Royal baby news clears Australian media schedules
TV networks have cleared programming schedules across the country from breakfast to prime time today for additional news and feature coverage of the birth of the royal baby boy in London.
Source: @TrendsAustralia
Channel Seven has ditched Today Tonight in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in favour of an extended news broadcast from 6pm, presented by Chris Bath with reports from Seven News foreign correspondent, Mike Amor, as well as Sunrise host Melissa Doyle, who is also on the ground in London.
Seven’s Sunrise did an extended broadcast, overriding The Morning Show, and Channel Seven then aired a special one hour news bulletin at 11am. Sunrise broke news of the royal birth before Channel Nine’s Today, and the show was broadcast live in Adelaide and Perth.
On Channel Nine there has been extensive coverage on the Today show this morning, and a live stream of the show was available online through ninemsn, in addition to a live stream of the front steps of St Mary’s Hospital Lindo wing in London.
Ninemsn editor Hal Crawford told Mumbrella four news stories on the birth have generated 1.9m page impressions on ninemsn.
“When we have image heavy material we expect a lot of page views but there are three articles that are just generating a lot of views, which is somewhat surprising because we often find unexpected news does better, but in this case, people just want to find out as much as they can.”
Channel Nine will provide extensive coverage of the royal birth on Nine News at 3.00pm, 4.30pm, and 6.00pm as well as on A Current Affair at 6.30pm.
And a special royal baby edition has been planned for the Today show tomorrow morning from 5.30am, with Leila McKinnon, Pete Stefanovic and Lizzie Pearl all reporting live from London.
The ABC has ditched the 8.30pm show New Tricks tonight in favour of the documentary Born to be King, to mark the occasion. This will be followed by a special episode of QI in which British comedian Stephen Fry focuses on an ‘E’ themed episode devoted to England at 9pm.
Network Ten will broadcast a half-hour Ten news special titled ‘Will And Kate: A Royal Arrival’, presented by Natarsha Belling, star of the new breakfast show ‘Wake Up’, in place of The Simpsons at 6pm. Ten News At Five will cross live to Emma Dallimore, Ten’s US Bureau Chief, at St Mary’s Hospital and Ben Lewis, Ten’s UK Correspondent, at Buckingham Palace, and Ten’s The Project will cross live to their UK Correspondent Lucy McDonald, and Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann at St. Mary’s hospital for the latest news.
However, online readers of the Guardian Australia have been given the option to avoid royal baby saturation of the news. Readers are given the option to declare whether they are Royalist or Republican so the front page news can be tailored to their interests.
Source: @TrendsAustralia
Nine News tweeted just before noon that over 200 related tweets are being posted every minute.
Over 200 ‘Kate’ and ‘labour’ Tweets posted every minute after #RoyalBaby announcement. (PIC via @TrendsAustralia) pic.twitter.com/bOud5twmN6
— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) July 23, 2013
Meanwhile, in the UK, News Corp’s tabloid The Sun changed its name for the day
Megan Reynolds
Is their a network that WON’T be covering the Royal Baby? I’ll be watching that one if there is!!
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DVD night tonight methinks. Yes its a good news story, but we know and another couple of hours of banal waffle isn’t what we want. I pity the poor advertisers who have been sold program sponsorship packages only to be bumped for this, not a nice way to treat your clients.
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Thank you to The Guardian – your ‘hide the baby news’ function has saved me from avoiding news sites altogether. While TV – well that’s easy… thank you Netflix!
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What wonderful news. A healthy baby boy and the Duchess of Cambridge is well and happy. I is exciting to hear the news regarding the birth of this baby and the success, well being and happiness of the mother.
President, First Lady, PM or local fish and chip shop proprietor, the news of a birth is always an occasion for joy and benediction.
Royalists and Republicans alike should be delighted. What could be is one thing, what is so, is so, and the little prince has no political bias one way or the other.
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You are right Beery. DVD night.
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Richard, I think the point is that many, many people have babies every single day. This shouldn’t be as big a deal as it is, and we welcome the Guardian’s “opt right out” feature.
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http://www.aljazeera.com – I value it for reporting on the news that shapes world events, and looking at the site, lots of profound stuff is happening today.
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@Anonymous
You have done it again; illuminated the point, by attempting to shift it into the umbra.
Yes “many people have babies every single day ” however, this is the newborn of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. Important people in the scheme of things and direct descendents of the Australian Head of State.
This is why it is, not necessarily a “big deal”, but at least it is relevant and newsworthy.
I agree that the Guardian’s “opt out ” feature is a good idea.
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Richard Moss, I am not the only Anon. We are legion.
Why are they important in the scheme of things? What do they do? What do they contribute? Bugger all. As such, why do we cover their every move with blanket media attention?
They are descendants of the head of state? So F’ing what? Many people are. This little unelected sponge will never be my head of state, given the state of the line of succession.
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