Three News name ‘being considered’ for new 6pm bulletin
Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Three owner Warner Bros Discovery NZ has applied to register the trademark “Three News”.
WBD has confirmed the name is “being considered” for the new 6pm bulletin Stuff will produce following the closure of WBD’s news arm Newshub.
The first episode of the new 6pm bulletin will air on July 6.
Three News is “one of the names being considered” for the news show Stuff will produce for Warner Bros Discovery NZ (WBD).
A WBD spokesperson confirmed the name was in contention after it emerged the US-headquartered company had applied to register the trademarks “Three News” and “ThreeNews” with the Intellectual Property Office.
They declined to list any other names being considered.
The name Three News would represent something of a throwback.
After launching in 1989 with a bulletin called 3 National News, the channel then known as TV3 changed the name of its news broadcasts to 3 News in 1998. The brand continued until Newshub launched in 2016.
In 2017, TV3 rebranded as Three.
The new bulletin will launch on July 6, the day after Newshub’s final programmes air on Three.
Earlier this month WBD announced Newshub would be shuttered in its entirety, making close to 300 people redundant.
A week later, Stuff owner and publisher Sinead Boucher and WBD NZ head Glen Kyne confirmed Stuff had been contracted to produce a bulletin to air on Three that would be 60 minutes on weekdays and 30 on weekends.
At the time, Boucher said the bulletin would have “a new name and a new feel” but said Stuff was “not going into the TV business”.
'That’s the really important thing, we’ve got the biggest newsroom in the country, we've now got 19 newsrooms, and we’re already a digital-first multi-media company so we’re leveraging off that to produce a new, innovative 6pm product for Warner Bros,“ she said.
Fewer than 30 or 40 Newshub roles would be saved by the new show.
Last week, Newshub Live at 6pm co-anchor Mike McRoberts announced he would end his presenting career after the show’s final broadcast on July 5.