Analysis: Where has it gone wrong for Ten?
After starting the year with improved ratings and an air of optimism audience shares have declined severely for Network Ten. Megan Reynolds spoke to industry insiders to find out where it went wrong.
Secrets and Lies was one of the most anticipated dramas of the year, which has already been picked up by production companies in the US and UK, launched to 403,000 metro viewers on Channel Ten last night. While those numbers may be disappointing for executives in the Pyrmont offices, they are higher than it has been getting for established reality show The Biggest Loser and the revived So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD).
In the week after the Winter Olympics Ten’s total network audience share dropped from 18.8 per cent, to 14.4 per cent. This included the main channel’s worst-ever rating night, where it took just 6.4 per cent of the audience.
The strategy
McLennan talks to Tim Burrowes at 360
Ratings issues are not new at Ten, and cost CEO James Warburton the top job after just 13-months, following a string of flops with shows including Don’t Tell the Bride, The Shire and Being Lara Bingle.
When Hamish McLennan stepped up as CEO last February he set out a clear strategy to chase the older demographic of 25-54s and launch programs that would appeal to that age group by making Ten the home of “event TV”. Live sport would be the backbone of the network, with other live reality shows and Australian drama that would hold and build an audience feeding off that.
In executing that strategy, Ten acquired Cricket Australia’s Big Bash League Twenty/20 competition from rivals Nine for a reported $100m. This gave the network live cricket across the uncompetitive summer season in prime time slots, winning over 1m total viewers for key games, and being hailed as an “outstanding success” by McLennan.
The Winter Olympics in Sochi were another smart last-minute acquisition for the network, believed to have been cost it around $7m and returning an audience of around 700,000 viewers for the blue-riband events.
However, its overall audience was estimated to be just three per cent down on the numbers Nine received for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, despite many events featuring high-profile Australian competitors like Torah Bright and Alex Pullin in friendlier timeslots than those in Canada, Fusion Media Analysis found.
Ten was not able to capture the extra eyeballs that came to the channel for this sport, and in the week following the Winter Games, Ten’s total audience share stood at 14.4 per cent, according to OzTam.
Why did this happen?
While executives across the industry agreed Ten’s coverage of the Big Bash had been “solid” and gave them a foundation to build on, many agreed the network made fundamental mistakes in its scheduling around the Sochi Games.
The first problem they pointed to was Ten dividing its audience between its main channel Ten and digital channel One by simulcasting coverage of some key events at the Games.
The second was the strategy to launch shows before and during the Games, including The Biggest Loser on January 19 and So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) on February 10. The Sochi opening ceremony took place on February 7, the same day as the final of the Big Bash League.
One senior executive at a competitor network told Mumbrella: “The Winter Olympics is there as a platform to bring you new audiences through your channel and as all the new eyeballs come through to sample the Games, that’s an opportunity for you to talk to more consumers.
“They should have gone hard with the Winter Olympics, they should not have launched any programs while the Olympics were on. They should have waited for the Games to end and then come out and launched all of their formats in a big explosive week.”
They pointed to the examples of Seven and Nine which promote shows during the Australian Open and international cricket season as coming ‘after the tennis’ or ‘after the cricket’.
“It’s such a proven strategy that it doesn’t sound bad on your network to be saying after the Olympics, it’s a good sound. The Olympics has got credibility in its own right,” they added.
They also pointed to the decision to launch formats like The Biggest Loser and SYTYCD against established formats including My Kitchen Rules (MKR) on Seven and The Block on Nine, which both started out with well over 1m metro viewers on January 27.
On launch The Biggest Loser had 753,000 on Sunday January 19, but its audience dropped to 560,000 when both rival shows launched a week later.
On its last Sunday outing on February 3, The Biggest Loser had a two hour run split between two shows, and both shows were fourth in their timeslots with 525,000 and 616,000 viewers, according to OzTam.
Ten then launched its reworked SYTYCD on February 9, against one of the strongest program line-ups of the year on its rival networks: MKR, Sunday Night and then the INXS miniseries on Seven, and The Block, 60 Minutes and the Schapelle telemovie on Nine.
The executive added: “There was never going to be room for Ten to compete effectively by trying to launch a new, moderate show up against us all.
“They should have just let us go for it, stuck with the Winter Olympics on the main channel and then come out and launched a network post-Winters, making a big noise in their own right.”
‘Ten created a fourth network’
Another senior programmer pointed out Ten had effectively created a fourth network competitor by dividing its audiences between the main channel and digital channel during the Games.
Fusion Media Analysis suggests while around 70 per cent of viewers started watching the Games on the main channel, by the end more than half of the audience had moved to One.
The programmer said: “With the Winter Olympics they effectively created a fourth network with One delivering strong share, but then launched shows against primary channels with Sochi on One.
“When So You Think You Can Dance launched they were not only competing against My Kitchen Rules, they were also competing with 5/600,000 watching the Olympics on One.
“I think the industry were surprised by that move. They should have gone the way Seven had with the tennis where they focused all their attention on the tennis and then promoted shows as ‘after the tennis’ to launch all their shows.”
