Just how much trouble is Ten in? (Answer: A lot more than you probably realise)
Ten is facing a financial crunch within weeks – and even without board representation, shareholder Lachlan Murdoch will be the key player in the future of the network, reports Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes
On Thursday, a very short ASX announcement from Ten raised some very big questions.
Siobhan McKenna, Lachlan Murdoch’s representative via his investment company Illyria, had left the Ten board. A few minutes later, it was announced that she was taking a new role working with him at News Corp.
With media matters involving the Murdoch family, there’s usually a reason for everything. The obvious first question is this: Was McKenna’s move about what’s going on at Ten, about News Corp’s growing television ambitions, or both?
Good piece Tim. You seem to have ruled out Bruce Gordon option. I agree it is unlikely but he has coveted a metro network for over ten years and this would be his best chance. News can play the long game and buy it off Gordon for half the price in two years time.
Great article Tim.
I watched I’m a Celeb on most days (yes, I need a hobby) but the finale was so long and dragged out that daylight savings helped us spoil the ending so that we didn’t have to sit through another hour of highlights. No one has time to sit through 3 hours of one show these days, just get on with it in an hour and put the highlights on the highly flogged Ten Play site.
Better than most of the reality programs on TV now. What I’d really like to see is a review from the Goggle Box crew.
Interesting to go back 30 years and look at the sale of only the mastheads of the original News tabloids in SA and Qld to the editors. That was a 5 year plan…same, same but different.
Yes, Tim, well done.
Intriguing.
Great insight Tim. It certainly highlights an interesting environment that Ten operates in and it won’t be overly surprising to see this used as the stick used by Fifield to get his media bill pushed through, particularly as much of the delay is in concerns around lack of diversity in content; a media org closing up shop showcases this to be an inevitability anyway.
Very good piece. These issues will be recurring themes across all the free to air networks (and possibly Foxtel) as they struggle with content costs on the back of lower audiences. Formula 1 & V8 Supercars should be having a close look at these developments at Ten. With the record dollars recently paid for TV sports rights past 2020, sporting bodies might need bank guarantees or reversion rights if broadcasters default on financial covenants.
small e for Easter? Bad editing or a statement?
Otherwise, good summation of the lay of the land…
real journalism again tim. Can you please stop this.
Ten, you made it to #1 in the late 80’s. Seven rose to #1 in 2001.
It is possible for a comeback. You just need the right people driving the business.
Your audience doesn’t care if the show is made in South Africa or in Redfern. They just wants quality, uplifting content that lets them forget about what’s going on in the next room and outside.
Bring back more tried and trusted formats that give you the ratings without the big overheads – Family Feud is a brilliant example.
Learn from the past to forecast your future.
I have been working in media for over 25 years. Email me. Love to bring some experience & insights back into the network.
You’re right Steve. Too many at the top of decision making who don’t understand what viewers want these days. Start again and go back and study the old days when you were #1 and then study where you went wrong! Or is that too basic to understand?
Once again, great read Burrowes.
The Goanna could not resist the Alan Bond’s narcissistic offer of one billion dollars for the Nine network [circa 1987], then brought it back for two hundred million.
Me thinks The Dirty Digger don’t have confidence in the younger Murdoch.
Lachlan backs another winner.
Thanks for a good read Tim. Real adding of value by bringing the disparate pieces together for us to appreciate in one place. Ta.
Good straight shooting article. MCN are doing all they can but the numbers are just rubbish. To suggest they are attracting premium $ is flawed.
The only decent decision undertaken in recent times was the Big Bash which drove revenue in historically low revenue months dominated by cricket on 9 and tennis on 7.
Message from viewers that MKR is tiring after 8-9 years – so don’t hold your breathe on Masterchef – those franchises are vulnerable.
The most important number is what is 10 share of the month’s metro revenue pie? That is the 1 way to see if sales are fighting in welter class and achieving heavyweight numbers or they are commanding the same share of $ versus commercial share of audience 18.54.
Decent decision ? No. Big Bash cost heaps and got little revenue. The “glow factor” of sports coverage has been proven to be a myth. Without the costs of Big Bash, Ten would have made an operating profit.
Can’t cut costs ? In fact they must. Revenue is falling and will continue to fall in the future. The 1980s approach of throwing money at a ratings problem will not work. And the single biggest cost for the networks is sports coverage.
I find it highly unlikely that News would be able to get US creditors to fund a buyout of Ten, given that the US FTA networks have been losing money for years.
We’ve seen this movie before. Except that it was Alan Bond who handed Nine back to Packer on the cheap. Packer won’t want anything but a buck out of this. Gordon won’t pay much. So Murdoch will win if News wants Ten – and it has seemed for a while that they do. They also have Hartigan neatly parked at Prime for a network boost. The question is: how much is it worth for News to have a national network into which it can syndicate its global tv content and sports rights? And will the law allow it to converge news rooms with Sky?
The trigger by the way is the trading while insolvent test. Ten directors must be satisfied they can meet obligations as and when they fall due. So whenever the debt question arises is the moment they have to act.
Ten’s biggest problem is, with few exceptions, that nobody watches their programs. Despite this, they do very little to address the problem. The Project is a good example of this. Rates poorly in every city (other than Melbourne) yet after 10 years is still on the air. Neither Nine nor Seven would have put up with this.
The Project rates surprisingly well – given that their idea of alternative youth TV presenters is a 65 year old radio announcer and a middle aged (edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy)
There’s a market for nostalgia, and Ten needs to tap into it.
Australian Idol, MasterChef Original, Fifth grader and even acquiring some old IP’s from other networks.
Part of the problem is that they pay big money for sports and then provide abysmal coverage and online streaming for them.
Take the F1 for example. Every year I try watching races on catch-up through Ten. Every year the service is so bad that I end up streaming from other countries.
Yesterday I tried to stream their race coverage and got offered four videos with titles that gave away all the results of the race.
They then have highlights that play at ridiculous varying times, on different channels and with no consistency. They effectively make it impossible to watch content they have paid a shitload to get rights for.
Lets not forget that the rights to the BBL, which in recent years has proven to be a lucrative launching pad for Ten’s new season offerings, is up for renewal in the next 12 months at the end of the 17/18 Season.
its the programmers fault for instance why rely on crappy reality tv for aussie content ?? and i used to love NCIS but its on too late now and they kept changing the day !! you have 3 channels why do you show the same show at the same time on two (sometimes three ) channels ? your reasoning is bizzare !! and foxtel deals ruin our motersport ect and whatever happened to good movies ??? and you wonder why we have netflix and stan and now amazon we can watch what interests us not terrible reality tv that im a celebrity get me out of here was the worst tv programming ever !! what on earth are they thinking ?
Are TV stations legally required to log free placements to fill unsold ad space?
If you’d bought spots on ten and got offered high rotation, wouldn’t you ask for a cheaper price? Because nothing sells like the smell of fear…
This information is worth everyone’s attention. How
can I find out more?