Analysis: Where has it gone wrong for Ten?

Ten’s target demographic don’t watch broadcast TV…

It’s not rocket surgery.

Certainly makes for interesting “event” reading.

And let the TEN trolling commence….

What??? Are they suggesting people like watching HD Sport on ONE???? That’s just crazy talk!

Give it time guys…TIME. they are going OK for mine.

Having an opinion on a place that has taken some monumental wrong turns and burned a hell of a lot of good clients and people along the way is not Trolling Harry. Bullying and picking on someone just for the sake of it is. But I’m sure Gina, Lachy and James appreciate your support.

“Another criticism levelled at Ten was not maintaining a consistent schedule, moving shows like Modern Family, SYTYCD and The Biggest Loser to different times and different days.”

Nine is the absolute WORST at this, so why is it now causing Ten problems and not Nine?

TEN don’t know how to market their station, brand or shows. Doesn’t matter what you program if no ones knows whats on, where and when.

They just need to hold on until Abbott changes the media laws and they can merge with News. As planned.

Respect for viewers is a bigger aspect than executive’s realise, moving shows around is never popular. The other elephant in the room is Andrew Bolt and the purpose of his Sunday show. Both Murdoch senior and junior use THEIR station as a platform for their political campaign. When the presenter of their campaign is so out of step with all but the most radical of Conservatives, they will have alienated people. The priority of a station should be to primarily entertain and for some programs, educate as well. The Bolt rants are seen as neither, rather they are a blatant attempt at political brainwashing.

Last night a lot of their demographic watched True Detective and the Walking Dead that they illegally downloaded. If they want to watch secrets and lies they’ll probably download that too. Ten Should let people download their shows with the ads inserted. People aren’t watching low quality streams on their tvs.

Like Qantas it comes back to management. Poor management, poor results.

@Mr Still A Bitbitter oh the irony.

If I wanted to watch TV, I’d want to watch Walking Dead, True Detective, Secrets and Lies, Almost Human, Elementary, American Horror Story etc etc.

And if I wanted to watch those, I’d watch them via a torrent, onto an iPad and then back onto the TV via Apple TV. Or via Netflix using a VPN.

If I wanted to, that is….

For any TV station, it’s all about content/programming and how that content is scheduled and promoted — right choices lead to big audiences /ratings leads to big ad $$. Win the ratings and the ad sales will follow. As this article highlights, TEN have made some odd choices in both programming/content and in the scheduling of that content (I think they actually do a pretty good job of marketing/promoting). They need people running the business who understand more about content and programming — that is the lifeblood of any TV business.

The glut of ‘respected’ ex Y&R advertising professionals now in senior roles at the network suggests that maybe a lot of these advertising types actually don’t know much about connecting with consumers.

ten’s problem is brand. people don’t trust the brand, don’t value what they do. that is why nothing can launch and good programming gets lost. If Modern Family was on Nine it’d do 1m, on Ten it’s doing less than half that.

“They just need to hold on until Abbott changes the media laws and they can merge with News. As planned.”

Actually a good idea. It’s rarely been noted that Australia’s cross-media regulations royally fucked local commercial media outfits.

Because they were barred from owning TV, radio, print in the one market, they had nothing to converge when the wonderful internetz touched down. (The ABC on the other hand wasn’t restricted and converged nicely, even branching out into online print while they were at it.)

News, Fairfax, Nine etc prob have a very valid argument in this regards. Time to scrap cross media ownership laws before they do any more damage.

TEN took the Big Bash off Fox Sports, not Nine. And for mine did a bloody good job of it. I was most apprehensive prior to their broadcasts, but they did it really well. What they’re not doing is telling the masses via any other comms, except on their own channels. Fail. When you’ve got 14% share you better be investing in other media to promote yourself. 2 x full page editorials in SMH Guide even did nothing. But we need TEN to be competitive, not the basket case it currently is, lest they fall over altogether. No-one needs that.

The simple answer is that Ten have destroyed a once vibrant brand !

Why did Mgt believe that gaining the Winter Olympics at any price would assist their launch. It is a low rating and inconsistent event that was always going to inflict enormous damage to the Network.

It did not provide the launch pad – but then again it was never going to ! It has killed SYTYCD & The Biggest Loser forever and naturally hurt the rest of schedule.

We now have disastrous ratings, little to sell to advertisers and no promotion base to work on.

What’s next ……Hmmmmm

Poor management is usually the reason for poor performance

Not sure I agree with the statements made in the forth network section.

I praise Ten for giving viewers a choice during the games. Including being able to watch the key events in HD (lust like they do other developed country). Why can’t they look at combined audience figures for these events to measure success then? Shouldn’t it be a good thing that ONE is also getting ratings?

If strong ratings success on the digital channels is seen as a bad thing, then why have them? I would much prefer to have similcast HD how it used to be, instead of using that bandwith for re-runs of MASH and Get Smart. Perhaps if we had good quality shows in HD (such as Homeland) people wouldn’t go running off to torrents.

the winter olympics hmm ….what a great idea for a country with a climate not exactly arctic. I personally don’t know of anyone who watched it. And who wants to watch Humpty Dumpty dragging tyres around and crying. Drivel.

