The Seven Network’s Sunrise breakfast program will launch local news bulletins within the program from next Monday 28th May 2007.

Local news bulletins specific to their region will follow national news at 6am, 7am and 8am.

This adds to the local weather and traffic updates already aired during the program.

“Sunrise viewers told us they want to know what’s happening in their own backyards,” Sunrise Executive Producer Adam Boland said.

    “Sunrise has newsrooms in every single major city. These local updates will ensure Sunrise has the most comprehensive and most relevant news service in Australia between 6am and 9am.”

There is no word yet as to what Seven’s regional Queensland station, Prime, GWN or Southern Cross plan to do in these timeslots. It follows speculation that Nine will launch local news bulletins within the Today Show.

Source: Seven Network Press Release & MediaSpy

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It Takes Two: Media Release

   
Hot on the heels of DANCING WITH THE STARS comes the return of Channel 7’s live weekly celebrity singing show on Tuesday nights – IT TAKES TWO, which pairs celebrities with some of Australia’s best-loved and renowned singers. Grant Denyer returns as host of It Takes Two which sees the couples competing in a duet-singing showdown backed by a live show band.

The couples are judged by a combination of viewer votes and a panel of industry experts to see who will be crowned series champions. Each week the competing couples will have to belt out tunes from a variety of musical genres including pop, rock, musicals and ballads.

Confirmed celebrities who will step out of their comfort zone are:

   
Bobby Morley, Home and Away actor Daniel Kowalski, Former Olympic swimmer Ernie Dingo, The Great Outdoors television presenter and actor Jo Stanley, Breakfast radio host and television personality
    Jolene Anderson, All Saints actress Julia Zemiro, Comedy Star of Radio, TV and theatre Krystal Forscutt, Reality star and pin up girl Lochie Daddo, Television presenter Mimi Macpherson, Environmentalist and businesswoman Russell Gilbert, Comedian

The well-known and respected professional singers who will mentor the celebrities are:

   
Anthony Callea, Australia’s record breaking popstar, Dave Gleeson, Screaming Jets frontman David Campbell, Swing sensation David Hobson, Opera singer Jade MacRae, Soul singer Kate Ceberano, Multi award winning singer Paulini Curuenavuli, Young Diva Rachael Beck, Theatrical singer and dancer Troy Cassar-Daley, Country singer Wendy Matthews, Australian singing legend.

It Takes Two is a BBC format, and is a co-production between BBC Worldwide and Seven.

IT TAKES TWO Returns Tuesday May 8 at 7.30pm on Seven / Prime

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Amanda Meade at The Australian reports:

TEN’S 2007 Big Brother website, the first significant plank in the television network’s fledgling internet strategy, remained crippled by technical problems last night, angering fans and making sponsors nervous.
Integrated website sponsorships with 3mobile, KFC and Starburst promised to be a key factor in the show’s profitability this year, and sponsors have paid millions to leverage the mass audience across TV, mobile phones and the internet.

But four days into the series, fans remained unable to sign up for all the promised features, existing subscribers were not getting what they paid for and Ten was giving away the live stream free to quell frustration.

In a substantial privacy breach, some subscribers’ details were shown to members who tried to log on. But Ten said last night that credit card details were secure and that no credit card data was stored on any Ten or BB07 server.

The debacle is an embarrassing start to the network’s program block for 2007 and is yet another crisis to emanate from the Big Brother website.

Last year’s streaming of the so-called "turkey slapping" incident was seen live by a only handful of people but it led to a federal government review of reality-TV rules, which remain a threat to Ten’s freedom.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan has failed to release a response to the inquiry, leaving producers in limbo.

The opening-night ratings were the lowest recorded debut in seven years, but the new rules and the twists of series seven appear to have been fairly well received. Last year, the 2006 Big Brother website was the most popular TV portal, with up to 1.5 million unique users a month and 640,000 premium subscribers.

But this year it promised to be even more popular as the axing of the late-night Big Brother Uncut program meant the web was the only place to see adult content.

The website is a joint venture between Ten and Endemol Southern Star, which owns the site as part of the format. But, for the first time, Ten is providing the infrastructure and technology.

Ten’s general manager of digital media Damian Smith told Media the internet forums, on which fans could post comments, remained closed and it was still not possible to subscribe to the $39.95 premium content, which included video, nude shower photographs and stories not suitable for under-15s.

The BB Instant Messenger product had also been delayed.

However, Mr Smith said he expected all the features to be available by the end of today.

"All technical problems that were experienced on Sunday night have been resolved, and all necessary changes to hardware and software implemented," Mr Smith said. "We are progressively rolling out all features of the site in a very deliberate fashion and, as of Wednesday morning, premium content and forums are the only features from launch that have not yet been re-enabled."

The false start to Big Brother is potentially a disaster for Ten’s sponsors, although none has threatened to pull out yet. "We have been keeping our sponsors up to date with what has happened on the site, and we are confident we will work with them to deliver a great experience for them online," Mr Smith said.

A 3mobile spokesman said: "As a sponsor of Big Brother, we have been fully updated and are satisfied that Ten is working to resolve any issue relating to registration on its Big Brother website."

The company said its support extended beyond the TV broadcast and the website, with some speculation that the inability to view some content online might even have prompted more 3 users to use its mobile phone feeds.

But thousands of fans who signed up for the premium content before Sunday were angered by the failure and have demanded a refund. Mr Smith said he was working on a way of compensating people who had paid and missed out on content.

Mr Smith joined Ten from LookSmart in July last year to head up its internet strategy. He told industry publication Media Week before the launch that the website was a profitable business in its own right this year.

He said the launch was significant because Big Brother was "the first big cab off the rank".

"Expect to see a fairly significant new website for Australian Idol later this year," he said.

The Big Brother site is a goldmine for advertisers, as subscribers can opt to receive emails from sponsors.

The technical failure on Sunday night meant a "small number of registered users would have seen the identity of another registered user when they logged into the site", Mr Smith said. "As soon as it became clear this was occurring, we disabled all features connected with registration. No credit card details were at risk and those details are absolutely secure. The website employs industry-standard SSL protection for credit card entry. We take our obligations under privacy legislation and guidelines very seriously, and will work to restore users’ trust."

Big Brother is broadcast on Southern Cross TEN

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Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin will be inducted into the Australian Television Hall of Fame at this year’s Logie Awards. The late wildlife conservationalist and entertainer will be honoured for his work in the wildlife documentary field and for his contribution to the nation’s entertainment industry. His wife Terri Irwin will accept the award at the ceremony on May 6.

“Our documentaries started airing in Australia and we were only ever going to do one episode about crocodiles and, in a very short period of time, we’d done 10 episodes to tremendous ratings,” Mrs Irwin told TV Week. She said people had become detached from wildlife in recent history and it was a “point of pride” for Steve that he was considered a pioneer of his genre.

The induction will provide a sombre reflection despite this year’s more youthful and comedic presenters.

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The Seven Network has announced the line-up for series two of the celebrity karaoke show It Takes Two, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Featuring in this years edition is RockWiz host Juila Zemiro, radio host Jo Stanley, TV presenter Ernie Dingo, animal conservationist and Elle’s sister Mimi McPherson, All Saints actress Jolene Anderson and comedian Russell Gilbert.

Replacing professional series Guy Sebastian, Glen Shorrock and Karen Knowles will be Anthony Callea, David Campbell and Kate Ceberano, along with last year’s winner Erika Heynatz.

It Takes Two is shown on Prime.

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