0/5

Breakfast in the mood for News

Breakfast tweaks its format on TEN, but will the changes make any difference?

Today Breakfast begins a new chapter on TEN.

Shortened by thirty minutes, it will also switch to the TEN newsroom to give it a more “newsy” feel -sounds like a good move.

Natarsha Belling and Matt Doran also join the show.

Without Today currently airing, Breakfast rose to 49,000 on Friday. But it remains a blip on Sunrise’s radar, which was 368,000, and ABC News Breakfast was 60,000 across 2 channels.

“Speculation about Paul Henry’s contract and salary, and the claim Breakfast is somehow a protected species at TEN, are way off the mark,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.

On more than one occasion Henry has confirmed his contract is worth $1M -he just hasn’t confirmed if that’s a one, two or three year deal (it’s more likely to be 3).

Breakfast is a new entrant in the market, attempting to break ingrained viewing behaviour. Not only will we continue to chip away, but we see Breakfast as important for the TEN brand in the 24-hour news cycle,” he said.

“Morning shows like The Circle compete for a $35 million-a year advertorial market which is a low-margin business for TV networks while the breakfast TV advertising market is worth more than $100 million a year.”

He also denied Adam Boland was at the top of his list to rescue the show. That’s because Boland has achieved just about everything there is to achieve in the morning telly genre and has his sights set on News.

Last week Seven boss Peter Meakin told The Power Index,“I’d be very surprised if Adam wants to get involved in that bear’s nest. In fact he’s told me it’s nonsense. He’s not going to over to TEN to run Breakfast.

“I would think he’d prefer my job for a start,” Meakin continued.

Is that possible?

“Everything’s possible,” he replied. “I’m not going to be around forever.”

According to ex-TEN executives Breakfast would be costing around $7 million a year to produce, about half the amount of Today and Sunrise. A cut in Breakfast’s budget of about $2 million is also being made to the show.

A spokesman told the Sydney Morning Herald last week: “We remain committed to Breakfast and the strategy of providing our viewers with news coverage from breakfast to bedtime, something no other commercial free to air TV network offers. There is, of course, a lot of talk about Breakfast, the vast majority of which is completely ill-informed. Breakfast‘s ratings are not what we want them to be, but clearly we are not abandoning the program.”

TEN’s own research under David Castran shows Henry is not resonating with viewers.

Any wonder Chrissie Swan was cast as the new host of Can of Worms and not the rumoured prime time gig for Henry…?

15 Responses

  1. David just a question but what were the numbers for The Circle’s final show??

    Also, I think this show needs a weekend edition to get/keep more people, otherwise people who watch this show may go somewhere else on the weekend. come Monday, they may not come back.

    I second the notion as well advertorials in ‘Breakfast’ = Bad idea.

  2. Shouldn’t they start up a new mid-morning show where The Circle was and place all advertorials in that context.
    Placing them on Breakfast will just make it lose even more credibility.

  3. The new set looked a lot more professional, although the set did feel a little constricting at times. Going outside the building occasionally might help.

    Headlines on the quarter hour were good, as were the other new touches.

    A tighter package overall, but the pacing still needs to be a little faster.

  4. David – So glad you mentioned the advertorials on the show this morning! They did a great job refreshing the set, then the commercials come on and ruin everything. Do TEN not know that our brains are all programmed to switch channels at even the mention of one of these ghastly abominations? Who didn’t flip between The Circle/Mornings/The Morning Show the second Danoz or Ahhh Bra’s infest our screens? Could Ten be doing any more to deliver the few people that watch over to the opposition?

  5. Had a look this morning. The new set was a pleasant surprise. But at the end of the day is much the same as the Late Night News set from what I could see. But have to say with regard to content, there was very little substance. Some news being presented, Henry being even more opinionated and more of Henry Hotline…appeared rather boring really. Also noticed the commercial breaks were full of cheap advertorials. Clearly moved from The Circle’s timeslot. Get rig of Henry, bring Andrew back and give yourself a decent chance of attracting an audience. And save yourself some dollars.

  6. I have just read that Breakfast aired and will continue to air Advertorials in the Breakfast program. Well – here we go !

    If your numbers are right David – Ten has lost $3m in revenue plus spot ad’s from The Circle, spend $7m on Breakfast and lose money and now are trying to insult audiences with advertorials alongside Henry ! Seriously Ten ??

    I am not sure what the game is – but lots of spin from Ten. It is actually hard to bugger it up this much – that said looks like they are accomplishing this with great success.

  7. I’ve always said change the name, change the set and change the Paul

    I out of 3 is a start but not going to do what’s needed for the long term

  8. The new set looks great but in my opinion the problem is not Paul Henry but his co-host Kathryn Robinson. She has no chemistry with Paul and disagrees with pretty much everything he says. Paul needs a co-host who brings out his personality and doesn’t shut him down at every opportunity. Get Paul a new co-host who allows him to have those crazy moments. That’s good TV.

    PS. Also, Ron Wilson is key to making this show successful with Paul.

  9. Finally, a new set, I haven’t seen it but with the two new presenters I will give Breakfast another look!!

    Does anyone else think that Matt and Natarsha have been brought in to see how they go with viewers and if they work, we could see the other two slowly and quietly disappear? I really like Matt and Tarsh on the weekends, they work well together, and no doubt they could hold a morning show! Interesting they have started them now as well why Today aren’t on, hoping to pick up new viewers?

    Now all they need is to ditch the Breakfast name, another network already has it, and had it first, it just becomes confusing for viewers.

    I still say I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new morning show next year after Breakfast, but this time from Sydney.

Leave a Reply