Australian public has ‘lost faith’ in Ten, claims former sales chief Mike Morrison
The Australian public has lost faith in Ten, and now faces its main competition from secondary channels while Seven and Nine enjoy a duopoly over the market, the man who was briefly the company’s chief sales officer has claimed.
Mike Morrison – whose short tenure lasted from January to June last year after he struggled to win over media agency executives – is now MD of ad agency Innocean. This week Ten said Morrison’s claims were incorrect and naive.
Morrison told Mumbrella: “There has been a shift in the TV industry in Australia, and now we see Seven and Nine with a duopoly position in the market.
“There came a point where the Australian public no longer trusted Ten, and Ten is now competing with subscription TV channels.
“Ten’s relationship with the Australian public has fundamentally shifted,” he added.
Ten had a poor year in the ratings, with its struggles triggered by the failure of Everybody Dance Now which it eventually axed. The network has been focusing on stabilising its audiences this year with a share of total free-to-air viewing ranging from 10% on a poor night to around 15%. However it performs better in its key advertising demographics of 16-39 and 18-49.
With media agencies keen to keep Seven and Nine honest, Ten’s current chief sales officer Barry O’Brien appears to be bringing in a greater share of advertising revenue than the network is achieving in audience share, although it is still struggling.
Secondary digital channels such as Go, Gem, 7Mate and 7Two tend to achieve shares of around 3-5%
Ten issued a statement to Mumbrella in response to Morrison’s comments. A spokesman said:
“Obviously, the views and opinions of a former Ten employee are not objective or up to date. It’s worth noting that Mike Morrison was only at Network Ten for five months, and he has not worked here for more than eight months.
“We don’t know the context in which Mike Morrison made his comments. But to say Ten has “lost the trust of the Australian public” is absolute nonsense.
“Yes, Ten had some unsuccessful programs last year. But we also had many successful programs, such as Offspring, Modern Family, Homeland, The Biggest Loser, MasterChef Australia, Ten News At Five, The Project, Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms and so on. Already this year we are seeing good results, particularly in our core target market of people 18 to 49, from programs such as Elementary, Africa, NCIS and the Sunday episodes of MasterChef: The Professionals – and the year has only just started.
“Eleven remains a hit among people aged under 40, and One remains a robust channel, particularly in its target market of men 25 to 54.
“Our focus this year is one delivering a consistent, stable program schedule, one that is absolutely based on the trust people have in the Ten brand.
“Our research shows Ten has absolutely not lost the trust of Australians, and the strong opening numbers for new shows such as Africa and Elementary prove that is the case. Consumers see Ten as a strong, youthful brand.
“As for Mike Morrison’s apparent comment about Ten now competing against the digital channels, that is rubbish. Even the most cursory glance at the broad ratings numbers proves that is absolutely incorrect and completely naïve.”
Last night, Ten suffered another blow, with Glee delivering one of the lowest network peak time audience of all time.
Morrison left Ten suddenly in June last year. He had been the first major hire of Ten CEO James Warburton, but his non-television experience – with Y&R Brands and Sapient Nitro – raised eyebrows.
Innocean has struggled to win business beyond founding clients Kia and Hyundai, but Morrison said he had his eye on “not big, but blue chip targets” to add to the client list.
“Of course we want to grow, but not at all costs,” he said. “I’ve been in a number of firms where the pressure to deliver results quickly is extreme.”
“We are taking a measured, ordered approached to growth. It has to be good for our staff and good for our culture,” he said.
Robin Hicks
This story first appeared in the tablet edition of Encore. To download click on the links below.
Seriously… “trust”?
Adland is fooling itself and its customers by talking about trust and relationships in modern media.
People dont have relationships with channels, they have shows that appeal or they feel a need to be aware of, but it is not a relationship and there is no trust (excluding some respect for news shows).
People dont watch channel nine because its channel nine, they watch the SHOWS. Put the cricket, AFL whatever on 10… people watch it.
this is increasing with the fragmentation of the media, most times now, people dont even know what channel they are watching.
Stop kidding yoursleves agency and marketing superstars. Its all about the product.
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It’s a very long credibility stretch for the views on a past employer of anyone who occupies a position for 4-5 months to be taken too seriously. There is a big enough challenge for Mike to genuinely broaden Innocean’s client base, by isolating a distinctive and compelling offering for this Kia/Hyundai dominated agency. Respectfully, I suggest he more thoughtfully apply his intellect, energies, and passion to this formidable task.
