New TEN looks to older viewers
TEN's incoming CEO Hamish McLennan says the network will now target older viewers and bid for key sporting events.
- Published by David Knox
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TEN’s incoming CEO Hamish McLennan says the network will now target older viewers and bid for key sporting events.
“We will look at everything,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“We’ll preserve what’s great about it and make changes were we need to.
“We will look at sport, everything is up for grabs.
“We’ve had a laser focus in a youth demographic sense.
“But I think we can be youthful and appeal to a slightly wider audience without losing what we are good at.”
McLennan seeks “creative renewal” with cash ploughed into refreshing TEN’s underperforming program schedule and a promotions blitz.
But rumours of more job cuts for TEN are also gathering early ahead of his reign as CEO.
“As a general statement we need to be prudent in the way we run our businesses but the reality is there needs to be more investment in programming and promotion,” he said.
But he also stood by Masterchef and did not rule out a return to Australian Idol.
“MasterChef and Australian Idol have been great properties for the network.”
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62 Responses
GH was on ten in the 90s…
General Hosptial celebrates 50 years on tv.
So
And it was never on TEN? It was on Nine. I think your point is made now, thanks.
I’m an older viewr (51)
I don’t really like sport
but I beg of you, please leave “NCIS” where it is!
All these reality shows do nothing for me at all!
Message for ch 10 change call sign to single digit number eg 8 or 6 older people have trouble with remotes pressing 2 digits to get to 10 so they give up and stick with 2,7&9 I watched my inlaws
This might help to get a few more viewers
Maybe McLennan has not realised that the AFL, NRL, V8’Ss, FFA have all been dealt with in the last year with multi-year contracts.
To even suggest that Cricket Australia might consider the Youthful/Older Network Ten as a partner when they have incumbent Nine and a well proven aggressive Seven is naive to the extreme !
@NN01
I agree Ten news should be at 6pm. Sure they win 5pm but who cares- its too early. 6-7pm on ten has been a big problem ever since they moved to a 5pm news service.
Game show at 5.30pm, News at 6, Project at 6.30 or 7pm. It worked 30 years on ten, worked 15 years ago on 9, it worked 10 years ago on 7, It will still work. They just need a creditable new service to get the viewers and will help them keep them for the night.
The problem with this new guy…..he has no TV experience, 10 could turn into a news limited “fox and friends” station, and the biggest issue – he has been appointed by one L Murdoch, and Mr Murdochs appointments have not bee all that successful of late.
I can feel another Bob Shanks era coming (10 TV Australia 1989 – fail fail fail)
Amazing that the genral media is so afraid to say that LM is delivering News Corp a free ride in sport, killing off FTA competition and making Ten the voice of the unrepresented billionaires AUstralia has to celebrate and nurture
I didn’t even know General Hospital was still going. I thought it had been axed years ago!!
Yep, Hey Hey and General Hospital – that’ll save the network. And some people say that Hamish McLennan is delusional.
Ten fix your 6:00-7:30 time slot.
6:00 News
6:30 The Report
7:00 Neighbours
7:30 –
Ten needs to make more Australian drama’s like Puberty Blues, some shows that produce talent and is appealing to a very wide range of people of all ages.
Ten have a max of 3 reality shows and a max of 5 US shows.
Make Eleven the home of your reality shows and US imports!
Please ….. no game shows!
chadsterboi ….give that person a job at TEN…I would watch all but The Doctors and the Simpsons…but that is just me…I like the rest!
It’s a pity the new CEO wasn’t there when Ten were bidding for the NRL rights.
Earthquake – you are right “Groundhog Day”.
Skew a bit older but in a youthful manner – revolution or exactly what Ten was doing for years prior to Murdoch joining.
Murdoch & Warburton – Report Card !
Success – Bikie Wars…..
Failures – Breakfast, Lara Bingle, Everybody Dance Now, Young Talent Time, The Shire, US.Idol, Simpsons back at 6.00pm, losing the AFL, axing Video Hits, axing The Circle and of course losing about $200 million in advertising revenue !!!
Well done but it still sounds a little like “Groundhog Day”.
