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Nine News Melbourne

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Nine News Melbourne
Also known asTelevision City News (1957–1969)
National Nine News (1969–1976, 1980–2008)
9 Eyewitness News (1976–1980)
GenreNews
Presented byNews:
Alicia Loxley (weeknights)
Tom Steinfort (weeknights)
Peter Hitchener (weekends)
Sport:
Tony Jones (weeknights)
Natalie Yoannidis (Saturday)
Clint Stanaway (Sunday)
Weather:
Livinia Nixon (Monday – Thursday)
Madeline Spark (Friday – Sunday)
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons54
Production
Production locationsDocklands, Victoria
Running timeOne hour (including commercials)
Original release
NetworkNine Network
Release20 January 1957 (1957-01-20) –
present

Nine News Melbourne is the weeknight, flagship news bulletin of the Nine Network in Australia, screened in Melbourne, Tasmania, and across Victoria.

Like all Nine News bulletins, the Melbourne bulletin runs for one hour, from 6pm every day.[1] It comprises local, national and international news, as well as sport, weather and finance.

History

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The late Brian Naylor presented National Nine News Melbourne for 20 years from 1978 following his resignation from HSV-7 to 1998. Following his retirement, he was succeeded by Peter Hitchener as weeknight presenter, while Jo Hall took over from Hitchener as weekend presenter. Hall scaled back her work with Nine to news updates and fill-in duties in November 2011, with Weekend Today newsreader Alicia Loxley taking over as weekend presenter. Rob Gell formerly presented the weather until 2003, when he was replaced by Nixon; Gell subsequently defected to the rival Seven News Melbourne bulletin presenting the weather on weekends.

In March 2011, the GTV studios moved their base from Bendigo Street, Richmond, to a new building in Bourke Street, Docklands.

In May 2017, the station launched its first local afternoon news bulletin, Nine Afternoon News Melbourne, putting it head to head with its rival station Seven's local afternoon news. The bulletin is presented by Alicia Loxley (Monday-Wednesday) and Dougal Beatty (Thursday and Friday).

In December 2021, it was announced that Peter Hitchener would scale back to four days a week from January 2022 presenting from Monday to Thursday with Alicia Loxley presenting on Friday.[2][3]

In November 2023, it was announced that Alicia Loxley and Tom Steinfort would replace Peter Hitchener to present on weeknights and Hitchener will move to weekends from January 2024.[4][5]

Ratings

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For many decades, Nine News Melbourne was the most dominant local news service, often drawing a peak audience of more than 400,000 viewers. However, in the mid-2000s, the bulletin started to lose ground to the rival Seven News Melbourne, winning only 24 (out of 40) weeks in 2006 and then narrowly losing in 2007 when it won 19 weeks (to Seven's 20 weeks, with the other week tied).[6][7] Even during the years when Nine News struggled nationally, the Melbourne bulletin remained competitive, being the only metropolitan bulletin to win any weeks against Seven News in 2008 and 2009.[8][9][10] By 2012, however, Nine News Melbourne had re-established its ratings dominance, often leading their rivals by an average margin of over 100,000 viewers.[11][12]

Current presenters

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Peter Hitchener, presenter of Nine News Melbourne
Current presenters
Role Bulletins
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
News Alicia Loxley (2024–present)
Tom Steinfort (2024–present) 		Peter Hitchener (2023–present)
Sport Tony Jones (1990–present) Natalie Yoannidis (2024–present) Clint Stanaway (2011–present)
Weather Livinia Nixon (2004–present) Madeline Spark (2020–present)

Fill-in presenters

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  • Dougal Beatty (News)
  • Stephanie Anderson (News & Weather)
  • Clint Stanaway (Sport)
  • Natalie Yoannidis (Sport)
  • Nathan Currie (Sport)
  • Madeline Spark (Weather)
  • Mimi Becker (Weather)

Past presenters

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Reporters

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  • Christine Ahern (Today Melbourne reporter)
  • Seb Costello (A Current Affair reporter)
  • Jo Hall
  • Dougal Beatty
  • Alexis Daish (A Current Affair reporter)
  • Madeline Spark
  • Justine Conway
  • Eliza Rugg
  • Neary Ty
  • Chris Kohler (Finance editor)
  • Izabella Staskowski (Today Melbourne reporter)
  • Reid Butler (US correspondent)
  • Brett McLeod
  • Heidi Murphy (State Political reporter)
  • Stephanie Anderson
  • Lana Murphy
  • Penelope Liersch
  • Mimi Becker
  • Gillian Lantouris
  • Amber Johnston
  • Laura Turner

Sport

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  • Nathan Currie
  • Clint Stanaway
  • Natalie Yoannidis
  • Trent Kniese
  • Tom Morris (Chief AFL reporter)
  • Xander McGuire

References

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  1. ^ Kalina, Paul; Ellis, Scott (6 January 2014). "Nine quietly switches to hour-long news". The Age. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  2. ^ Murray, Duncan (6 December 2021). "Nine's Peter Hitchener will take a step back from reading the weeknightly bulletin". news.com.au. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  3. ^ Knox, David (6 December 2021). "Hitch to switch to 4 nights a week". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  4. ^ "Nine News announces new Melbourne anchors, Alicia Loxley & Tom Steinfort. | TV Tonight". tvtonight.com.au. 18 November 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  5. ^ "9News Melbourne announces new presenting line-up". www.9news.com.au. 18 November 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  6. ^ Enker, Debi (14 June 2007). "How Seven trumped Nine". The Age. Melbourne. Archived from the original on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
  7. ^ Ziffer, Daniel (3 December 2007). "Seven tops Nine in week-night news". The Age. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  8. ^ Knox, David (24 August 2009). "Nine News to unveil new Melbourne set". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  9. ^ Dyer, Glenn (15 January 2009). "I am Peter Overton?: Calamity at Nine News Sydney". Crikey. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  10. ^ "Nine urges viewers to change back". AdNews. 12 December 2008. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  11. ^ Bodey, Michael (20 July 2015). "TV ratings: Nine's the one again when it comes to news". The Australian. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  12. ^ @MrTvAus (22 July 2017). "Congrats 👏 🎉 Won 21 weeks out of 40 (ratings survey): • @9NewsSyd #1 for 7 years running. • @9NewsMelb #1 for 6 years running. #9News" (Tweet). Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Twitter.
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