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Ten lost the plot when it wandered away from core television values and started allowing ratings race tactics and hype to take the lead.
Ten was once a highly respected network with good Australian content and a solid grip on television’s core principles.
It will fall over entirely and it will end up on the, network for sale scrap heap, with a “best offer” price tag, if it doesn’t start thinking about what it actually is and where it it might be headed.
Family entertainment, good quality news coverage and drama and comedy, produced in a responsible way.
Provide a valuable and viable replacement for magazines. Forget about trying to be innovative; yes I said forget about it.
get back to being a good producer of television again, then think about a small corner you may devote to innovation.
I am available to discuss this any time.
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I haven’t lost faith in Ten. It’s just that apart from Masterchef and Modern Family it has no shows that interest me.
None.
Seriously.
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Surely the public don’t care about loyalty to networks , just programs and Ten has some good ones.
Their news is tragic and light weight. That could be vamped up and 7 & 9 still kill them by having ‘current affairs’ at 6.30pm shows that can pull punters who then stay for awhile after.
Mumbrella claimed 7 was ditching Today Tonight and I said ‘big mistake’ and was correct. Listen to me.
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It’s a reasonably fair call. I think Ten can argue otherwise when they aren’t regularly the number 4 station. When you put your wife on a show and then it tanks it doesn’t really look like you know what you’re doing. Good management should not only be done it should also be seen to be done.
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Earth calling Ch10 “Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee”
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Now we have trust issues with Ten! What a load of bs. People just watch shows that they like. Ten will get back on it’s feet once it finds the right mix. No wonder Morrison didn’t last in the job.
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Ten regards the Project as a success? There’s your problem,Ten has cpmpletely lost touch with reality.
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Rule number 1. Don’t pay out your former employer when you clearly failed!
Zero credibility
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Smoke & mirrors.
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To bad mouth your former employer – no matter how long you were there for – is never a good career move.
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What an appalling error of judgement by Mr Morrision.
Equalled only by the judgement of Innocean to employ him in the first place.
What a fools.
One more month tops.
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Morrison, seriously.
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By all accounts Mr.M was a very good “advertising” man. His brief
stint working for a media owner proved to be an unfortunate
error of judgement for both parties. There are media agency planners and buyers
with 18 months experience who’s views I would value more highly.
Stick to what you know Mr.M.
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As a regular TV viewer, I couldn’t care less about the channels and their brand. All I care about is good quality entertaining shows like MKR. All this trust and faith in channels is BS. I will watch whichever channel with entertaining shows.
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What an idiot!!!
Firstly, who ever bags a former employer
Secondly, the bloke was there for 5 minutes and what a crap 5 minutes it was:
Thirdly, Ten will rise from this, there are good people there and like everything, their time will come. Remember when 7 was the basket case
Look forward to seeing the huge client wins he brings in ..oh but wait, we need to be patient because he does not want to do anything that is not good for staff or existing clients…. last time I checked, winning business was the greatest motivator for staff in any business and shows existing clients that your service is appealing to other great like minded businesses
You really stuffed up here MM
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People still watch telly, on the box? Weird
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I’m not sure anybody is arguing that Mike’s analysis of 10 is accurate. it’s a joke of a channel right now, milking Masterchef to death and otherwise churning out low rent American tat and poorly conceived Australian content.
also not sure we should necessarily be getting after Mike for this headline. There’s a good chance that that was a small part of an interview about Innocean which Mumbrella has decided to take hold of a lead with because it has more opportunities for controversy.
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How long did Mike last at Sapient Nitro? I think it was four months. Add less than a year at 10 and with a track record like that in your last two jobs I’d advise severely limiting my public criticisms of anyone until I’d built a little bit of success at Innocean.
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@paul……yep that sums it up.
TV as we have known it is done. Ironically Ten is actually ahead of its time. Seven, Nine etc you’re all f***ed. it’s simply a matter of time. You’ll still exist but not the way you have been used to and you’re going to have to change your business models…. The numbers don’t add up anymore and I hate to tell you but its going to get worse.
Bring on the opportunities this creates for those of us who aren’t billionaires and actually have to compete on a (relatively) level playing field.
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@Oscar “Surely the public don’t care about loyalty to networks , just programs and Ten has some good ones” – a comment that nails it (loyalty to a network? As if most people have that) followed by “Mumbrella claimed 7 was ditching Today Tonight and I said ‘big mistake’ and was correct. Listen to me”. Um ‘listen to me’? Seriously?
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