What’s next for for Ten as it pulls breakfast news
Ten has cut its morning news bulletin after just six months after it failed to grab audiences this year, yet it is not giving up on its news product.
10 News First was launched in June in an attempt from Ten to pull across audience share from the traditionally popular Today on Nine and Sunrise on Seven, but in turn hasn’t delivered the desired ratings.
New host of Ten News First, Narelda Jacobs.
The shake-up sees the network also move Studio Ten to a shortened timeslot of 10am-12pm, for now surrendering news and current affairs at breakfast time to its competitors, with the first bulletin of the day seeing 10 News First air from midday to 1pm.
The new, hour-long bulletin will be hosted by Narelda Jacobs, who also becomes the first indigenous and openly gay national news anchor on commercial free-to-air television. Mumbrella understands Jacobs is also set to front a national campaign from the network surrounding the topic of Australia Day, which will launch soon.
Paramount ANZ’s chief sales officer Rod Prosser told Mumbrella the move is part of an overall strategy of: “how do we bolster our news and current affairs, and how do we add scale to it?”
Prosser said the network believes by moving news to midday it can maximise viewership in the timeslot, but also “the really important part is it is where we can expand our footprint” across its other platforms.
Network 10’s chief sales officer, Rod Prosser.
“We’re investing in news,” he said, “We’re not walking away from it, we’re just moving it to what we see as a better and more lucrative timeslot.”
He also confirmed there will be no job cuts as part of the shift.
Studio Ten continues to be a critical commercial product for the network, servicing its slate of advertorials, which with a new shorter program, Mumbrella understands, will continue to be an important part of the network’s daytime programming going forward.
But for Ten, is this really that big of a deal, and should they bother with breakfast?
“Good question,” said Spinach general manager, Ben Willee. “They’ve had a couple of cracks at it, some higher profile and some lower profile.”
“It’s been a really big challenge, and they haven’t been able to nail it. Maybe there isn’t a market for three viable breakfast shows in the morning.”
Spinach’s Willee
Willee suggested that rather than “give up” on the timeslot, which can be incredibly valuable in setting the station up for the day, “maybe they do something completely different”.
Everything involved in quality programming at breakfast time can help drive what happens at night, and there is no doubt they will be focused on getting something in there.
So what is next at breakfast for Ten, which will for now have its 8-9am occupied by Everyday Gourmet With Justine Schofield and a rerun of Entertainment Tonight.
Prosser said “time will tell” whether news and current affairs will return in the morning for Ten. “We never say never.”
“The first part is to get that news bulletin post-Studio 10 really firing, and then we’ll review every year, and every quarter what we do in that spot.”
“We’ve obviously got a lot of content that we have access to through Paramount, but our focus really is to make sure that we get all our news product humming and firing, all the way through midday to the 5pm bulletin, to the really refreshed Project.”
Whatever they do end up doing, Willee said, “it’s got to feel very different to Today and Sunrise, because it would be very, very difficult for them to have something similar to that and to steal audience, because those audience habits are really, really ingrained.”
Prosser added: “The reality is we have multiple platforms,” as it now looks to push its news content across its digital platforms too.
Ten’s head of broadcast news yesterday, Martin White said yesterday: “It’s a multi-platform bulletin, to satisfy the need for on-demand Australian news content wherever you are.”
Ten has historically struggled to capture audiences at breakfast, with its last episode of Breakfast being aired late 2012, with ‘Wake Up’ with Ita Buttrose (now ABC chair) then failing to capture eyeballs too.
Could Big Bash be set for a return to its ‘natural home’?
Matching up news with sport
Last week, following the end of the TV ratings year, Initiative’s Chris Colter told the Mumbrellacast that “sport and probably news are the last bastions of guaranteed performance”, so it is likely the network will be keen to continue to look at both as the pillars of its 2023 slate.
News, sport, and reality, Willee agreed is the shining floor, and three key things for a network, and Ten just don’t have enough sport at that end right now.
“You’ve got to hand it to them. Big Bash as a summer proposition was pioneered by Ten. They did a fantastic job building that into what it is today.”
Now after missing out in a close race on the AFL, Ten/Paramount appears to be well-poised in discussions over Cricket Australia’s broadcast rights.
“I just think the structure of the cricket deal right now is fucked,” said Willee. “The best components, international one day and international T20 should not be behind the paywall.”
“That’s the stuff that drives families, the excitement and new people to the game.”
He said it would be a “great result” for Ten to see the Big Bash return to its “natural home”.
“It suits their audience and they how to program it. That’d be a really good place for them to bring families back to the network, and then from there, they can use that as a building block.”
And with this, news will continue to be a driving strategy that goes hand in hand with sport, according to Colter on the Mumbrellacast.
“There is a lot of research that shows the flow on if you’re stuck on a channel and then you watch let’s just say the cricket into the news, you start to build a relationship with that news anchor, and you start becoming stickier in their other programming as well.”
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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Narelda is a wonderful warm presenter. Love your work! Looking forward to seeing you back on our screens in 2023
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