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More jobs to go at TEN as revenue slides

Update: TEN has begun discussions with staff about voluntary with losses rumoured to impact on Newsrooms.

More job losses are coming to Network TEN.

In its Full Year Financial Results presentation today CEO James Warburton said TEN has begun discussions with staff today about voluntary redundancies in a bid to reduce costs, following its company-wide Operational and Strategic Review that started in 2011.

The review will continue and expand in 2012.

It is unclear how many jobs will be affected.

The broadcaster and outdoor advertising company reported a net loss of $12.9 million for the 12 months to August 31, 2012, compared with net profit of $14.2 million in the prior corresponding period.

The post-tax loss is due to a 14 per cent decline in revenue from ordinary activities, while television earnings before interest, tax and amortisation dropped from $154.1 million to $82.4 million.

TEN said it would not pay a dividend for 2012.

“Clearly it was a disappointing result and one which the TEN team re working hard to improve. Our results reflect difficult trading conditions in the TV market, the one-off impact of the London Olympic Games and the impact of our ratings performance,” he said.

“Again it’s very clear that our revenue and ratings performance must improve….”

Warburton noted the failure of Everybody Dance Now, The Shire and I Will Survive.

“We’re not hiding from those unsuccessful programmes or indeed our ability and our need to improve. But the ratings year for 2012 has not been all bad. In January we set out our primetime schedule with particular focus on primetime early evenings, between 5 and 8pm. This year the main channel has seen 7% plus audience growth in weekday early evening in both 18-49s and 25-54s.

“On the main TEN channel, we have seen strong numbers for programs such as MasterChef Australia, MasterChef All Stars, The Biggest Loser, Offspring, Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms, Puberty Blues, The Project, TEN News At Five, Underground: The Julian Assange Story and from our US output deals Homeland, Modern Family and NCIS.

“We have retained our #1 position in Daytime and the respositioning and relaunch of ONE back in May 2011 has boosted our audience more than 100% and so far this year our audience is up 26% on ONE.

TEN says the combination of ELEVEN and ONE ranks #1 in 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54 demos.

Warburton also flagged the importance of Timeshifted ratings from PVR views.

“In the US advertisers and media agencies are paying more attention to Consolidated ratings numbers and as an industry we feel we don’t do enough to monetise or report on those Consolidated numbers and we plan to tackle that issue here,” he said.

Next week TEN will present its Upfronts to advertisers around the country.

“Within that we will be offering clear definition around our brand and clear definition around our programming strategy.”

In other points,

  • the median age of TEN viewers is 41.
  • TEN says it remains in discussions with OMO on the sale of outdoor advertising group EYE.
  • The launch of second-screen platform Zeebox is ‘imminent.”

Update: The ABC has also been told by several sources that Ten is planning to replace its current separate state news bulletins with a national bulletin.

It is not yet clear how many positions Ten is looking to cut around the country in total, but the ABC has been told it has asked for 22 redundancies in Melbourne (10 editorial staff and 12 from production resources), 13 in Adelaide (five from news and 8 production staff) and 23 in Brisbane (13 from news and 10 production resources staff).

Staff have been given a week to decide whether to volunteer for a redundancy, and told there may be forced redundancies if not enough people voluntarily depart.

A TEN Spokesperson has since told TV Tonight local bulletins would not be axed.

Additional source: smh.com.au, The Australian

40 Responses

  1. I have heard from one entertainment reporter this morning on air that even through TEN are cutting back staff….the team on Breakfast have been told by Mr Murdoch, they have ten years to get the formula right and make the show a success. Wow! So don’t think we are going to see any changes changes to Breakfast anytime soon then!!!

  2. To TazTVcameraman sssshssssh don’t knock the sunrise’s incessant, “and coming up” to much or they may change things just think about it a little, at present all you have to do is record the last half hour of any sunrise and you’ll mostly get all of what they been plugging for the first two & half hours, and even if you stuff up your times and run into the morning show, they usual start by repeating exactly whats just been on sunrise, among all the infomercials that is

  3. @ PJs Ronin. Yes fully agree with you, Ten is severely mismanaged. ONE should be a male orientated channel which contains content that Men will want to watch. Content such as, Building stuff, action shows, Babes and Sport. They only have half of that at best. 11 needs to be more youthful if it can be. They need more cartoons and kids shows for weekday and weekend afternoons. I would also like to see more classic Spelling content, such as classic 90210 and Melrose Place, i know that kids may not be able to connect with some of the phrases but the issues for kids haven’t changed. The olnly hurdle to that would be the financial state of the company also the current board who are not interested in doing that.

  4. I still maintain that the root of Ten’s problems is management. They are the ones who made the bad decisions, not a newsreader or program host. Clean out management engage people who are in tune with viewer attitudes.

  5. Word from inside TEN is that the staff now jokingly refer to the company as “Network 2 1/2” as it’s now at a quarter of it’s value.

    It is a sad situation for those at the coalface that work so hard to kep it afloat while imbiciles on the board and executive have no idea what they are doing.

  6. A friend of mine from NZ sent me a couple of articles about where Paul Henry could be next year. Rumours only at this stage, nothing confirmed.

    nz.movies.yahoo.com/news/article/-/15009852/paul-and-pippa-to-reinvent-close/

    nbr.co.nz/article/tvnz-bayonets-walrus-along-%E2%80%9Cserious-news-and-current-affairs%E2%80%9D-

  7. Breakfast TV, I do not usually watch but if I do now it is always ABC news 24, you can forget Seven, Nine and TEN, really one only wants news at breakfast not the constant “coming up shortly” feature story and you wait and you wait and it is always on near the end of the show. Some of us still work for a living and if you wait you are late for work. I know they have to try and encourage viewers to stay with them, But the hosts of Nine and TEN do not appeal to me Seven with Koch and Doyle are OK but give me ABC news breakfast every time. Perhaps TEN should move the cartoons back to TEN and give up breakfast. I like their news at five and their late news.

  8. I welcome these staff cuts as long as more money is put into sports and programming .
    Even though I feel sorry for the staff, in the end, business is business,
    Very interested to see Tens 2013 programming.

  9. Maybe if their standards were higher (all FTA channels) they’d be in better shape. They consistently disrespect their viewers and are hopeless at schedules and keeping regular days and times for shows. Of course they will all play the victim and blame “pirates” and downloads for their misery.

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