Ah okay. Missed that explanation - thanks @Travis for linking to that TV Tonight article
I donât understand peopleâs reluctance to accept that the endless and repetitive loop of ideas for ten to âreinvigorateâ their news services are no good. Ten are not in the current financial state to do it, they donât have the resources to compete with their much stronger competitors.
Ten didnât strengthen their news services early enough to avoid the changes that have taken place in the TV industry as a whole. The 2011 news revolution failed for a number of reasons, the major one being that TV habits take a long time to change and they werenât willing to spend the time. Messing with their schedule over the following years diluted their brand even further. Exactly the same thing happened with Breakfast. Ignoring the Wake-Up debacle, Studio 10 has proven that trends can change but that they take a long time to do so.
Streaming and on-demand content was too strong a force to ignore and all 3 commercial channels ignored it to their peril. Iâd compare the likes of it and the Australian TV industry to the yellow pages. They didnât foresee the impact that search engines would have on their business model and didnât react fast enough to even have a chance at putting up competition against google.
This is why the need for âliveâ and âcanât missâ TV is critical - hence why Nine and Seven have plenty of news all day and popular sports - they also have the resources to make good bids in order to keep their sport assets in their hands.
For Ten though, more news services throughout the day requires more staff, which means more money - money that if spent in the current climate needs immediate returns, which wonât happen. I donât even understand how they can justify the cost of their news service as it is - itâs a lot of money to spend on 1 hour of television.
I hate to say it, but I think Ten News is doomed unless it joins forces with other companies to utilise a greater pool of resources.
Overall the point Iâm trying to make is this:
They wonât succeed from rehashing the past or using old ideas, nor will they flourish from stealing ideas and offering the same services as their competitors - especially if itâs a cheaper alternative.
New ideas and a fresh perspective are what is needed, and Iâm not just talking about a new set and refresh of graphics.
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My view is that Tenâs first priority has got to be building a foundation for growth. Their audience is tiny. They will never make outlandishly new/fresh things work because they just donât have the market share to support it at this point.
How do you build that foundation? By doing exactly what theyâve done with Studio 10 and creating something that fits existing viewing habits (ie by competing directly with Seven/Nine) but does so in a unique, compelling, disruptive new way. For example, a more straight-forward breakfast show or a morning/midday news with a celebrity/magazine twist etc.
They donât need to steal ideas or directly replicate what Seven/Nine are doing but they do need to be clever about the ways that they target the people currently watching Seven/Nine. They need to be familiar enough not to freak anybody out but also different enough to create some buzz and incentivise that switch.
As for money, this is exactly the point I was making up-thread. My view is that a single centralised national news service which actually has money and resources to invest in growth stands a far better chance at success than continuing to persevere with five individual, struggling local news services that are paralysed by a lack of funding or investment. If some other integration also makes sense then all the better, they need every little bit of help they can get at this point.
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If you really wanted to give Ten News a much needed jolt, a multichannel merger with Sky News would surely give it.
There is no denying that the brand has been damaged with viewers. News is all about trust and consistency.
If News Ltd took over, as some have suggested, it would be really exciting times IMO. Set up a 24/7 channel on FTA, benefiting Sky/Foxtel News, with the added resources of Tenâs local setups. Broadcast major bulletins on the main channel.
Imagine, for example, this morningâs cyclone coverage hosted by Sarah & Matt, crossing to Sky News Canberra for politics, Sky Weather for weather, Sky Business for business, Aron Young in Melbourne, and so on. Blackbox would be loving himself sick with all those toys.
Itâs the only way I think Ten can seriously take on the big boys of news.
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One wonders why Ten doesnât do what they are doing today every time there is a major news event.
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Regardless of the potential upsides, the rumours have been around for over 10 years now - whether it be a Sky News Multichannel or a total merger with Sky News, yet we still donât have Sky News on Ten.
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Ten and Sky are both as disinterested in news as the other.
Ten airs one bulletin a day.
Sky doesnât even cover news anymore just talking heads and politics. They have no news resources anymore
I canât see them doing much good teamed up. Neither has an interest in news
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Ten does news better now even with one bulletin than Sky. A merger or tie up will not work.
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Where thereâs smoke, thereâs fire. And when itâs big, black smoke itâs a good chance a building is on fire. Also, the nine fire appliances on the scene (and an ambo, and a cop) sort of make me think this wasnât âunconfirmed.â
There wasnât much known when the first image was posted. The second later image added later though confirmed the fire and major traffic impact as well.
Ten just used drone footage of lismore floods. Wonder if theyâve sourced this themselves or is part of âpool arrangementsâ with other media organizations.
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It looks like our calls have finally been answered!
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nice try
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Iâd thought of posting a April Fools Day joke along similar lines but then thought that no-one would believe it 
Of course in this scenario Peter Overton would be presenting the latest version of Ten Late News.
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That is a little too far fetched. 
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I was just watching a few of âBreakfastâ videos, and I forget how amazing the set was. Too bad it failed, we really need something refreshing on Morning TV now. 
COUGH (Studio 10s Cyclone special)
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History has been very unkind to Breakfast. Paul Henry and Kath had a lot more life in them than Tarsh and âMathoâ and if Ten invested as much $$$ into it as they did Wake Up it might still be on our screens today.
I rarely agreed with Henry, but as least he appeared in control as a broadcaster and an interviewer. There definitely would be a right wing audience that would have eventually migrated to the format.
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