TEN decision tipped in 24 hours
TEN employees told administration is "likely," in an all-staff phone address this afternoon.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
A decision on the immediate future for TEN is likely within the next 24 hours, TEN executive general manager Rod Prosser told employees in an all-staff phone address at midday.
TEN requested a 2 day trading suspension with the ASX this morning after billionaire shareholders Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon refused to back a new loan facility.
Sources say TEN staff were told administration is likely for the network, with time running out for the debt guarantee.
But the network is pinning big savings on renegotiating US output deals with 20th Century FOX and CBS (a joint owner of ELEVEN), reportedly costing $150 million a year, ahead of staff cuts.
This morning CEO Paul Anderson (pictured) told staff, “I will keep you all updated with any further information, and whilst this is unsettling for all of us, we must assume that our operations continue as usual.”
TEN was last in receivership in 1990 before relaunching in 1991.
7 Responses
Legacy if you consider renegotiating every 4-6 years. I’d bet that there was maybe 1 foreign import in the top 20 rating programs 4 years ago.
I guess they were hoping the trend was just a trend and the good old days of making money from cheap imports was around the corner.
Perhaps they believed FreeTV Australia chairman Harold Mitchell when he said that Netflix is just a fad.
Wonder if we could end up with 20th Century FOX and CBS being co-owners of TEN to lock-up the output deal.
They did work together for 16 years as CBS/Fox Video so it’d being nothing out of the ordinary and happens a bit in the US, like with POP TV being CBS and Lionsgate, CW being CBS, United Paramount and Warners. Especially CBS which is also in control of Viacom, which of course has Spike TV soon to renamed the Paramount Network and with Lachlan Murdoch being Executive Chairman of 21st Century Fox we could end up with TEN being as tangled together as US Networks (especially if Foxtel get in the mix).
The best thing to happen to TEN . It will undoubtedly become a part of the News Ltd stable. This whole processes has been in the making for years . TEN will become more competitive and stronger against NEC and SWM .
That’s a hell of a lot of NCIS, which is about the only US import that rates …though happy to be corrected here.
Whoever did that deal is a bit of a goose, if you ask me. What’s wrong with investing in a bit more local content ?
Most US output deals are legacy issues, that other networks have been renegotiating to reflect audience trends. TEN is the last to do so, but has less money to invest in local content.
Why any network would be paying anything close to 150mil per year for a US output deal in beyond me. Would love to know how many of the US imports actually air on the primary channel and rate above 400K.
If you assume drama is their most expensive local production, average out the cost to TEN at say 700K per hour, that’s 214 hours worth of drama, god knows how many additional hours of local non scripted.