What the axing of Wake Up says about Ten’s plight
Wake Up ended this morning and Ten is slashing its news staffing. Until it finds a new owner, the network has no option but to cut costs radically, argues Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes
It comes as little surprise that Ten has axed Wake Up.
But nonetheless, the decision – and the lack of local content to replace it – suggests that Ten is running out of choices.
Primetime isn’t working, mid mornings are a struggle and breakfast time has failed. (With the caveat that at least the new series of Masterchef has held up so far.)
The only obvious route it has left now is to cut costs again and attempt to be profitable as a distant third placed network until the ownership situation changes.
But before we get to that – a thought on Wake Up. The failure of the show is not about the content. It’s in large part about the inability of the network to successfully persuade people to sample it.
Today’s tearful goodbye
Personally, I really liked it (slight declaration of interest: I was a guest on Wednesday morning. Just 47,000 metro viewers watched.). It was the one we tended to have on in the office most mornings. James Mathison is fast and funny, and Natarsha Belling discreetly provided the backbone with interviews.
And for me, Sam Mac was a breakout star – even if it started to look like he was taking part in an extended metaphor for the problems of the network when he attempted to take a water taxi from Manly to Pyrmont with Ita Buttrose and and broke down live on air.
The word from inside was that he was also a rarity in the TV industry – somebody in it for the right reasons and pleasant to deal with.
In many ways, the hacking of the network’s news capabilities say a lot more than dropping Wake Up which was probably never going to start rating. Ten’s ambitions, for now at least, seem to be little more than mainly national news, with a handful of local stories, all read by local faces.
That looks like part of a cycle where cost cuts lead to a further drop in ratings, which will in turn trigger further cost cuts.
The news cuts remind me of the cycle faced by newspapers around the world over the last decade. You take out the reporters and subs, and the lower costs help you hit the next quarter’s profit numbers. But then readers fall away because the quality has fallen and more cuts have to follow as the advertisers retreat.
The sense in the industry at the moment is that Ten is currently in a holding pattern. Talk to media agency CEOs – and I’ve spoken to more than one on this topic – and Ten is fast becoming irrelevant to them.
That’s the biggest problem. For a long time, the market would support the third network to keep the dominant players of Seven and Nine on their toes. But numbers are now getting so poor – that it gets difficult to justify this to clients. Most weeks now, the main channel is getting a peak share of less than 10 per cent of the free-to-air audience.
Last week thanks to the return of Masterchef, it managed a still paltry 11.9 per cent. Even with One and Eleven it still only totalled 17.3.
The drums are also beating in the production sector. Ten doesn’t seem to be commissioning shows at the moment. This only increases the speculation of some sort of future tie-in with Foxtel which has also gone quiet on this front.
There was enough speculation last year that Ten was in talks for its sales to be outsourced to Foxtel’s sales house MCN to give it some weight. MCN CEO Anthony Fitzgerald is well respected in the industry and a former sales director of Seven.
Last night I was at News Corp’s Come Together presentation (good show, by the way) at the Star Event Centre. As a group of us looked around, somebody nominated Fitzy as the man who might become the most powerful person in the room.
Over the last few months there has been much speculation that News Corp – 50 per cent owner with Telstra of Foxtel – might acquire Ten. (Or rather reacquire it – Rupert Murdoch gave it up in 1985 when he took US citizenship.)
Even if that doesn’t make sense for News Corp, another thought emerges after developments in the UK in recent weeks.
The UK’s third commercial network has just been sold to US broadcaster Viacom. And BSkyB, whose biggest shareholder is News Corp’s sister company 21st Century Fox, is tipped to run the ad sales.
Given that Viacom just spent $700m on a free to air network in the UK, would it be interested in doing the same here, if the soon-to-change ownership laws allowed? Ten’s current market cap is around $750m… and it looks like MCN would be up for the sales role – Fitzy was spotted chatting closely with Ten CEO Hamish McLennan last night.
