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Lachlan Murdoch swings axe at TEN

Updated: Lachlan Murdoch begins cuts at TEN, telling staff being the being “the low cost network” was no longer possible in a crowded landscape.

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Updated: TEN’s interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch has begun advising staff of cuts within the network following a strategic review of costs.

TV Tonight understands 6:30 with George Negus will continue for 2011, and 38 operations and engineering positions and 22 journalists have been offered voluntary redundancies.

TEN has denied axing any specific shows today, including Sports Tonight, which was reported amongst a list of shows in the firing line.

In an email to staff today Murdoch said TEN’s strategy of being “the low cost network” served it very well for many years, but as the the media landscape becomes increasingly crowded and competitive this remains “very challenging.”

He also described the moves as “a necessary but inevitably painful restructure.”

“In the last few years we have gone from just five free-to-air channels to fifteen different channels. In our metropolitan markets alone Foxtel has added some six hundred thousand subscribers over the last five years, all receiving hundreds of competitive channels. And, of course, it is hard to quantify the impact of IPTV viewing during this time but we do know it is impacting viewing and the effect will only grow, and grow strongly. Our industry has become more fragmented and far more complex than ever before,” he wrote.

“Since 2005 our TV costs have risen forty five percent … or by just under two hundred million dollars. In this same period our ratings and revenue are broadly flat. It is clear to me that over this time we haven’t been investing our costs in all the right areas.

“Furthermore, due to a number of fixed cost increases next year around News, Eleven, and core programming such as MasterChef, without action our costs were going to continue to increase even further.

“In order to arrest this continued increase in costs and to allow us to re-allocate our resources to better compete in the market, I asked our senior managers some ten weeks ago to explore how we can run the business better. We established 20 workstreams across all areas of the business and appointed senior executives to lead rigorous reviews of each area.”

ABC notes TEN is currently looking for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancies – applications are due by July 13, with the company looking to complete the process within three weeks.

News Limited reports Adelaide’s publicity and marketing sector will operate out of Melbourne and Sydney with more redundancies to follow in Adelaide’s production and on-air team.

Sydney is set for the highest number of redundancies.

55 Responses

  1. There needs to be a mythbusting post by David (e.g. Twitter has picked up on a rumor, that Video Hits was axed).

    Also, there will be many questions that will likely be answered as we come closer to Warburton starting at Ten…

    Could Ten in 2012, be a completly different beast? Only time can tell.

  5. Why do so many people want to silence Andrew Bolt. Sure his opinions may not be to your liking, but its just another show with a range of alternatives and given the ratings probably preaching to the converted.

  6. I still believe a hard hitting Sports Tonight would be a winner for 10 at 6pm, followed by George @ 6.30.

    But I ain’t Little Lachy…

  9. All this proves to me is that journalism is most definitely not a job with any kind of future at this time with the mushrooming of free (and very excellent) news sites and blogs online. I understand why Ten have to do this – their evening news strategy has not paid any kind of dividend for them this year and it sounds like they have way more journalists than they need.

  14. @Bella – MC is a huge show and of course Ten now rely on it to perform well – but just the same as Seven depends on hits like Rafters, Dancing and AGT and Nine relying on Big Bang/Top Gear/Men etc – TEN have survived a long time before Masterchef, gotta remember that.

    As for Murdoch I’m sure these cuts were necessary but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an interim CEO have so much power and reign, isn’t this a job better left for Warburton when he starts Jan 1?

    I can see Warburton having a big mess to clean up come starting day.

    Sports Tonight should stay, surely it is very low cost and it airs across Ten and One – providing timeslot programming and original programming at that for One.

  15. Dont get rid of George Negus next year!!! Keep him there, thats the only show i watch on ten! But if he does happen to leave channel 10, i hope he goes to Channel 9 and does 60 Minutes again! That would be the Best!!!

  18. We do we find out who they are? I’m guessing the ones from NSW are more news then sport, right? surely the Melbourne sports reporters would be in the most trouble with Ten giving up AFL?

  20. Bolt needs to go. Shame if Sports Tonight goes. But TEN ruined it when they moved the news around.

    TEN just seems to rely on Masterchef and the advertising from that to pay the bills.

  24. Here we go again with 10. Let’s go back to the early ’90’s and lots of Channel 10 staff lost their jobs when Steve Cosser brought the network.

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