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Communication a key component for Hamish McLennan

New TEN boss says free to air television remains a powerful media platform and talks up the way messages are communicated.

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2013-03-02_0113Industry is watching with caution and interest to see what changes new TEN boss Hamish McLennan will bring to the network.

Since taking charge on March 18, far he is yet to make his stamp by either wielding the axe or commissioning new shows.

In an interview in the Sydney Morning Herald today he again confirms a shift from younger viewers to a broader audience.

”We chopped and changed too much last year, so we’re really going back to basics, which is making sure that we stabilise the business, and making sure that we have a more predictable schedule, and define what our audience should be,” he says.

”We’re not looking for any radical shifts in terms of strategy.”

But the shift will have to come from changes to programming.

”We’re absolutely focused on growing our share, and getting programs that stick, and that just takes time,” he said.

He also talked up drama content including US imports Homeland and Elementary.

”There are some genres like reality and news that fit well for where the market’s at, but I, in no way, would say that the Homelands of this world are redundant because I’m more concerned about the way that we promoted those shows.

”The most insightful thing that I could say is that as an industry, the free-to-air market is one of the few very powerful media that can deliver large audiences and effective brand communication.”

18 Responses

  1. When is TEN going to schedule “Reef Doctors” it’s been sitting in their library for 2 years. Australian drama

    ELEVEN needs to encore “Entertainment Tonight” at 6pm weeknights & replace that repeat repeat show “Sabrina, The Teenage Witch”

  2. I am hoping the reason he hasn’t made any changes yet is because I hope he relaunches TEN with new branding/advertising and new shows all at the same time. This may include breakfast show and new nighttime schedule. They also really need to cross promote from ten to eleven etc.

  3. and for channel 11 all they need to do is get rid of all the 70’s/80’s/90’s programming replaced it all with good recent programming and quickly put dexter because for fta were like 2 seasons behind and put being human season 3 on

  4. channel 10 only needs to move shows around like for example ncis was put on at 8:30 and ncis la on at 9:00 followed by hawaii five o on a wednesday and it worked for channel 10 its not working on a tuesday due to the voice on 9 and make better deals with oversea networks and not let foxtel get all the good shows image if channel 10 got game of thrones in a decent timeslot ratings jackpot

  5. i also think TEN should commission a new channel by replacing tvsn with a movie channel or detected music channel. something to give people without subscription tv a little of the joys of having it

  6. the problem is basically in there schedule for ten and 11. they both are leaning towards a younger audience demo, when 11 is already a detected youth channel.
    in my personal opinion TEN needs to act like Nine and Seven. but also be bold and different in key areas like tv personalities and subjects shows introduce perhaps?

    they also desperately need a news rejuvenation. not exactly like they tried in 2011, but on a smaller scale perhaps introducing a morning news bulletin, mid day, afternoon and shift there local news to 6:30 because then it would steal audiences away from the crap on nine and seven. there is also a pretty good chance that TEN could make a great breakfast program. TEN still has hope and promise but they just need to find the right TEN

  7. I agree that the FTA market is a powerful communications medium, and is only surpassed if someone demonstrates they have “Listened and not only just Heard” in the same way, they expect of others to “Listen”

  8. over haul 11 and create more time for kids programs. more wurrawhy and totally wild to 11 in the mornings following toasted tv. at 10am everyday have a 30 minute ep of the loop at 1030 have a replay of neighbours from the night before and at 11am replay the project.

    at 12 have a movie at 2pm have cbs programming.

    from 4pm have the couch that includes the simpsons. the cleveland show, family guy and cbs sitcoms.

    at 630 its neigbours followed at 7 by the loop

    from 730 whatever they want.

  9. @Pertinax don’t know anything about a CBS deal, is that rumour or fact?

    Re Neighbours, yes it’s an armchair perspective but its strangely addictive at present. It seems to be going up a bit whereas everything on Ten is going down. But I do agree that it was shunted off in the first place because of low ratings and everyone was happy about that at the time.

    1. ELEVEN is a joint venture with CBS, hence a lot of CBS rerun content. I’ve written before that there has been ongoing speculation about the license fee TEN paid for Neighbours means it can’t be played on TEN but neither party will confirm this. That nobody denies it probably tells us a lot…

  10. The Project needs to move to 9:30pm. Lose Hughesy for Wil Anderson.

    4:30pm – National News
    5:30pm – Bold and the Beautiful
    6pm – Local News at 6pm.
    7pm – Normal programming
    …
    9:30pm – The Project
    10:30pm – Ten Late News

    Overall ratings for the night would be higher…

  11. @Pertinax — 1. what do think the chances are that some of the armchair commentators here might also work profesionally in TV.

    2. Seems to me you should be running TEN — that’s a highly insightful analysis of its problems. The day Mr McLennan is capable of the same is the day I get elected President of the United States.

  12. In that article there are several things that are dodgie.

    McLennan claims Elementary is getting 1.1m total viewers. That includes around 200k +7 viewers which they don’t get much revenue for. It’s live viewers for the last 3 weeks have been 886k, 702k 709k. The last two are Easter and The Logies but is has been losing viewers.

    The article implies Tha McLennan help stopped Controy’s media reforms which stopped Southern Cross becoming a Nine affiliate. Southern Cross’s contract with Ten is up in a couple of months and they have been negotiating to affiliate with Nine and can become an affiliate then if they want. They can also still merge with Nine under the cap and create a national radio and a NSW coastal + MC TV network if they offload a couple of regional stations elsewhere.

    He claims that Homeland dropping 1m to 600k for the second viewers was solely a matter of promotion. Much more important factors were:
    – The first season of Homeland was much better than the second.
    – The first season was successfully paired with New Girl early in the ratings season when 7 & 9 didn’t have much competition and viewer numbers were increasing.
    – The second season was aired in early Summer when viewers already had established habits, viewer number were decreasing and 2, 7 & 9 had a a lot of competition on.

  13. @Tracey B
    They have the Simpson at 6pm and it is doing badly and losing a lot of viewers from the 5pm News which is doing well.

    Now that Winter is coming The Project rated 573k on Thursday (when there is no The Voice). Neighbours is currently rating 250-320k on Eleven. It was rating 600k on the key nights early in the week when it was moved to Eleven and it would take a long time to build it back up to 500k, and probably wouldn’t ever get much more than that.

    Moving Neighbours to Eleven with a reduced payment/episode was part of deal Ten made with CBS for the formation of their joint venture Eleven and can’t just be undone.

    McLennan knows more about what he is doing than armchair commentators.

  14. @Tracey B, I agree that the Project shoud be moved to 9.30, which is a better time for such a show. I’ve been verballed about the Project because I don’t hate it. I just believe that it doesn’t belong in the early evening where it is failing.

  15. Another guy with No TV experience trying to run a TV network. His big new insight? That FTA TV can be a great communication method – an insight I’m pretty sure they had back in the 1940s when they invented TV for Exactly that reason.

    I give him 11 more months.

  17. You have to wonder – does a big wig like Hamish come to the job truly familiar with Ten’s problems, or is he going to make snap judgments based on a quick crash course of the situation?

    It’s so obvious that Ten need to start by fixing their early evening. So if you happen to be reading, Hamish, that means swallowing the networks pride – back to 600 Simpsons, 630 Neighbours, 700 Project.

    You can’t build the rest of the evening without surely up the foundation.

    Like the idea of a Late Night Project also – stripped at 930 or 1030 – have got that idea from reading comments on here.

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