NBN Local News ..(opinion piece written by Kerry Walters )   4 June 2026 .

Further to announcement yesterday that Win Tv has announced with their ownership of the affiliation to channel 9 now including NNSW, they have advised a change to the way viewers will receive their local news .

The new format will mean that Saturday  27 June will be last telecast of NBN local news on a weekend .

From Sunday 28 June the new format will be the 6pm 1 hour of 9 national news broadcast .

From Monday 29 June NBN News (not branded WIN News ) will telecast 21 minutes of local news content including local weather (excluding ad breaks ), but at 5.30pm M-F only .

This then questions the ability of rusted on loyal viewers being home 1/2 hour earlier from commitments .

A 6-7pm, seven days a week on all Australian regional markets across the 9 affiliate, they will have only a choice of a national news( branded as 9 National News again NOT WIN news) .

From a habitual icon point of view ,the NBN local news has been a staple diet in the Newcastle and more recently NNSW since 1980's.

History from since Black and White TV and is seen as the showcase of the NNSW 9 affiliate . 

It is yet to be seen how this change will affect the local communities offering of local editorial platform .

But this reporter has been advised that the 6pm news will only take local content when it has national preference .

Perhaps that may then lean to regional only being showcased in a negative light as dramatic reporting  such as murders and other such negative tones will surely be favoured over good news regional stories. 

Commercially, for advertisers,  it also is yet to be seen what affect on viewer numbers will come from the switch to a 5.30pm timeslot versus how many will simply just watch the 9 national news or switch to 7 news or wait til ABC at 7pm all with no local content .

This is only my opinion, but I believe that the local news going earlier will only add to the skew of viewers being older and growing older.

It will make the news offering from channel 7 and even channel 10 as less point of difference and run the risk that yet again news will become metro centric and lessen the worth it has held loyally to regional viewers .

Gone are the days where TV licences required premium local news content.

This semi void will be taken up more and more with online offerings which ,because are less scrutinised ,and ATM less licenced by broadcast codes ,may favour editorial persuations .

From an advertsiers point of view ,you placing you investment in a spot in news now ,it is yet to be seen how it performs .

Yet the WIn network is assuming the same existing spot rates for an earlier placement .

On behalf of local clients I await the ability to report on ratings to see if media can justify this rate situation .

Stay tuned .

Should you wish to discuss this more I am always more than happy to address this directly by feedback on this site .

Kerry Walters has been involved in marketing and media across national state and local regions for 45 years .