Another senior executive suggested the decision to launch shows during the congested period showed “a real lack of television experience at the top end”, adding it seemed to be “marketing executives making decisions – who don’t know what works and what doesn’t.”
They added: “Where the shows are placed is critical, so it’s a matter of looking at one show against another and looking at the competition. Seven and Nine are reacting and making changes, but it appears Ten doesn’t necessarily do that. They lock in the schedule and stick to it.
“I think it just goes to show it’s how you leverage these big expensive events not just from a revenue point of view, but for shows. It’s a whole range of features; where you place these shows, seizing opportunities, looking closely at demographics, looking at the competition and forming a strategy.”
Scheduling
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.
The programmer pointed to this as Ten missing an opportunity to carve out an audience for its shows, but added the network’s fundamental failing was not reacting to schedules laid out by its competitors.
“They really haven’t seized opportunities in identifying time slots where they can particularly grow a show or a night and I think that’s very clear,” they said.
“Had Ten launched So You Think You Can Dance or The Biggest Loser on a Thursday night, away from the competition, Ten would have had the opportunity to assess the various time slots and carve out a night where these shows could grow an audience.
“You have got to identify a time slot, grow an audience, grow a show, and grow a night. But they are not being reactive enough, and that’s the fundamental problem, that they are not reacting.
“When you have got a show with potential like Secrets and Lies, to put it into the firing line up against two big shows with My Kitchen Rules and The Block, it’s really going to be hard to get the traction they need. So it will be interesting to see if Secrets and Lies and Puberty Blues can cut through.”
Different demographics
Tomorrow night one of Ten’s hits of last year, drama Puberty Blues, returns to the screen. But as former MediaCom chief investment officer Paul Brooks points out, Ten will struggle to build a big audience for the show as it has had no platform to consistently reach over 1m viewers.
While Sochi and the Big Bash provided some large audiences, he said the sport was appealing to a different demographic – young men – while So You Think You Can Dance and Puberty Blues are aimed squarely at women.
“Unfortunately the type of shows they have this year brings in different viewers, so they get a bit of a sugar rush and a decent performance for those shows but they tend to then go away, so that’s a bit of a problem,” Brooks said.
“Viewers are pretty fickle and they need reminding and telling where that content is. It is easier to do when you’ve got shows leveraging between one and two million, but when you haven’t got that it becomes sort of a vicious circle.”
Even the popularity of Puberty Blues as a franchise is unlikely to turn the network around, the TV executive said.
“You can’t solve their problems by launching a single show. You can’t come out with a Puberty Blues and think that’s going to resurrect a network. You need a big platform of either news and current affairs and or sport to resurrect yourself, because you need something to hang yourself off, and they don’t have anything,” they said.
Ten is still relevant
However some in the market are optimistic Ten can remain a viable third player in the free-to-air battle.
Ian Perrin, CEO of media agency Zenith Optimedia said: “It’s about timing new franchises and they have to find something that will resonate for the Australian public like The Voice, as MasterChef once did.
“But they have some good content people and they have a good, secure, smart strategy so it’s just a matter of time.”
Despite the poor ratings Brooks said Ten still has a role to play from an advertisers’ perspective, providing competition for the dominant Seven and Nine networks, and in a viewers lives as well.
“It’s just going to take time,” he said. “It will need consistency from a leadership perspective, patience and time to be able to build a consistent program strategy. Hopefully at some stage they get a bit of stickiness with a couple of big shows which then gives them something to be able to promote from.”
The reaction
Ten declined to put up any of its executives to be interviewed for this piece, however a spokesperson for the network defended the decisions, and dismissed suggestions of where Ten could have done better as “sniping” from competitors.
“We simulcast some of the Winter Olympics events on both channels to give as many people as possible the opportunity to view. We did not simulcast everything on Ten and One,” he said.
They also defended Ten’s choice to schedule shows against My Kitchen Rules and The Block.
He said: “The simple fact is we have to compete. We cannot shy away from key ratings nights.”
He added: “Our schedule has been consistent. We did promote shows as coming after the Olympics, and we have launched new shows or brought back existing shows in the two weeks after the Olympics and they are still coming, with Puberty Blues 2 coming tomorrow night.”
Ten’s target demographic don’t watch broadcast TV…
It’s not rocket surgery.
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Certainly makes for interesting “event” reading.
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And let the TEN trolling commence….
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What??? Are they suggesting people like watching HD Sport on ONE???? That’s just crazy talk!
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Give it time guys…TIME. they are going OK for mine.
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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.
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“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?
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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.
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They just need to hold on until Abbott changes the media laws and they can merge with News. As planned.
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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.
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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.
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Like Qantas it comes back to management. Poor management, poor results.
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@Mr Still A Bitbitter oh the irony.
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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….
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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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
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Hi Brizn,
While Fox Sports had the rights last year Nine did the deal with Cricket Australia, and it’s understood Ten bought the rights from them.
Cheers,
Alex, editor, Mumbrella
Poor management is usually the reason for poor performance
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Takes a huge amount of time to turn a brand around.
They are on that journey.
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The Journey will be over before it ends
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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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
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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…
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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……!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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