As the brekky battle heats up, Seven look to leverage daylight saving to help them get their nose back in front.
Sunrise will be delivering a local News bulletins inserted into their Queensland broadcast during daylight saving, broadcast from their Mt Coot-tha studios.
The bulletin will be presented every 30mins by Sunrise’s Queensland correspondent Bianca Stone.
With the rest of the eastern states clicking an hour forward this weekend it would otherwise leave Queensland residents with News segments an hour old at a time when COVID lockdowns are imminent for the region and other important stories are being updated bulletin to bulletin.
It is understood rehearsals have been taking place over the last week in preparation for the launch on Monday 4 October.
As the snapshot indicates below, the trend over the last two week’s ratings data is reflective of The Today Show having the upper hand over Sunrise in the Brisbane market for most of 2021.
| Mon 27/09 | Tue 28/09 | Wed 29/09 | Thu 30/09 | Fri 01/10 | |
| Sunrise | 55 | 42 | 50 | 51 | 48 |
| Today | 59 | 51 | 48 | 67 | 60 |
| Mon 20/09 | Tue 21/09 | Wed 22/09 | Thu 23/09 | Fri 24/09 | |
| Sunrise | 50 | 45 | 51 | 52 | 47 |
| Today | 54 | 60 | 47 | 59 | 52 |
Sunrise has been delivering a dedicated 7am local bulletin to Perth/WA audiences since 2015.
Executive Producer Michael Pell has maintained a strategic approach in courting the Brisbane market, using live broadcasts from around the city often.
Commenting on the change via social media, Pell stated:
“The one hour daylight saving delay is gone. Big investment in reporters, producers, directors, cameras.”
With the pandemic limiting travel in and out of Queensland an up to the minute local bulletin inserted into the show could be an important advantage and draw all important viewers to boost Sunrise’s postion.
Perth and Adelaide have continued to be strong markets for Sunrise (and Seven); the battle on the East Coast has remained close with Brisbane often finding itself as the swing market between the two brekky shows and network news services.
The move to daylight saving in NSW/ACT/Vic/Tas/SA has traditionally caused scheduling problems for Qld, especially for live content such as sport, breaking news, and breakfast programming.
Seven have been contacted for comment.
