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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. @ Gonzo as a television viewer and critic you should be more concerned about what the general viewing public want to watch (hence total people) not what a minority in a “supposedly” desirable demographic want in order to appease greedy money hungry advertisers.

  3. @Jake – Ten is also regularly 1st in the key demos (16-39/49), hence making them a far more attractive advertising offering than all the other commercial networks.

    It’s funny that people on here hold firm on the total people argument . Shows a lack of understanding to me.

  4. @ Steve + Macca – Channel 10 is regularly 3rd in the nightly ratings and sometimes ABC comes dangerously close to beating them….they are a poor performer….and the worst yet to come…..I suggest that Channel 10 close their doors. They have the worst news service…..worst programming…..the worst personalities and there is no appeal for anyone to tune in….I seriously cannot think of one show sceened on 10 worth watching….I say slam those gates shut!!! And now!!

  5. Video Hits is gone. Sports Tonight is gone. Can of Worms is plain embarrassing and Master chef has maybe a couple of season left and the network is in the hands of someone that some rate but most dismiss as having little idea but time will tell. He has ripped the guts out of it so now we will see how it recovers.

    David Mott has a 3 year contract – I bet you he is gone by this time next year at the latest…….it will be a whole new TEN – the question is whether this is a revolution…..or onetel

  7. Dicko’s not great. I lasted half an hour before I switched over. He’s just doesn’t have much of a presence and that stand-up bit at the start didn’t work at all. He doesn’t have the live experience to pull it off. None of these shows are any good when they start, they all take time to sort out their formats but I’m not overly interested in celebrities trying to be controversial. I think it will end up filed next to David Tench Tonight.

  8. Its amazing that Lachlan is crying poor at the network, then wants to bid for NRL rights costing millions of dollars. Poor i think not.
    But the NRL could bring in sponsors, but they already had that with the AFL. Why leave the AFL which really only has Seven boardcasting it?? Yet Ten goes down the path of Nine and Fox sports which may see ten pay even more money for the same as the AFL.
    Ten is falling into a heap, could you imagine ten with no masterchef? Masterchef won’t last forever.

  9. I actually warch a lot of Ten/One/Eleven and probably the one thing that bugs me,liviing on The Sunshine Coast we quite regularly get ads on One from Townsville and Cairns,that’s like getting Sydney and Brisbane ads from Melbourne.
    Would’nt mind but the small minded production crews putting street names up without a Town attached really annoys the hell out of me

  13. Well someone is watching given TEN is regularly beating Nine into 2nd pace some days.

    I hope they don’t cut things too much, that’s when quality starts to suffer.

  14. @ Jake totally agree, don’t watch the channel either and don’t even bother to skim Ch 10’s program guides anymore. I mean when was the last time they showed a good movie for example? With Ch 7 and 9 and their multi channels there’s heaps of good movies and other stuff you’re bound to find some hidden gems throughout the week even in obscure timeslots but with Ch 10 nothing.

  15. Is everyone forgetting that TEN posted a decline in it’s profits a few months back?
    For a Network that always come third at the end of the each week, backwards is something they just can’t be doing right now. Lachlan was brought in and Grant pushed out because the Network was on seriously shaky ground, so if this is what it takes to stop the blood letting then i guess it has to be done.

    @Jake
    Why would you call for Ten to be shut down? It’s has regularly been beating Nine 2-3 nights a week in recent time and has the week’s top rating show. It’s good that your not the bloke in charge..

  16. Louise @ 5:26pm, if the ‘great operator’ behind TVQ’s marketing has been let go really is that great, then she’ll easily find another job.

    Living in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, wholly within the TVQ licence area, I have not seen any evidence of marketing for 10 beyond the national marketing.

    I’d say either the person had a highly constricted budget to work with and therefore their impact was limited or the person wasn’t that innovative after all.

    Certainly did not see any innovative marketing efforts on the part of this supposed ‘great operator’.

    Just like the many junior journos working at TVQ, the departure of this ‘great operator’ will probably not be noticed.

  17. @Josh: You say that trimming back local production is the way to go to save money, but at the same time cutting local content sends out a bad message to the public? In any case, Ten’s local content is pretty bare as it is there isn’t really much they can trim and in the case of drama they need to get busy because they are not meeting their required amount as it is now.

  18. If ch10 are cutting costs, well, err they will be a lo cost network won’t they? Perhaps they should merge with Tiger Airways….plenty of synergy there.

    Q How come they can afford to have 20 senior ( and highly paid) executives leading the rigerous reviews of the ’20 workstreams’ ? Just get rid of the executives durr

  19. Fox Sports’ war on Ten/One continues. Murdoch and Packer (along with Gina and her Bolt Report flop) won’t stop until they’ve gutted the joint.

    The fact this crap Labor government ever allowed these characters to get in on FTA TV despite their interests in Fox Sports is a disgrace. They were always going to destroy One HD to keep Fox Sports relevant.

    Sadly the ALP and Packer’s have a long cosy relationship, hey Richo?

  21. @ Jake. Mate, you’re obviously naive when it comes to the TV landscape. Why would they shut down a whole network because Jake’s not watching?……….enough said!

  22. Think I will wait for the final factual outcome to all this, at present it seems to be more just rumours and TEN hating that is mostly getting spoken about, final facts will be more telling of the true TEN situaion, re shows, staff and the future.

  23. There would have been better ways of reducing costs than sending such a large amount of staff packing! Reduction of CEO salaries, reduction of Australian made content to the bare minimum, etc. They have to realise that all the public sees is higher unemployment rates and removal of more local productions which only makes the networks look worse. Will be interested to see what happens in the coming months as it will result in something great (the channel becomes the number one network – doubtful compared with Seven) or something devastating (the network is shut down)

  25. fox us = ten aust
    Cheap & nasty
    Somehow the threat of pay and iptv are used as justification regardless that he’s known this at the time of the investment. Basically did this to protect fox sports and act as a low cost spoiler now to seven. Gutless cross media laws in australia

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