In the meantime, holding pattern it is. The $200m loan Ten negotiated late last year is starting to look more like it’s going to be needed simply to prop up the company rather than investing in premium sports content and programming. By February, $55m had already been drawn down. We”ll know more in its next market update in a couple of months on how much of that is left.
The numbers are going against the network. Particularly stark is the advertising share between the big three networks. In the space of four years, Ten went from a 30 per cent share to around 20%. (Indeed, Friday’s SMI numbers suggested it has actually now slipped below 20 per cent.)
The stats from Free TV show how Ten’s slice of the free-to-air pie has eroded over the last five years:
- July – December – 2009 – 30.08%
- January – June 2010 – 28.88%
- July – December 2010 – 27.5%
- January – June 2011 – 28.85%
- July – December 2011 – 27.03%
- January – June 2012 – 25.53%
- July – December 2012 – 21.57%
- January – June 2013 – 21.9%
- July- December 2013 – 21.52%
Back in 2009, that half year was worth $431m to Ten in turns of capital city ad revenues. The last half of 2013, this was down to $345m. Stay below 20 per cent revenue share and it’s hard to see any way to be profitable except for more dramatic cutbacks.
Unless something changes, the cycle will get worse. There were days last week when Ten was beaten in some cities by Seven and Nine’s digital channels. Cut programming investment and this will become an more regular occurrence. In which case, why buy ads on Ten at all?
McLennan
When too does this fall on boss Hamish McLennan? A turnaround takes time. His predecessor James Warburton didn’t get that time. So far McLennan has had 15 months.
Wake Up is McLennan’s responsibility. He brought in Adam Boland as boss of morning TV, and supported the expensive move to Manly for the show.
Which doesn’t mean he did the wrong thing. He had to launch and take a risk. But the more pressing question is whether he has learned enough during his crash course in the TV industry. One insider – albeit, one of the many people who have an axe to grind with the network, told me a few days ago: “He’s learned nothing.”
We shall see. Certainly, there are few who would credit McLennan with an inspiring leadership style. Many argue that’s what you need in a creative business like TV. Look how the extrovert David Leckie saved Seven, and the passionate David Gyngell rescued Nine.
There may be a plan which when it’s emerges, makes sense of the last few months. Winning some major sports rights (and finding the means to pay for them) could yet change the story.
Right now, this feels like a network unable to execute its plan and without much leadership, with the staff desperately waiting for new ownership. The axing of Wake Up is the least of their problems.
- Tim Burrowes is Mumbrella’s content director
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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It was interesting reading the press coverage on this story yesterday.
The SMH reported it as a “bloodbath” and ran it alongside an oped piece which talked at length about the network’s “uninspiring leadership”.
All very different to what was in The Australian, where it was cold and factual with no fingers of blame pointed.
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The overwhelming majority of posters to this site said the show would fail and be dumped.
Aside from semi-trolls like myself, these were industry professionals and they were spot on. Ten is firing the wrong people.
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Have to agree here with Bec… While things always look different in hindsight… but – looking at it coldly and objectively – their earlier Breakfast show didn’t work… so what was different about this version – except for being at the wrong end of Manly beach… get a better view looking up the coast… but seriously? Just putting it at Manly beach, different hosts… what was there to drag viewers away from Seven and Nine… then throw in a rocky start – so any viewers that did sample, headed back…
Truly I think its sad… I think they are doing a great job with this years Masterchef… my kids loved the earlier versions of SYTYCD but the kids did not like or gel with ANY of the judges / hosts of this year’s show…
One could even argue that the start was moving Neighbours and Simpsons off the main channel… but then that starts another whole arguement…
We need good healthy competition from all the networks…
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Ten could probably phone all the viewers of “Wake Up” and apologise personally for the program’s demise!
