I wonder how well that will go down with Murdoch.
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Everyone is talking about CBS - the network and their streaming service - as if its this massive game-changer, and that TEN is going to be the next Nine. Worth remembering that CBS is just one broadcast network with a few shows a night that may or may not set the world on fire. It’s not this magic wand for Ten that some are suggesting.
Btw, CBS has long been my favourite net.
You must be an old codger. 
Heh, news.com.au ran an exclusive yesterday about Ten photoshopping a gay marriage ad or something onto a bus. The knives at Murdoch’s tabloids are out.
As for Foxtel sorry foxtel, it’s interesting how they’ve said this. The AFR article a few days ago stated that News Corp bought Sky News explicitly so the eventual Ten purchase would ensure it an influential slot on FTA. This jeopardises the dual sports rights bidding strategy, and deeper pockets from CBS means increased costs for Fox Sports to buy major sports.
This is all negative for Foxtel sorry foxtel.
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Local content is the only thing which rates reliably nowadays. US dramas and comedies can still perform well but have been much much less likely to become hits since around 2009. I don’t know what changed about Australians’ viewing tastes in that time (streaming, torrenting, a lot more competition from other mediums are all factors), but it’s pretty clear that audiences want Aussie content first and foremost.
The days of programs like CSI, NCIS and Friends becoming reliable hits are over. Once upon a time it was these programs which were the real moneymakers, and Aussie content was just there in the background as cheap filler or to satisfy content quotas. Now it’s the opposite: US content is a filler while Australian content gets the eyeballs.
CBS would hopefully be smart enough to recognise this. I really hope they are. Investing in solid local programming for the primetime hours and using CBS’ back catalogue of new American programming to grow audiences on the less popular nights and late evenings could help Ten add some depth to schedules.
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Is this the same “anonymous source” who told you off-the-record that Graham Richardson wrote Bill Shorten’s budget speech and not Paul Keating? If so, this guy must be really well connected…
Not Australians that changed - the American content changed - it became niche, twee, and ultra liberal. “Around 2009” also fits in with major political changes in America at that time…
What a load of rubbish! Since when has he been anti- American? He actually took a huge interest in the election process and even went there for The Project, during the election itself.
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When the main channels topped being available in HD from 2009-10 many sought their US content in HD elsewhere.
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Thanks Trump but your analysis of the situation is completely rubbish. Friends was very liberal and was one of the highest rated shows of the late 90s and early 2000s. The US version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy rated 1.5 million viewers per episode in 2005 on Ten.
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Nah, I don’t really buy that. The regular viewer is none to bothered about SD vs HD in my opinion.
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Puhlease, I watched Friends each week and it was not “very liberal”. All 6 were in various heterosexual relationships. Joey was a corny schmoozer of women. Chandler a bumbling idiot. Monica a previous fatso.
Now compare that with shows “around 2009”…Glee, which went from a show about music to one about gay relationships every two seconds, Ugly Betty, Modern Family. All programmes which purposely chose contexts such that “very liberal” themes could be explored…
The one that reinforced decades old stereotypes of gay people as ultra-camp “designers”? That one?
Thanks for your nonsense analysis, Hillary.
Exactly. The American mainstream media hates the “America” the right-wing represents more than Waleed ever could…
So Ross’ lesbian child-adopting wife and her partner were negatively portrayed? Don’t think so. Very liberal for the 90s.
Will and Grace did really well here with two gay leads. Desperate Housewives had plenty of gay characters too and that was a huuuuge hit.
Tons of gays watched Queer Eye and Rupaul’s Drag Race because those shows were supportive of gay people and portrayed them positively. They actively knocked down the stigma around gay culture, and a mainstream audience took note. For shows which reinforce old stereotypes about gay people, it certainly is weird then that lots of my gay friends watch the new seasons of Rupaul’s Drag Race.
TV becoming more liberal in recent years is in-keeping with the general attitudes of younger demographics. What has changed is the means by which audiences access TV, and that means that American content cannot sustain a TV schedule. Networks need first-run Australian content otherwise audiences download. Also a lot of American shows just aren’t quality anymore. It’s got nothing to do with some imagined takeover of American TV by devious liberals (which you might discover at some stage have been dominating the attitudes of Hollywood for decades).
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This discussion is really going off topic here.
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Hint: it’s a sit-com…that usually means storylines are played for laughs…the “lesbian child-adopting wife” of dorky Ross was not intended to be a positive series-defining storyline…LOL!
Looking at the totality of the series (the content, the main characters, the dialogue) rather than picking out one storyline or two, should leave you in no doubt that Friends was very ACCESSIBLE and mainstream.
(I think you’re confusing the fact that because liberals who happen to be losers still watch it endlessly, and talk about it, that somehow it’s a shining beacon of liberalism…).
The show is literally about stay at home housewives in suburbia (as far from “liberal” America as you can get)…
As for Rupaul I have no idea what that is and would suggest most Australians don’t either.
The opposite in fact. The thread is full of feverish speculation about what CBS will do with Ten…the reality is that CBS is only involved because they’ve improved their otherwise dire situation in regards to Ten, and most likely see it as an opportunity to cheaply broadcast their content in Australia.
Analysing what direction CBS might take Ten and the compatability of their content with Australian audiences could hardly be more relevant.
But, you know, come in here again to tell us why you don’t like CBS (hint: we know, it’s American not Australian, and you hate people who supposedly have cultural cringe 
).
Are Australians really downloading content from the major free to air networks in America on the same scale as they were watching them prior to 2009? I think not…
We’ve had this discussion many times on this site before…fast-tracking doesn’t necessarily work…that is, Australians don’t want to watch mainstream American content whether it’s on TV, or downloaded the same day…
I haven’t said I don’t like CBS. They’re fine to do whatever they want in America. I just think they will just force more American culture down our throats via Ten.
Maybe people are fine with America continually extinguishing every cultural difference Australians have, but I’ll never be happy about that.
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