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TEN still viable says David Gyngell

TEN can still be a viable business if its future owners get it at a good price.

Former Nine CEO David Gyngell says TEN can still be a viable business.

“I think Bruce Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch will end up buying it … it definitely has a future but you need to have good shows,” he told The Australian.

“If it is well managed it definitely has a future … these people are very experienced operators.

“If you bought it at $1 billion you can’t make money, (but) if these guys get it at a couple of hundred million they will make money,” he said.

Gyngell, who steered Nine back from the brink after it was facing crushing debts, noted that State of Origin figures proves television networks were still valuable.

“When you are free in someone’s lounge room, people will come back to you,” he said. “With the right management Channel 10 can still be in good shape, it will still be spending $600 million a year on programming.”

8 Responses

  1. Here is a novel idea, try and fast track some programs and we talking real fast track, not a week later fast track. Keep to scheduled timing and whilst you at it move back to on the hour or half hour starts rather than some arbitrary time somewhere in-between in your effort to fiddle with rating numbers. Keep that up and people will come back to watch you…

    1. And stop shoving low rating shows such as Prison Break to the 11pm-ish slot when you have two decent channels that show blocks of old sitcoms. Nothing to hard to accomplish.

  2. Is Mr Gyngell making a subtle job application here ? Not that he needs the money. He’s one of the very few people who have made a fortune in TV in the 21st Century.
    Perhaps he’s getting bored surfing in Byron and needs some more mental stimulation ?
    Take $1 a year salary but a truck load of shares… There you go David how’s that for an idea ?

  3. “When you are free in someone’s lounge room, people will come back to you,” Well technically this is true, but you want them to come back a lot. I for one can count the number of times I watch Nine per year on one hand.

  4. Gyngell…

    The same person who tipped “Nine will overtake Seven within 18 months” in 2014…

    Only it got worse, not better.

    By the way, stating the obvious? Of course major sport is still huge property, look at last year’s AFL Grand Final, a decade high, around 3.1m (metro).

    1. The continuing decline of advertising revenue along with the continuing decline of every day audience numbers has thrown all existing operation models out the window. There hasn’t been enough money in the Australian commercial FTA space to run three networks for many a year as evidenced by the periodic tendancy of each network to fall into financial strife as the limited supply of money sloshes to and fro.

      The situation is only going to get worse as people find other ways to access their daily entertainment and giants such as Google suck up what advertising revenue remains.

      1. And consider an audience of 16.1, more than watched ABC1, Nine, TEN or SBS1 last night, with more watching catch-up etc. channels, streaming, Stan, etc.
        Networks providing their own competition. There are only so many sets of eyes to watch the plethora of options now. Dilute the audience and the revenue will be thus diluted. How can TEN justify the costs -v- viewer results when comparing I’m a Celebrity with, say, Have You Been Paying Attention or Goggle Box?

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