Trying to remember the last time I watched something on FTA tv apart from ABC News and 7.30 Report.
Really struggling to come up with something apart from tennis, State of Origin or the cricket. If that makes me a bogan, then I am guilty as charged.

Ten missed its chance for a complete brand overhaul with the arrival of the cricket and the Olympics. Instead, it’s the same old look and sound to the promos (is that male/female double act married? They spend a lot of time finishing each others’ sentences), and a ‘new look’ logo that has a bit more white where the yellow used to be. Wow!

I thought Ten did a great job of both events, but I was watching sport on the same old Ten, not watching the big relaunch of a revitalised network.

I think its OK – im lovin One and like the choice – some misses but its early days. Even better if News comes in then they can access Fox archives.

Alex, that is not correct. Ten secured the Big Bash rights directly from CA. Nine never has had the Big Bash rights since the competition was relaunched as a franchised tournament. http://www.abc.net.au/news/201.....ll/4732566

Takes a huge amount of time to turn a brand around.
They are on that journey.

The Journey will be over before it ends

The cross media ownership laws have done a reasonable job for the Australian media. If only Ten had put more distance between its self and News Limited it would be doing much better than it is now. There is only so much mad right ranting people can take.

So Ten pays a lot to secure what sport is available. That is the easy part. Cricket was fine but Sochi coverage was a mess. Now the really hard part is developing and securing some Australian shows across the spectrum of entertainment/reality and drama. Ten management has been a proven failure at this and unless the Board and management change it will continue to be. Seven is a model of this and Nine has lifted its game after some mediocre years. The only way things will change is when the lenders to Ten start to exert some pressure to effect real change. It has become a mess and one only hopes Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t capitulate to calls to change ownership rules. A smart operator can turn Ten around.

“Where has it gone wrong for Ten?” asks this story’s headline.

Several things, one of which is the fact that Ten’s simpering and/or waywardly emphasising newsreaders are among the worst amateurs in what we can loosely call the English-speaking world.

There used to be a real freshness about Ten. I remember as a kid it was always the ‘cool’ station to watch, it always seemed to have the fresh approach to its brand and to its programming. Loved the edge it had.

They’ve done a pretty good job of dumbing the network down in my opinion – and with that, and gaining quite a conservative and sensationalist tone – have alienated a lot of people who would have given them half a chance ‘back in the day’. Their original programming is awful (with the exception of Masterchef, and even that is pretty tired these days), and the stuff they do get is no better than what you’d find on one of the ‘secondary’ FTA channels who play reruns of cartoons and trashy reality shows.

Andrew Bolt never helped anyone either. It’s terrible, but as someone who leans to the left it turns me and a number of people off the network totally – on top of all the other crap they’re airing. Couple that with the bad run of breakfast and morning tv and… well. It’s no surprise.

One big problem…Bolt…I won’t support anything that idiot broadcasts his boring bile on. That combined with a management team with utterly no clue but to embrace the obvious. Australia is evolving seems like the same old Dinosaurs are running the commercial networks

SYTYCD was a really great show – but they actually killed that off by moving it around last time they played it… then without enough fanfare it was back on air – and it now seems a bit too late to be throwing the likes of big name guest appearances on air to lift it. Biggest Loser has gone way too way over the top and moved from an inspiring show to one with bitching moaning and backstabbing rather than that truly inspirational feel good style show… There look to be some good shows on there… somewhere…. but I actually forget to watch them now – more focused on what’s on the others…

One more thing… just supporting a couple of other comments… what the hell were they thinking launching shows in the middle of the Winter Olympics? Definately should instead of had some “killer” promos advertising the “After the Olympics” lineup… and while as a Network you do have to compete against the others – it was inevitable disaster to be launching big ticket shows against MKR and The Block mid stream.

The head of content makes decisions on acquisitions and scheduling. The appointment of John Stephens at his 3rd network is an acknowledgement the current person needs a hand big time. David Mott got the don’t come Monday treatment and ratings where about 20-25% stronger so you would have to think he was stiff. But like any company structure the buck stops with the CEO – Warburton failed by trying to be a 1 man band and it would seem his successor has similar traits.

David Mott’s problem was tat wen he traipsed oveseas to learn what TEN’s output deals had for them, the cupboard was bare.

Pretty much “oh we’re not doing that anymore”

He came back empty-handed apart from some Big Brother thing.

And Murdoch USED to have the place. Plus BTQ, ATV, SAS. We had Laurie Oakes, Mike Munro, John Laws, Ita Buttrose – oh, she’s STILL there.

Didn’ we have M.AS.H.? And Number 96? And Perfect Match? And Kerri-Anne on GMA? We won the News with Katrina in Sydney and Jennifer in Melb. Steve Cosser’s The Reporters didn’t knock off 60 Minutes but it rattled the cage.