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It’s a great shame for the people continually losing their jobs due to such poor decision making. Ten should look at Offspring and Masterchef (this year) and to a lesser extent Puberty Blues as their inspiration. Quality shows. You can’t build an audience with that Harry show. They’ve tried low rent. Why not try putting things on that aren’t disposable.
Get matchbox to make something for them. God knows they seem to be getting interesting things commissioned every five seconds. Or put some comedy on that isn’t cast from the same pool as everything else they’ve tried. They can’t do any worse than they are.
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Sam Mac should be given the big seat on The Project. One of the best things Ch10 has going for it.
(not Sam Mac writing this)
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So…given carte blanche…creates a show based on old programmimg from Channel 7…sacks people with talent who understand TV…………advertising revenues fall to all time low ………….dumps most expensive breakfast show in history..sacks more people…pays a man not to work….all in 15 months…….I am very much looking forward to see what this talented management has in store in the next year……
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There are 3 other breakfast programs so it was always going to be a big ask. They would’ve had to either take a substantial audience from those programs, or build share, but Wake Up wasn’t different enough to do that.
Ten used to do the offbeat and legacy programming that is now done by the digital channels. Its finding it hard to find its market.
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Please reveal just who is the actual Content Director at Network 10. Is it an abacus or a human being?
The arbitrary nature of the Network lineup is exasperating. Has The Bolt Report been shown the door? If not, why not? And why so many repeats and overseas repeats at that.
Somebody surely can do a lot better.
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I agree with Fitz – it was the beginning of the end when they prioritised multi channels over their main channel. Neighbours and Simpsons should not have been moved.
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Very nice article and a viewpoint well argued Mr Burrowes.
Waiting for new ownership makes Ten seem like an sickly orphan, scrubbed squeaky clean, seated beside a cardboard suitcase, and dressed in his/her Sunday best, waiting for suitable good people to come along and provide a home and future.
Whoever comes along, if they are television producers, they will have to rely upon the basic foundations of good television, if the orphan is to thrive. News is essential, so is local and general human interest, sport and entertainment, which must (this is absolutely essential) differentiate between light entertainment , drama and the arts.
Prisoner, Neighbours, whatever the case may be, a regular drama production in episodic yet linked serial format is imperative.
But above all things listed, the basic rule of humility is paramount. This is the missing link at Ten, they have forgotten that they have an audience who regularly invites them into their homes day after day night after night.
As surely as the Doctors oath begins “first do no harm,” the television oath should be, first remember that you are a guest in the homes of your audience, and that you need them more than they need you.
Serve haute cuisine, but eat humble pie.
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Dunno….Maybe sacking all the senior managers in 2012 was a bad idea?……..
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Agree with Billy C – Content is king and hammer needs to make a decision as to what the brand stands for & Offspring etc says quality works….. Look at HBO.
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It is ironic that Murdoch worked to get rid of management who were pulling in over $200m in profit some three years ago.
I attended the Ten Upfront in 2011 (soon after those changes) and heard how good he was and how wrong everything and everyone else was. He also stated Ten deserves a 33% share of the business.
Lest not Forget – it was Murdoch that ruined the Network, Profit Line, Culture and Company.
Shame on the Board.
Warburton and McLennan are only “road kill”.
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The show didn’t need to be axed, just rejigged. Getting rid of Mathison would have been first order of business, imho.
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Has the Bolt Report been shown the door? No, indeed, it has had its time doubled. Probably because people like me watch it. What sort of people are we? People who haven’t watched TV at all, election nights aside, since the 1980s. In other words, people who are not interested in the deregulated junk that has been on since then.
To be quite truthful, I did watch Media Watch when it was presented by Stuart Littlemore in the 1990s. I even filled in a ratings survey: one quarter-hour per week. Now, with the Bolt Report, it’s an hour a week! Things are looking up.
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Called it when it launched. Where’s my Nobel Prize?
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“James Mathison is fast and funny, “…..you are taking the **** here surely Ed?
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Thank God for Family Feud!
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