Hamish McLennan’s report card: Restored market confidence leaves Ten looking strong
Outgoing Network Ten CEO Hamish McLennan has managed to “build some confidence back” in the market according to media buyers, with one giving him a B+ for his performance at the broadcaster.
His departure was announced this morning and comes as pay-TV network Foxtel awaits approval to acquire a 15 per cent stake of the free-to-air network, which has already merged its sales operations into saleshouse MCN.
UM CEO Mat Baxter told Mumbrella: “The timing in that respect isn’t a huge surprise but I think he has been good.
“Hamish has managed to do the one thing the network had been struggling to do and that is build some confidence back into the network among the market.
“That is 50-60 per cent of the game – just market confidence – that has been achieved and Ten is in a stronger place than it has been in a long time.”
In 2013 he inherited a network with tumbling audience and revenue share and unsettled schedule from James Warburton, with many doubting a man from a creative agency backgrond, with no history of running a media company, could turn the ship around.
But last month Ten recorded SMI revenue figures of 23.1 per cent up of media agency spend, from 18 per cent last year, boosted by shows like I’m a Celebrity, Masterchef and also lead in programs such as Family Feud which have helped make the TV network more competitive.
Peter Horgan, CEO of OMD, said that in his two years at the helm of the struggling TV Network McLennan had very little margin for error.
“I think history will view his tenure in a positive light,” said Horgan. “Hamish steadied the ship when the Ten business was in crisis and didn’t have a lot of financial wiggle room to execute a turn around.”
“Hamish has done this on a tightly won balance sheet with not a lot discretionary programming he could purchase or commission.”
McLennan
Chris Nolan, CEO of Starcom Mediavest which counts Ten as a client, was also positive: “Ten fortunes have improved significantly. We have seen them have some audience growth and they have competed well in the context of Seven and Nine in recent times.”
Simon Ryan
Asked for a scorecard on McLennan’s time at Ten Carat CEO Simon Ryan said: “I’d give him a B+.
“I believe he understood and saw the weaknesses in the business. He also understood the competitive threats that are out there and in my view looked at the opportunities to reshape programming, focus on more consistent ratings and I think he is leaving the network in much better shape than when he started.”
However, Ryan also noted that the timing, coming on the night of the Masterchef finale was interesting and that Ten will face strong competitive pressures from rivals Seven and Nine over the remaining months of the ratings years.
“Timing is everything as we always say,” warned Ryan, whose clients include major brands like Woolworths, Holden and Mondelez.
“I think Ten have hit a high and it will be interesting to see if they can continue to hit that high. There will be continued competitive threats hitting them for the next six months of ratings.”
Other media buyers also noted the timing with Peter Vogel CEO of MEC arguing: “Hamish has come in and done what I assume he was tasked to do.
“This is why it is attractive for someone to come in and acquire a share of the company.
“I think the interesting thing will be what is their strategy going forward – both in terms of the partnership with Foxtel and also if there are other parties who might buy in.”
Anderson
Many buyers noted that McLennan’s replacement Paul Anderson is seen as popular internally is well placed to help Ten make further leaps in the digital space.
OMD boss Horgan said: “The landscape has changed in recent months. It will need someone who can work collaboratively with the MCN sales team, who can be nimble in market and who can inspire and drive the team at Ten and I think from everything we hear about Paul he is internally popular and very commercially minded.”
Nic Christensen
TEN is clearly going to be plugged into News+Foxtel in an attempt to keep a foot on the TV sports rights bidding. McLennan had to go to make some fig leaf cover for the ACCC. The larger question is whether TEN can survive in a world where viewers have lots of quality choices at low cost.
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And where reruns of MASH and Get Smart don’t cut it.
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Channel 10 needs a massive shake up, so over their website saying a programme is scheduled and it doesn’t play, re-runs of Masterchef in daytime TV starting at inconsistent times that effect programmes either side so more than not I give up watching what I wanted to watch (bad enough having Masterchef on at night, don’t need it on twice). They don’t even respond to viewer comments on their Facebook page. I used to work in TV and fortunately for a network that does care about viewers and being seen to be professional in public. They need to get some decent schedulers on their team, I used to watch 10 a lot and now hardly ever = too frustrating.
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