiled.
According to Regional TAM data for the week ending July 6, WIN's local bulletin ranked 17th overall in Canberra, with WIN's relay of Nine's Sydney bulletin at 6pm ranking 13th (averaging 42,744 viewers). The week's most-watched program was WIN's relay of Nine's Sydney news on Sunday night (with 64,381 viewers), followed by the House Rules winner announcement on Prime7 (61,045), Sunday's edition of The Block Sky High on WIN (58,639) and Saturday's Wallabies versus Lions rugby telecast on Southern Cross Ten (54,643).
The 7pm Canberra news bulletin on ABC1 did not rank among Canberra's 50 most-watched shows, though current affairs program 7.30 ranked 31st with an average 27,689 viewers.
