Network Ten

World Screen Weekly, August 2, 2007

COUNTRY: Australia

LAUNCH DATE: The first of the stations that are part of today’s Network Ten began broadcasting in 1959. TEN’s current five-station network was created in 1995.

NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS: TEN owns and operates free-to-air commercial television stations in Australia’s five major metropolitan markets of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Program supply agreements with Southern Cross Broadcasting—which owns regional stations in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland—mean that the combined audience reach of TEN and its affiliates is more than 90 percent of the Australian population.

OWNERSHIP: The Ten Group owns and operates TEN’s five mainland capital city television stations. Ten Group is the operating subsidiary of Ten Network Holdings, which was launched on the Australian Stock Exchange in April 1998. In June 2007, CanWest Global Communications Corp. announced its intention to exercise its right to exchange its ordinary shares and convertible debentures in the Ten Group into ordinary shares in Ten Holdings. Upon completion of the exchange, CanWest would become Ten Holdings’ majority shareholder.

DESCRIPTION: TEN is a general-entertainment terrestrial network in Australia that targets 18- to 49-year-old viewers with a diverse programming mix that relies heavily on reality, factual and big event entertainment offerings and a host of dramas, many of which are imported from the U.S.

CEO, TELEVISION: Grant Blackley

CHIEF PROGRAMMING OFFICER: David Mott

NETWORK HEAD OF PROGRAMMING: Beverley McGarvey

CHIEF NETWORK SALES OFFICER: Vance Lothringer

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Shaun James

GENERAL MANAGER, DIGITAL: Damian Smith

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: In the competitive free-to-air landscape in Australia, Network Ten has carved out a niche for itself as the market’s leading broadcaster targeting viewers aged 18 to 49, says Beverley McGarvey, the network’s head of programming. She says that TEN is a broad entertainment offering, “with a youth focus. We like shows that we feel have a little bit of an edge.”

TEN has been servicing its viewers with a mix of locally produced entertainment and drama, and several drama acquisitions from the U.S. In terms of American drama, TEN has just entered the first year of its output deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution. “FOX, as a network in the States, would have quite a similar audience profile to TEN,” McGarvey says. “So the stuff we get through that deal really fits in with our brand and our strategy. Coming up we have programs like Back to You and Journeyman.”

U.S. dramas that have already performed well for TEN include House, NCIS and Law & Order: SVU. Meanwhile, McGarvey says, Australian dramas have been “very difficult,” although the network has ordered a 90-minute broadcast pilot for Falls, and has other projects in the works. “We want to have at least one big drama next year.”

While the network does have the rights to several blockbuster features through its deals with the Hollywood studios, McGarvey says, “theatrical features have struggled in Australia for some time now. They don’t rate like they used to. But we do play features occasionally on Friday evenings and Saturday evenings. We use the movies to offset the competition. So for example if there’s rugby on Channel 9, then we’ll play a female movie. We use them the best way we can. If it’s a big enough title and an event comes together they will do OK. Matt Damon is coming into town to launch The Bourne Ultimatum and we’ll play The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Identity and they’ll do well during that period.”

About 60 percent of TEN’s schedule is Australian content—an output that includes the long-running soap Neighbours. “It’s getting a bit of a sea change,” McGarvey says. “By February next year it will be a much different show. We’re very proud of Neighbours and it does well, but shows that have been on for such a long time, sometimes you just need to shake it up a bit.”

In addition to news shows and some morning lifestyle series, TEN’s Australian content slate also includes versions of international formats like Idol and Big Brother and locally developed fare such as the sketch comedy series Thank God You’re Here, which is itself being formatted in markets worldwide. Coming up on TEN are Australian versions of So You Think You Can Dance and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. “We like to think that when people go to work tomorrow, there’s always a Network Ten show they can talk about,” McGarvey says. “We use the reality shows for that.”

Whereas prime time is dominated by dramas and big variety and reality series, daytime and access prime time are currently driven by the talk shows Dr. Phil and The Oprah Winfrey Show and, later in the day, The Bold and the Beautiful. Late night, meanwhile, TEN has found a solid audience for Late Show with David Letterman. “We were so focused on prime time for a long time, it’s great now that our daytime and late-night schedules are working as well.”

WHAT’S NEW: This September, TEN will launch a number of new U.S. dramas day and date with their release in the U.S., as it did last year for the first time with CBS Paramount International Television’s Jericho. “We were transmitting it within 10 hours of the U.S. broadcast,” McGarvey says. “It works with our survey period,” McGarvey notes, referring to that period from February to November when the networks assess their performance. “We get some episodes between September and November and then the American broadcasters have a bit of a hiatus and we’re out of survey and they bring their shows back toward the end of January and we go back in February. Although we have different seasons [than the American networks] it actually works with our television calendar.”

The problem with the day-and-date strategy, however, is that if the U.S. broadcaster preempts a show, TEN needs to be prepared to fill that slot. As such, McGarvey explains, “We’re always looking for one-off specials that can slip into our schedule and it’s significant enough content that with a few promos people get it—you can sell it in one line. Stuff that has a tabloid angle.”

McGarvey says she is also on the lookout for international formats that can be stripped daily, and she is open to co-productions, particularly with British drama producers.

WEBSITE: ten.com.au

—By Mansha Daswani