A former Seven Network executive has questioned WIN Corporation’s decision to scrap NBN News weekend bulletins, warning the move is not only a ratings risk but also defies a well-documented national trend of Australians leaving capital cities for regional communities like Newcastle.
Laurie Patton, who ran Seven Sydney and Seven Queensland and served as the network’s marketing director, told Mediaweek the timing of the decision struck him as particularly odd.
“It seems a strange move for WIN to be dumping its local news on weekends,” Patton said.
“Viewers tuning into the nightly news often stick with the channel when it’s over. So it could actually damage ratings.”
A growing audience, not a shrinking one
The decision comes as population data points firmly in the opposite direction to WIN’s programming strategy.
In the year ending March 2025, there was a net outflow of 31,000 residents moving from capital cities to regional Australia – a 4.5% increase from the previous year.
According to the Commonwealth Bank’s Regional Movers Index, Newcastle continues to feature among Australia’s most popular destinations for internal migration, alongside the Sunshine Coast, Greater Geelong, and Lake Macquarie.
The metropolitan cities of Greater Newcastle, the Central Coast, and Illawarra-Shoalhaven are expected to grow by 400,000 people, reaching a population of 1.8 million by 2041.
For Patton, cutting local news in communities that attract new residents makes little commercial or editorial sense.
“The audience loyalty networks once enjoyed have been diminished by multichannelling. Nevertheless, news remains a potent drawcard,” he said.
“Local businesses are able to leverage that audience loyalty. So there could be a local backlash as they will have to compete with national advertisers.”
Laurie Patton
Newcastle is not a satellite city
Patton said the decision also reflected a misreading of how Newcastle residents see themselves.
“In my experience, regional viewers want to know about local sport, local weather, and local news, in that order,” he said.
“For a sport-loving community like the Newcastle region, this just seems a problematic move, as Newcastle viewers don’t see themselves as merely a satellite city of Sydney. They are more interested in hearing how local teams performed than in the results of a Sydney competition.”
What WIN has announced
WIN Corporation confirmed it will halve NBN News weeknight bulletins and axe weekend editions entirely from 27 June 2026. A 30-minute locally produced bulletin will air Monday to Friday at 5:30 pm, replacing the existing one-hour program.
Nine News will follow at 6:00 pm.
Weekend bulletins will be replaced by Nine News at 6:00 pm across Northern NSW.
A WIN spokesperson told Mediaweek the new format would deliver “an extended 90 minutes of local, national and international news coverage each weeknight,” claiming the half-hour bulletin would carry more local content than the existing hour-long program, which currently blends local, national, and international stories.
The network also flagged the construction of a new control room at NBN Studios in Newcastle, with the bulletin to be produced locally rather than from Brisbane.
WIN said it was also exploring opportunities to expand news content to digital platforms.
NBN News will continue to be presented from Newcastle, with journalists and camera operators based across Northern NSW and the Gold Coast, including Newcastle, Central Coast, Taree, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Lismore, and Tamworth.