To have high growth off a small base is even more impressive
They are last to market, advertise on the least watched network, have marketing budgets a fraction of Stan and News Corp, don’t have the built in benefit of a 20 year head start on brand recognition like Netflix or generations of consumer brand affinity like Disney. Not built in advantage of a monthly home delivery package that Prime. has.
Of course they are starting off on a small base.
Not to mention on top of that they have no hit shows.
So to be growing the fastest based on all that, is quite an acheivement by the local P+ team
I do as do many others! Check ratings for HYBPA, Cheap Seats etc. This Ten knocking is very tiresome. They do very well even with the lack of proper ownership or management for about the last 10-15 years. And yes I like Ten, it’s the only commercial station I watch on a regular basis.
Southern Cross Media Group could have changed tack with respect to corporate activity, as chatter emerges in the market it may be about to sell its television unit to the Paramount Global-owned Network Ten.
Market watchers expect any deal struck would be at a nominal sum.
There was a view earlier that Ten could buy the television unit, but complicating matters had been that its parent company, Paramount, has been for sale.
Paramount may feel forced to move with threats Southern Cross Media will cut its affiliation agreement with a major metropolitan broadcaster all together.
This will be a good outcome for both companies. It provides SCA a leaner outfit that is more sellable or mergable and it provides 10 with a little more scale as a one stop shop of own and operated stations and all the advertising revenue coming in one place.
BCV/GLV regional Vic, CTC southern NSW and TNQ Queensland. WIN own the NNSW NRN affiliate, and will probably hang out for a higher fee given how much they paid for it. Edit: or not…
It does get much more complex though - SCA half own all but one of the remaining joint-venture Ten channels, DTD Darwin, CDT Remote Central/East and TDT Tasmania, as well as fully owning SGS/SCN, but with complexities over separating that from the rest of the stations in the Spencer Gulf/Broken Hill market.
If they are in linear TV at all, they have to control their destiny. Leaving it up to affiliates as to if they are on the air is dangerous - and if they ever see a path forward to buying sports rights like NRL/AFL/Cricket, they can’t be in a situation where they have to explain to potential rights holders why they aren’t able to reach OTA viewers across the country.
Those sports rights are such a big component of Australian viewing habits - Ten/Paramount does pretty good without them, but not being able to be at the table would really hurt their chances of grabbing a share.
If the deal is Paramount buy it off SCA, or SCA Ten goes dark in unprofitable markets, you have to make the deal.
I would have to think WIN factored in making my post wrong within seconds of posting was a good reason to make the outreach to Paramount.
WIN being on board as well lets them clean up most of the complexities with an SCA deal, it would mean both halves of TDT being available, with Tassie I think the most viable regional market with a joint venture Ten, and secures it.
They could probably work their way to owning all the rest of the digital only Ten stations, Seven/Nine themselves can’t be that excited about owning half a Ten affiliate…
I can’t see it happening to be honest. These stations are on the verge of being unprofitable to the point of being stranded assets owned by SCA and WIN. Seems they are in a mad scramble to sell given the rapidly declining ad revenue market. The cost of running the multiple transmitters over multiple regions and Fed Govt spectrum tax on top makes it very hard for Ten Paramount to even contemplate purchasing them. Think Ten Paramount will just point viewers to 10Play in any case to bypass the WIN/SCA TEN stations and let them go dark.
it’s the only commercial station I watch on a regular basis.