UPDATE: ABC to stick with tried and tested format
Audiences for Canberra's ABC evening news bulletin have collapsed, with the program losing more than two-thirds of its viewers in the past three years.
The national broadcaster's viewing figures for the 7pm news have slumped from a nightly average of nearly 47,000 viewers in 2009 to just over 16,000 last year.
ABC publicists in Sydney denied this week the collapse had anything to do with the low level of local content featured on the nightly bulletin.
But a leading Canberra media analyst contrasted the ABC's dismal performance with the steady improvement enjoyed by the local WIN TV evening news.
By contrast, the local ABC's radio operation has continued its dominance of Canberra's airwaves, recording strong ratings growth from 15per cent of the market to 19per cent in the latest Nielsen rating survey, taken last August.
Canberra was without a nightly local ABC news bulletin from 1991, when the Hawke government slashed the broadcaster's funding, until 2001, when the Howard government made money available to restore rural and regional programming.
But since the ABC's latest venture, the labour-intensive News 24, there have been fears the new station's demand for resources would leave regional newsrooms understaffed and under-resourced.
An ABC spokeswoman said, however, the ABC TV news in Canberra now had more staff than ever.
The general manager of media buying firm Grey Canberra, Warren Apps, said the performance of the ABC's local news bulletin was interesting.
''Based on all we know about the ACT population, an intelligent and succinct half-hour of local, national and international news should perform very well here, and indeed did for quite some time,'' Mr Apps said.
''There's been no obvious change to the line-up and few other external factors driving the shift, with the exception of WIN's timeslot change, to 6.30pm, in mid-2010.
''The introduction of ABC News 24 can't possibly be a significant factor, given it ended 2011 with a 2.7per cent share of all viewing in the ACT.''
Mr Apps acknowledged there had been industry chatter about viewers switching off over the lack of local content. ''I've also heard the local content argument, but I haven't had a close enough look at that to really form a view,'' he said.
''That said, there is a distinct difference in the feel of the respective bulletins, and based on the numbers we're seeing you could easily form a view that the market is thirsty for more local content at a grassroots level - the one area where WIN really focuses its efforts.''
While ABC has shed more than 30,000 viewers in the past three years, the regional station has gained more than 4000.
But a Sydney-based ABC spokeswoman defended the corporation's position on local content and said there had been no staff cuts.
''There is no less local content on the Canberra 7pm news than there has ever been,'' she said.
''In fact, we have over the past year boosted our evening output with an extra late shift.
''Canberra 7pm news is a capital city news service with the same mix of national, international and local news as other ABC capital city bulletins.
''It's important to remember that the ABC carries a Canberra news service seven days a week - where the commercial stations do not.''
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