Among Australia's commercial TV networks, Network Ten has long been the scrappy underdog going against its longer-established, higher-rated and (for the most part) richer competitors the Seven Network and the Nine Network (yes, they're all named after the channel numbers they're on in the big cities). It first got attention in the 70s with the racy soap opera "Number 96," which brought nudity and profanity to prime time in Australia and then followed it up with the gritty soap "Prisoner" (or as it's known overseas, "Prisoner Cell Block H"), the first series anywhere with an out lesbian character. Later on, in the beginning of the reality TV era, it jumped on "Big Brother" when it was still shocking. For the last 25 years or so, the net's cornerstones have been the Australian rights to "The Simpsons" (as part of a big content deal with 20th Television) and the long-running worldwide hit soap "Neighbours." But it's been having its problems, particularly with those American content deals (they also have one with CBS) that require them to cough up big bucks for unsuccessful American series, while "Neighbours," like its competition on Seven "Home and Away," is not the smash hit it once was in its home country and is more dependent on overseas syndication, including a lucrative contract with the UK's Channel 5 that has almost single-handedly kept the show on the air. And oh yes, less ad revenue, like so many media companies worldwide. And then on Monday the fecal matter hit the fan when its largest shareholders, Lachlan Murdoch (son of Rupert) and Bruce Gordon, owner of the net's biggest regional affiliate WIN, said that they were not going to guarantee a key loan, Ten says that it is going into voluntary administration, appointing the Asian-Pacific investment firm KordaMentha as administrators and has taken its stock off of the Australian markets:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/network-ten-heads-into-voluntary-administration-20170614-gwqo47.html The thing is--this is not just an Australian thing. All of the big media companies are facing the same problems as Ten and they are worldwide. American TV is not the viewer magnet that it used to be, domestic scripted series in many foreign countries like Australia depend on government grants and tax breaks to be affordable (and, of course, are not guaranteed to be successful), which means the most popular shows worldwide now are reality shows (many of them local versions of overseas formats). Currently, Ten's prime time lineup during the year is dominated by local versions of "All Star Family Feud" (the civilian version runs weeknights), "The Bachelor" (and "Bachelorette"), "Survivor," "Gogglebox" (the British format that watches people watching television that airs in the U.S. on Bravo as "The People's Couch"), "MasterChef," "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!", "Shark Tank ("Dragon's Den") and "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" And Seven and Nine? Well, at least top-rated Seven's reality shows (and Nine's shows, with the big exception of "The Voice") are all home-grown (and their "My Kitchen Rules" format bombed in an Americanization earlier this year on Fox). The problem with reality, of course, is hardly any back end other than overseas sales, the tendency to overdo the genre and the strong distaste of the genre among enough people, even if it is the only mass appeal television left. And let it be noted that Australia has never really taken to cable or satellite--but has taken to streamers (9 million Netflix subscribers, 2.4 million subscribers to the Fox-owned cable/satellite service Foxtel, which enjoys a near-monopoly on the cord). Which means that only a fool can be sure that Ten will be able to climb out of its quagmire intact and successful. And could it happen in the U.S.? It could... -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