I remember when it started – great big show and my Dad bought a swag of United Telecaster shares. Did pretty well out of them, better than the Courage Beer he grimly hung onto for years, hoping… at least we got sent cases of beer. (except Dad was a whisky drinker!!!)

The trouble is, nobody much will watch FTA in the future. Look at the numbers already for iView, FixPlay, Fetch, SBS online, Yahoo7. They’re counting it now alongside OzTam.

Stay tuned.

BBL worked because it understood what the audience wanted: fast food cricket AT NIGHT after samples of test cricket during the day.

Where else is TEN showing that level of insight?

Retread shows like SYTYCD? Repurposed US shows like American Idol? Another episode of The Simpsons?

They’ve commissioned a great show in Puberty Blues so there are clearly some people who know what they’re doing. Just not the programming and marketing departments.

Here’s a tip: stop letting sales run the joint and get creative people who can empathise with an audience.

It is worth pointing out the CEO has no TV experience, neither does the Exec GM, neither does Siobhan from Iliriya, neither does LM, nor the new marketing guy who used to run Y&R, nor most of the board. Who is driving the decisions around, you know, TV type areas at that level?

The other networks have people who know TV all over them. Ten doesn’t.

I have forgotten the name of the south African advocate who featured in the now legendary happy valley murder case, but I remember something he had to say.

He claimed that the key to all great murder mysteries was seldom complex and usually very basic and simple. Channel Ten’s mystery is almost like a murder, in so much that they started to get into trouble when they ignored and moved away from the core principle of good television producing. They killed theatricality and good taste.

Ignore the time honoured rules ( they are not commandments but they are clear rules) of good theatrical practice at your peril. The golden rule of never inflicting pain upon an audience is the master rule that like all rules may be broken occasionally, but never ignored.

There is still time to save the day, but they must get back to good television production and acknowledge the family. Whatever changes have taken place in television viewing, the vast majority still welcome the producers efforts into their homes and before their children, grand parents etc. Good sound television production principles are invaluable and must never be ignored.

Unfortunately there is a sacrifice now to be made. They must stop going to the well with such big buckets, they must budget and cost cut and take less profit for a time, until the ship re-floats and gets both upright and back to its water line.
The styles of theatricality change, both forward and back, but the key factors remain the same.

when well meaning advisers claim that the ageing population is dying out and the young will replace them, they are thinking, but not very well. The population is always ageing, the old are replaced with the new old and the young with the new young; to allow either group its head is a mistake.

Running an ad business isn’t difficult. Especially when you are one of three majors blessed with a free to air license. TV still attracts a lot of eyeballs and the advertising works – unlike a lot of digital advertising which doesn’t – although the ad agencies will of course tell you otherwise.
What is hard is buying programs at a cheap price and buying the right programs in an auction. You are not always winning by paying the most. In fact, a lot of the time the winner is actually the loser.
Overpaying for content and/or buying the wrong content is most likely the main reason the company is struggling ( debt has now been cleaned up ). Overpaying was certainly their issue with Eyecorp – they secured sites on non-commerial terms paying far above market rates for long term licenses that they couldn’t unwind. They did win a lot of those site tenders though……!

FtA television is about its audience not its executives.

The promotional hyperbole assault on viewers in any ep of Modern Family tells you that they don’t understand that it is enterntainment they are chucking free on the front lawn not an advertising platform. Madmen are running the farm right now, last year it was the accountants and befor that the sales guys.

Until they all comprehend the need to entertain they have nothing to sell.

TEN was great under Greg Coote, Pal Cleary and Gordon French (and Rupert) because they were showmen first and foremost. The Kennedy Miller days prove this.

The schedule stinks and plopping Neighbours on one of the digi channels is shere madness.

Stevo the dog Stephens is a solid programmer, but he always inherited audiences at Nine and Seven. He has no track record building from ground zero…its mission impossible, especially with all the HELP he could expect from the rest, Board down.

Stay at Seven and have a happy retirement.

Ten’s results are always going to suffer in a bigger market. With more players you are going to get belted when you are third. The difference between now and the 80’s is that now Ten Plus Nine Equals Seven. Whereas it was Seven plus Ten Equaled Nine.
Keep your heads at Ten. Bring the Simpsons and Neighbours back. Get your self a half decent Game Show. A sport/comedy panel show. Pay Denton for an interview show. Sprinkle some american drama/comedy. Grow some Testicles and then stick with it for 12 months.

It’s really very simple why no young people don’t watch Ten (or Nine or Seven).

They don’t play the stuff people want to watch, and if they do, it’s crammed full of ads. After several years of watching downloaded content (a lot of which I’ve paid for), I can’t stand watching anything broken up by advertising.

The Americans seem to be getting around this with things like Netflix and HBO, but for some reason, Australian networks seem to think they can bully their audience into doing what they want them to.

Basically, I have no sympathy for broadcast networks.