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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. If the median age of a ten watcher is 41, how many 41 year olds do you seriously expect will want to watch the oversupply of reality rubbish that ten plays?

  2. Ten’s strongest performer in the weekly ratings is their 5pm News bulletins so in my opinion they shouldn’t mess with them.

    Breakfast really needs to either be axed or revamped – Paul Henry’s style just hasn’t worked. If Ten are to stick with it I’d replace the hosts with Natarsha Belling and Hamish MacDonald who have a good rapport.

    Ten Late News also needs a serious makeover. The current format consists of 5 mins of news and 40 mins of dribble and Youtube clips. What’s the point of having a host and a newsreader?. The host could read the news bulletin. Cut it back to 30mins and focus more on news content.

    A lot of money has been pumped into Breakfast & Late News and neither have performed well. So they should be facing the cuts not the 5pm bulletins.

  3. I saw a clip of Paul Henry on last night’s Hamster Wheel, the first time I’d seen his work, and have to say that I’m not impressed – it was a clip of him being abusive about Jessica Simpson’s weight, and arguing with, I assume, a guest or co-presenter.
    I can only assume that he has negotiated a massive pay-off in the event of him losing his job, that has so far prevented Ten from getting rid of him.
    With barely any viewers, and seemingly intent on alienating the few he has, then surely only Ten’s lack of finances must be keeping him on TV.

    Ten really should re-think their Breakfast show and attempt to launch a decent alternative to 7 & Nine; a return to their early morning news service appears to be a much better option.

  4. TEN should encore Puberty Blues over the summer, maybe in HD on ONE?

    I’m not sure if job cuts (Paul Henry aside) are the answer, then need to regroup and put on shows people want. Stop moving the late shows even later at night. Keep F1 on ONE for the rest of the year and 2013. Get the V8s back and invest in good local programing to overcome the whole fast tracking issue.

    Puberty Blues and Offspring are greatly underrated shows.

  5. David Knox October 18, 2012 at 2:41 pm –

    MJL: That’s pretty harsh to write anonymously. There is an off button?

    David it’s no harsher than people saying certain shows should be axed IMO.

    He reads the sport on Ten News Sydney and I don’t like him. Victorians should not do Sydney News IMO.

  6. The TEN network is a disaster on every level.

    But the rumours of the national bulletins aren’t true. Its only editing and writing of stories which will be centralised to Sydney. Local bulletins remain. Source: Mediaspy.

  7. “while television earnings before interest, tax and amortisation dropped from $154.1 million to $82.4 million.”

    I stopped reading after that comment. That statement signifies a management problem, pure and simple. Time for new blood at the top.

  8. I know David thinks my comments are sometimes seemingly one sided, especially regarding ‘Bolt’ ‘Henry’ and ‘Hughes’…So my following comments may surprise even him , and in doing so I may have to refer to some of my previous comments….Such as my numerous comments about these the Three Stooges mentioned above, but even David must agree, I have always said that they were doing their Puppet Masters Bidding…But my greatest complaint has always been, about Their Zeal and Enjoyment, Exhibited Whilst Doing So! (I’ve also expressd similar concerns in my comments regarding what may happen at the Nine Network) …

    It is now very apparent that Network Ten has Unfortunately been infultrated by Very vested Intrests, and again unfortunately A Dreaded Vested Interest Virus! has seemingly now Distructively spread throughout rhe Entire Ten Network….Where only this morning, there was yet another glaring example by Henry And TEN…
    Where Henry openly admitted that it was indeed ” Disrespectful Of Him” to Constantly and seemingly enjoy refering to our PM Ms Gillard’s unfortunate tripping accident in India…
    But what was also Very Apparent that TEN Fully Enddorsed Such Disrespect, simply because ‘Henry’ Did Not Cue the Multitude of Replays (the EPO and Control Room Do All Those) that occured throughout the Entire Breakfast Debacle of a so called programme, but another thing and as per USUAL was the Very Audible Outbusts of Laughter seemingly by All and Sundry around Him, ‘ Often’ Regardless of How PC incorrect,Obnoxious and Absoluetly Stupid his Comments and Inane Sniggering Has Been…Whats the Bet, the 3 stooges may be only some of those remaining, beause they Still Have Their Job To Do!.. and Up To Now Enjoying it and Doing it very Well!.. And Stuff All TENS Viewers Deserting In Their Droves.( If You Only Please the Vested Interest And no one Is Listening? Has It All Been Worth It ???)

  9. I enjoyed watching Puberty Blues but felt disappointed for ten for its figures with this show, yet they see this as a positive. I guess they dont use the 1 million plus viewers mark as a benchmark like nine or seven

  10. Ten has been a sinking vessel for quite some time now- the atmosphere there can’t be very nice. Best of luck to those who jump ship and take the redundancy packages.

  11. If they go to a National Bulletin I wonder if Mal Walden will be part of that, or will they shuffle him on to The Project instead given his off the cuff humour and editorialising on news stories (seeing they just re-signed him at the start of this month).

  12. Completely agree with TasTVcameraman. TEN need to be the first Australian FTA commercial network to make a timeslot-guarantee. The main reason I love to watch shows on Foxtel is because I know there is a very unlikely chance the show will move from the same timeslot all season. And why not also work on making shows start at a designated time? If a show doesn’t start on half hour incraments, then drop it or edit it so it will fit in. And for goodness sake get ONE some exclusive premieres and promote the crap out of it (e.g. Burn Notice Season 6, Necessary Roughness, Common Law, Leverage, and the FTA premiere of Falling Skies)

  13. The only good thing about Paul Henry is that he provides lots of hilarious material for the Hamster Wheel, besides that total waste of space.

    I have also had a rant about Ch 10’s wows under the story “Sunrise gets a Gangnam ratings jump”. Which I am sure if anyone at Ch 10 is actually listening, has been said 100 times before, by many disgruntled viewers.

    You used to be my favourite FTA channel Ch 10 now I barley watch you at all. BTW don’t watch Ch 9 or 7at all either!

  14. Simple solution really. Look at your reality shows, can the ones that did not rate, put the other shows on at the same time, every week. Once you start showing a show, screen in its entirety, do not switch channels, do not stop half way through like “White Collar” and promote the hell out of your multi channels, take a leaf out of Seven’s book and cross promote, but do not conflict….thats the hard part.

    See how well the Julian Assange movie rated, it was well promoted, some would say too much.

  15. How can they possibly being wanting to save costs and remove staff but keep Paul Henry on. Overpaid and not delivering (in a big way). Not a good look at all. I truly hope there is an agreement for the start of 2013…Paul H sacked and Andrew R back in. This gives the show a chance! In fact, do it now and see what happens for the last 8 weeks.

  16. Selective use of figures to put some slightly positive spin…….Away from the spin..just an absolute disaster and a somewhat delusional ceo.

  17. So much spin. ten network #1 in all demos? i’d like to see the details of how they figure that. everything i see paints a very different picture. yes early evening is up, but the news revolution was a colossal disaster, only a 7% increase is still really bad. And puberty blues listed as a strong performer, really? 600k for an expensive australian drama, regularly coming 4th in its slot and without good demos to back it up is anything but strong.

  18. TEN could just cancel Breakfast. That may save some money.

    As long as they keep TEN weekday news in Perth. I’ve given up wishing for the weekend news to read from here instead of Sydney.

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