CHANNEL Seven has dumped Today Tonight in favour of one-hour news bulletins in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, to begin tonight.

The move comes after rival Nine switched to one-hour news services across all capital cities three weeks ago.

Today Tonight will still be seen in Adelaide and Perth.

Seven says its one-hour news bulletins will be different to Nine's. Seven's bulletins will incorporate longer feature-type stories as events demand.

"We see this as an exciting opportunity to serve our news audience in a better way," Seven West Media Limited CEO Tim Worner says.

"In Adelaide and Perth, we will continue with Today Tonight where the programs serve as really important local windows."

Seven insists that all staff associated with Today Tonight in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will be retained for the network.

media_camera Reshuffle ... Brisbane TT presenter Sharyn Ghidella

Indeed, Seven says it is out to boost its news gathering resources by creating a News Investigations and Features unit.

"All staff previously working on the East Coast editions of Today Tonight will continue in their roles and will contribute to News Investigations and Features as well as TT in Adelaide and Perth under Executive Producer Max Euchtritz," Mr Worner says.

"This move is about building and investing in Seven's leading news coverage. In recent times we have increased our level of news across the day with great success. We plan to do even more in the future."

Seven's announcement comes a week after Helen Kapalos resigned as Today Tonight presenter in Sydney and Melbourne.

A week ago, Seven announced that Mark Ferguson was replacing Chris Bath as its Sydney news presenter Sunday to Thursday.

media_camera Already gone ... Helen Kapalos resigned as TT presenter for Sydney and Melbourne last week. Picture: Mike Keating

Home and Away will continue to go head-to-head with A Current Affair at 7pm. Seven's soapie posted some of its strongest figures - upwards of 1.2 million viewers across the five capital cities - last week.

Fusion Strategy's Steve Allen says Seven's decision to switch to one-hour news in the Eastern states makes sense.

"The public mood has shifted in recent times and they want news in the 6pm to 7pm hour," Mr Allen says.

Originally published as Seven dumps TT for one hour news