The new CEO is some what correct in getting more sports content. but i will say this it was the man who hired him that threw a big fat spanner into that idea when he sold most of the sporting assets and the ones the network does have are less popular and the broadcast of them have been diminished. So is Ten going to go around in circles now? i think yes,. The former administration had it right poorly executed but right none the less. in a 24 sports channel which would have garnered the older demos. The question for Ten is where will they get the money for more sports events considering the company is already in cost cutting mode and is hemerging money. I said this in my previous post on the sacking of Warbuton and i will say it again. The network cannot move forward with the current board members at the helm and that bbviously includes Lachlan no nothing about FTA TV Murdoch. Until that is tone Ten will continue to flounder and the low ad rates don’t help which all the networks are struggling with. Ten needs to make a better use of their out put deals and their websites of which they have three. in most cases they have the tools but no one who knows how to use them.
In short: “We’re going to keep doing what we’re good at and change the things we’re bad at.”
Groundbreaking strategy, that. No wonder he got the job…
Hamish mate how about Lawn Bowls in HD for us oldies and please include Bingo and top it off with repeats of Mitch Miller and his band 🙂
Correction Correction to my 1-59pm comment
My reference to James closing the door behind him, was directed at James P. not James W, because sadly but in hope, and if it is any consolation, he can leave with his head held high, knowing that he won one major battle, against those identified problems at Ten.
A big belated thank you James W. for getting rid of the Lachlan anointed/appointed Paul Henry, and again sadly for you, but in hope you had set your sights the real problems at Ten, but unfortunately it seems they got you first.
But every cloud has a silver lining, you can now delete several channel favourites from your remote, as there is no need to watch Ten’s lot if you are after any news about events at Ten, considering your demise was lucky to be one sentence in length, or even any at all.
If TEN wants to attract an older audience, they could revive Hey Hey or a game show at 7 o’clock.
How does the 3 biggest Tv Shows in recent times not get picked up from any commercial TV especially Ch10 Australia such as The Walking Dead, Game Of Thrones and Breaking Bad?
I watched American Idol the other night and really enjoyed it. The format of the judges just giving comments (and not trying to make their artist sound like they were going to be a worldwide superstar – quoting Ronan) was refreshing and not over the top because they weren’t competing against each other. They disagreed on some performances and that was fine, but it was more about the singers themselves. Much more enjoyable than X Factor which seemed like a teenage rock concert for most of the series. It’s funny how people say they don’t want another talent show but we can have endless cooking and renovations shows.
Start a new breakfast show and a new morning show soon.
And keep shows like: Masterchef and The Biggest Loser.
@ chadsterboi
Decisions, decisions ahead, unfortunately your 9-30 am slot is either a typo or a no go?
Because Hughes is fully committed time wise, researching endless hours of footage, so he can stir Ten’s anti labor pot( in particular PM Ms Gillard) on The Project each night, bearing in mind he has to find and supply extra footage for the ever so unbiased Steve Price.
Why is it that regardless of the size so many organizations faced with similar Crissie , two of the hardest things to achieve is to get the source of problem, to admit they are just that and once identified, get them to put their name on the top of to go list.
Not that this will ever happen at Ten, but if the real agenda of the new CEO is to save Ten, his first priority should be to forget the programming forget target demo’s ages etc.for now.
The main and only target he should be chasing, is chasing Lachlan, Gina and Bolt Out The Door and have James close the door behind him, but leave the lights on as he also leaves.
But targets and agenda’s are the magic word at Ten, and unfortunately only time will reveal the true agenda and who set that agenda and how long ago was that agenda set?
Finally Ten have come to their senses and realised the only way forward is to target older viewers and a wider audience but since they have been ignoring that audience for over 15 years now it won’t be easy to get them back without a complete rebranding and overhaul of the network,.
With reality saturation on other networks, I would love to see a return to good drama that runs for the entire year with characters to know and love, a sitcom or two (almost forgotten what an Australian sitcom is, don’t think we’ve had one this century) and some good classic gameshows.
None of it has to be expensive or glossy but just as long as it’s good and has a good feel to it. That’s the most important thing, if you can get into a viewer’s psyche, then you’ve got them.