Viewers in South Australia were forced to watch news from Melbourne after major technical issue stops production of local news service.
The production team at Nine News in Adelaide were thrown into chaos when the computer system used to control the nightly bulletins suffered a major glitch, forcing the news off air.
At around 5.20pm viewers in South Australia watching 9 News suddenly found themselves watching a freeze-frame. It was the first sign something was very wrong.
Local social media producers issued a tweet saying:
We apologise – we are still experiencing a major technical malfunction. We will bring you local stories as quickly as possible.
After a very long commercial break, an episode of local lifestyle program Hello SA was played when producers realised they would not be able to continue with the bulletin.
At 6pm the Melbourne version of 9 News with Peter Hitchener aired instead of the local edition.
Busier in here than a McDonald’s Drive-thru on a Saturday night – thanks for waiting! https://t.co/18LVt4GvVd
— Brenton Ragless (@BrentonRagless) April 20, 2022
Viewers were not happy with the replacement program, with comments on Nine’s FaceBook page revealing the interstate rivalry between Melbourne and Adelaide.
Please God come back soon. Watching the news from Melbourne is painful!
Not sure which is worse, watching Victorian news or Ch 7
I thought we had all been transported into the Socialist Republic of Victoria!
Well we are now watching channel 7 – channel 9 interstate news is not an acceptable alternative.
TV Blackbox can reveal the issue related to the software program used to prepare the bulletin – ENPS.
The program generates the rundown which is used by the control room and producers to put the bulletin to air.
It contains the running order of the program, scripts and commands for cameras and supers.
Basically, it is how the news gets to air.
In the age of automation, the production team do not have the resources on hand to override the system and manually put the bulletin to air.
Technicians are currently trying to work through the problems and stories which had been prepared for the bulletin are being uploaded to social media.
Jeremy Pudney, Adelaide News Director told TV Blackbox:
“We will have experts working on the issue during the night and expect to resume local Adelaide news broadcasts as usual tomorrow.
Tonight’s main local news stories will be posted on the Nine News Adelaide social media platforms.”
