Decades ago, when reporting another bloody day in the Balkans or the Middle East, the 7pm “flagship” television news program was that to which I mostly worked – and where most of the ABC’s viewers would turn to get a comprehensive sense of the news of the day.

The ABC audience did so because there were few choices. Today’s 24-hour news service didn’t exist. News on your computer, let alone your phone, was still years away.

Remarkably, the institution of the 7pm news still attracts a healthy audience; indeed it is the invaluable anchor which brings eyeballs to ABC television for the evening.

So, why remarkable? I’ve been a habitual viewer, when in the country, for half a century and yet I’m drifting away. Firstly and most obviously, because it is no longer essential viewing at 7pm. I can see it now at 22 minutes past 9, if it suits. Or if I decide not to devote half an hour of my life to watching a news bulletin when I can garner all that I need from ABC news online or on my phone in half the time.

7pm used to be mark an important juncture in the day. I could give myself permission, finally, to stop work, to take a drink, to focus on the important stories of the day. I’ve largely scrapped that rigidity. As a lifelong news junkie, I can be immersed in the news all day if I wish (though I fight the habit).

The second reason for drifting away is more significant. Too often, the 7pm program is simply less than compelling. That’s no disrespect to many fine reporters, presenters and producers who work hard and under considerable pressure to deliver the best, most accurate and informative news of the day. I should stress here that what I see most regularly is the Sydney news, from the new studios in Parramatta, and only occasionally the Canberra or Brisbane based bulletins; it may be better where you are.

That’s part of the problem; too often the state and territory-based programs are (in my view) too parochial. I want stories that reflect what’s happening throughout the country, not just NSW. Moreover, I’d like a wider, deeper canvas. Where are the stories about science, the environment, about art, about architecture, about sports other than the mainstream footy codes, about life outside the cities?

Now when there’s a disaster like the Lismore floods or a particularly intriguing murder like the Wellington beef case, then of course we want to experience the drama of such occasions and we do.

Yet the ABC, courtesy of 1000-plus journalists around the country, is uniquely well placed to consistently deliver a much richer diet of news than it is currently providing, at least as far as the 7pm news is concerned.

Politics and finance are core components of most 7pm bulletins and, while strong, they could be better. One way would be to refrain from cramming multiple stories from Canberra in an omnibus package delivered at rattling pace. As a viewer, I’m left exhausted trying to keep up – and sometimes even confused. Please tell me the most important story thoughtfully, visually, and at length. Tell me why, as well as what. Any other political stories of note can be delivered by the newsreader.

As for finance: Alan Kohler is day in, day out the most cogent communicator in the bulletin. So, let’s give him more time. One day, I’d like to be able to listen to every word and absorb the information in every graphic at the same time.

ABC reporters specialising in foreign affairs and defence, on education and health, are often very useful contributors to the 7pm bulletin. Quite often they break a story or unveil a new angle on a story, and yet their efforts are often buried in the middle or back of the bulletin. Could it be that the program producers are overly influenced by the running order of the commercial news bulletins and afraid of exercising independent news judgement?

International news is the ABC’s other big strength and point of difference to the commercials. We saw this to excellent effect during the recent glacier collapse and flash flood in Nepal and China. Three correspondents (notably all women) delivered breaking news and well-crafted reports. Middle East reporting by Allyson Horn and the super-verbal Matthew Doran, as well as a rotating cast from the London bureau, has for years been consistently superior to any Australian news organisation. The same is true of ABC reporting from Ukraine – though how much better it might have been, had the ABC not closed down the highly productive Moscow bureau some years ago in a fit of blind cost cutting.

So why I wonder why, on the 7pm bulletin, do I see relatively little priority given to Asia coverage, given that it is our most convenient time zone. From west to east, the ABC has correspondents in New Delhi, Bangkok, Jakarta, Beijing, Tokyo, Port Moresby. We need to see more of them – and of local reporters in the Pacific.

Unfortunately, too many nights pass when, according to the 7pm news, the world has shrunk to the latest Sydney crime sensation and Canberra. And maybe Melbourne and frothing from the White House.

Africa, from whence Sally Sara, Ginny Stein, Zoe Daniel and others once reported, South America, central Asia, all are on a distant planet and invisible to our eyes. Which is why, more and more, I find myself watching SBS World News.

Greg Wilesmith was ABC Middle East and later Europe Correspondent, Executive Producer of Foreign Correspondent, a news manager and EP of elections. He is a founding director of ABC Alumni and a member of ABC Friends.