I am not sure if there is any new reality format that can fill the 8 weeks towards the end of the year after Survivor ends, with Great Australian Spelling Bee probably not renewed. It’s sad that Ten’s US comedies failed to rate, otherwise they will easily fill the gap on Tuesday nights.
Air The Bachelor & Survivor directly after MasterChef 
MasterChef S1, rated lower than S2.
The Bachelor S1, rated lower than S2.
And so on.
Well Big Brother airs in the US and UK for 8 weeks. I’m not suggesting that they look at Big Brother but surely there is plenty of content they can get for the last 8 weeks of the ratings period. Its a whole year away.
They could then use the Bachelor/ette and The Biggest Loser for after I’m a Celebrity.
From my calculations for next year, anyway, Ten will need a new show or block of shows at some point of the year. Here are the blocks I can see occuring:
I’m a Celebrity - 29th January (After Big Bash Final) - 12th March 6 Weeks
Unknown Content 13th March - 7th May - 8 weeks
Masterchef 8th May - 30th July 12 weeks
Unknown Content 31st July - 24th September 8 weeks
Unknown Conetent 25th September - 3rd December 10 weeks
If Ten do what they did this year that 7-8 week period between the 13th March - 7th May will be full of fillers. I wonder if it would be better airing The Bachelorette and The Biggest Loser. That way it will have the freedom of Easter non-ratings period.
The Second Unknown content will most likely be Survivor Australia and The Bachelor. If they could air that for 8 weeks together that would work out perfectly.
The final one is going to be the funny one. I am not really sure whether Big Brother is the answer to Tens problems but when Nine aired it 7:30 weeknights it did very well in the demographics. So possibly could be a good get for ten. They could then possibly air it for 12 weeks like they used to. This would give them programming up until the Big Bash commences and they wouldn’t have holes in their schedule for 2 months.
I believe Ten would be wise to air Survivor Australia and The Bachelor between I’m a Celebrity and Masterchef. But I don’t think Ten have the guts to try that, nor do they have the time to film Survivor and edit it between now and then.
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Ten need lots and lots of more Australian content to remain relevant. A new franchise plus some new formats are needed.
Could fill out the schedule with some news but they won’t do that. Seem hell bent on killing he news.
They need to have more content to fill all the holes in the schedule.
They also need a new stragey for Sunday nights. Aside from master chef nothing has worked there this year. Even master chef was softest on Sunday’s. something big new and noisy needed.
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Surprisingly though it is not that much that needs to be fixed and something that is pretty easily fixed.
But we know they won’t.
It’s like they are a part time network.
They no longer innovate or introduce new things any more like they did in 00s. They use to be a growing network. Now they just drift along aimlessly. Don’t take huge risks, don’t innovate with technology. They aren’t growing as a media company.
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I agree. They have slowly become less of a Part time network though. Remeber the days when Big brother or Masterchef finished and Friends rpts or Simpsons rpts aired to fill the holes? They at least introduced The Bachelor/ette and Survivor this year. They have reduced that 4-5 month period to 2 months now (3 if you include the fillers between Celebrity and Masterchef)
News could fill 5 hours a week of primetime at 9.30, be lost cost, a very strong point of difference, require little marketing or investment and allow them to focus on the 7.30 and 8.30 hours
When will they get it?
Not only that - I think it would consistently rate in the 300-500k range.
How many shows to Ten have to promote and market and raise awareness for 9.30 M-F over the course of a year. 15? 20?
Imagine if it was just ONE.
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Interesting how (not just for Ten) discussion for next year seems to centre around reality-type programming. It seems that the reality (ha) of Australian FTV into the future will be stripped reality/talent at 7.30 and the rest of the schedule has to fit around that. If there wasn’t a mandatory quota for Australian drama, I wonder how much commercial TV would show; the cost of drama per ratings point can’t be too good.
The problem with that is (as TV Cynic touched upon) is primetime scheduling is now shaped around the reality ‘tentpoles’. When you have reality programs going for 90mins, having news at 9:30pm means you’ll have a ‘tricky’ 30mins to fill until then. Sure, it’s fine to move the US dramas which currently air at that time to 10:30pm. However, what happens to programs like Have You Been Paying Attention? and Australian drama like Offspring/The Wrong Girl which currently benefit from the reality lead-in?
Another consideration is having 9:30pm news means it has to start at 9:30pm sharp every night for consistency, building viewing patterns, etc. On nights where Ten’s reality program runs for 70/80mins - there’s no way the news can start at 9:30pm if you want to air a 1 hour program after that. Sure it’s possible for Ten to make sure reality programs go for one hour sharp so it can be followed by another program (mostly dramas) before airing the 9:30pm news. However, the culture which the networks have fostered regarding ‘scheduling mischief’ and misleading viewers night-after-night as to when programs start and finish means it’s easier said than done in this environment
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I agree 100% with this and even if it got between 200-300k every night it would do the same and marginally better than a lot of the American imports that they currently have. They could then use those American imports on their multi channels or/and put them at 10:30 where they will receive high timeshifting figures.
Its just the fact that it will save on; scheduling issues, big promotions for 7 different programs and inconsistent shows in that timeslot.
I would like to see Networks stick to the 1 hours slots, but in these sorts of cases I guess the news could go to a 10 O’clock start.
To be honest I would much rather see networks attempt shows like; The Big Music Quiz, Australian dramas and other light entertainment shows in that 7:30 slot. But unfortunately it is the reality that networks need, or even want, to have some sort of tentpole. It obviously saves them money, somehow, and time thinking of numerous amounts of shows for all the timeslots.
If not news, Ten should at least try some factuals or 48 Hour type crime investigation shows, similar to what Nine are doing at 9.30 with its shock horror crime or medical docos.
Even this would work today
:
A 2017 version of this? FF to 0:52 for the show.
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Looking at results for The Voice and X-Factor and even Australia’s Got Talent this year, I don’t suppose there would be much support for a revival of Australian Idol. I would like to see a singing contest that was more back to basics with fewer gimmicks and less attention to the judges, but perhaps those days are over and the public want something extra. Interesting that Britain’s Got Talent did fairly well this year on a main channel.
This is a news article from two years ago - http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/sky-news-chief-seeks-freetoair-slot-20140226-33il9.html There are others from last year as well - just Google to find.
News Corp couldn’t buy out Seven and Nine till this year. My guess is SkyNews will be FTA before the year is out.
It only follows the SkyNews UK model being on FTA (Freeview) for many years.
Sky News going FTA doesn’t make sense. News Corps primary business model in this country is content supported by subscription fees (Fox Sports, Fox Sports News, Fox Footy, Fox NRL, TheAustralian.com.au etc)
Sky News is on UK Freeview along with over a dozen other Sky pay channels.
There are no Australian pay cable channels on FTA in Australia.
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Not entirely true as Ten has TVSN.
No yet. Here’s another article from earlier this year: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/sky-news-invests-in-shows-as-news-pushes-for-takeover/news-story/17130b646802627cc3c92b69db3ba6d5?nk=70bd1202bcf067b47951dcfac8a648c2-1477352982