SHORT news updates will air on WIN television to meet broadcasting rules following the dumping of its 30-minute 6pm weekday bulletin at the end of next week.
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The multiple news breaks will be broadcast Monday to Friday in the Albury-Wodonga and Wagga markets where WIN will no longer have reporters and camera operators.
Television broadcasting licences, that are governed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, require licensees to air a quota of material of local significance each week.
At that time, a newsreader would reel off items of interest from a Canberra studio.
From Monday week, the WIN News timeslot will be filled by Celebrity Name Game, a light entertainment show hosted by Grant Denyer that is now broadcast on the WIN Peach channel.
WIN management confirmed the decision to axe the news teams does not mean it will close its Albury office in the Sakura building in Macauley Street diagonally north of the cinema car park.
Advertising representatives will continue to be based there.
A WIN spokeswoman could not say how many Albury employees would lose their jobs due to the news service ending.
"Staff have been informed of the decision and our first priority will be to ensure that those affected have an opportunity to be redeployed within the network," she said.
"Until that process is concluded, we are not able to provide details on how many are impacted."
TV Blackbox website television analyst Kevin Perry said the timing of the cuts at the end of the financial year is likely to be related to new measures applying from July 1.
He said under WIN's affiliation deal it has to provide a certain percentage of advertising revenue to the Ten network and that would be expected to increase from the new financial year, adding to cost pressures.
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