Continuing the old thread: http://www.mediaspy.org/forum/index.php?/topic/15279-tens-primetime-woes/
I was thinking if they wanted to build on Family Feud, an idea would be Pyramid. It hasn’t been done here in a long time (bar the children’s version on GO!), and like Feud is a fun, light hearted format perfect for 6.30pm.
Scrap the News at Five. If you have a point of difference and you can’t be bothered promoting it in high rating events (the Big Bash, for example) then don’t bother.
Perhaps something like this:
04:30 Bold & the Beautiful
05:00 [new gameshow]
05:30 Eyewitness News
06:00 Family Feud
06:30 The Project
I know this isn’t early evening woes but I believe they should bite the bullet and air their main news at 9:30. Besides ABC no other network does it (actually not sure about SBS). Hardly any of their 9:30 offerings hit the 300k mark. I think I saw some getting in the low 100ks. So surely a news hour would at least provide a constant timeslot show that everyone will eventually know about. I also look at ITV and they have this exact same thing and seems to work quite well there.
The biggest problem for ten these days is news. Prime time programming isn’t too bad.
Also relying on US content to pad out the schedule is an issue.
Another issue is 6am-8:30am
But they won’t do anything about it. If they want to be considered a main network they need to fix all of the above.
A really lazy way of programming would be something like this
06:00 The Project
07:00 Reality/light entertainment
08:00 M rated import crime/drama
09:00 MA rated import
10:00 News
That’s 3 hours in primetime. Hell, move the news to 9pm. Not hard to do, and it becomes a point of difference to Seven and Nine by a) not having shows on the half hour and b) not having a conventional news bulletin.
[quote=“turdall, post:3, topic:571, full:true”]
I know this isn’t early evening woes but I believe they should bite the bullet and air their main news at 9:30. Besides ABC no other network does it (actually not sure about SBS).[/quote]
I believe SBS do (9.35 from memory) - agreed though.
Leave it how it is. It is doing just fine. There is nothing wrong with it. I think turdall is probably referencing to Zoo, Homeland and Under The Dome that were seen in the 100k mark.
Surely Ten wouldn’t be that dumb by doing another show at breakfast (6.30-8.30).
Easy solution for news is to get Sky News and Fox Sports News onto FTA.
Having The Project at 6 is dumb. They’ve tried that and it failed miserably and leave how The Project the way it is.
As usual your opinion is blinded by this crazy obsession with ten.
You do realise that keeping the status quo is only going to land ten in a revenue quagmire. They need to invest in content and innovate across the schedule.
You really need to stop jumping to Ten’s defence constantly with your inane ramblings.
I completely agree.
As well as launching bold, innovative new programing formats…remember how Seven, Nine and even the ABC have either already launched or are planning to launch online streaming of all network channels and reinstating a HD simulcast of the primary channel? If you ask me, Ten really needs to do those two things if they want to remain a relevant broadcaster in the second half of the second decade of the 21st century!
Someone mentioned in the Presenters and Reporters thread that Matt White is underused. I think he’d be a great candidate for Late News if they decided to go national.
Late News is a pipe dream. Ten purposely got out of news because they deemed it too expensive. Why would they go back now?
Good to see this thread has returned. The early evening woes have certainly not gone away.
Family Feud: Still simulcasting after 18 months and no sign of it ending anytime soon. Ten are sacrificing total audience, revenue and demos at 6pm to make Family Feud’s rating look respectable. How long can this go on considering Ten’s woeful financial situation?
The Project 6.30: Has been a serial underperformer for years, dropping to as low as 300s. For as long as Seven/Nine News continue to air news at 6.30pm it has no chance of success.
The Project 7pm: Respectable, winning some demos, but I believe Family Feud would be much better suited at 7pm against the lesser competition in ACA and Home and could rate 800k no simulcast. I would return Simpsons / Neighbours to 6pm-6.30pm which were always decent performers in that slot, and move The Project to after 9.30pm. Surely those simple changes would have positive impacts.
Why on earth would Ten go back and do another round at breakfast, when it has failed not once but twice. Which tells me, that they shouldn’t do it again.
First of all some my ideas are valid, for example Fox Sports News and Sky News on FTA is a possibility, through Foxtel deal. I for one welcome that, as it benefits Ten and Foxtel. Another thing is that it seems to me you support The Project getting crushed at 6? When even though Family Feud would do so much better.
All your argummets completely fall flat as soon as you propose Simpsons and neighbours returning to the main channel. Delusional and completely irrelevant for a network in this day and age.
The only thing I agree with you is ceasing the family feud simulcast.
Because you should never give up. There is a format out there that will resonate with viewers if promoted correctly. You have very limited knowledge of tv history in this country. Ten were pioneers back in the day with GMA and other such programming. I’m not proposing a clone of today or sunrise.
Fox sports news and Sky news can fuck off. People want original content produced by the network. Not out sourced news Corp crap.
Funnily enough I never see you responding to the questions regarding you overt obsession with defending every decision ten makes.
This thread doesn’t make any sense to me. Last year in the three time slots 6.00- 6.30, 6.30 -7.00 and 7.00 to 7.30 Ten not only increased its commercial share of the audience but had more viewers watching in each time period both in total people and younger demographics.
With TV viewing dropping, that is a pretty good achievement. Additionally, that result was at the expense of its commercial rivals with Seven and Nine both seeing audience share and viewers numbers drop for every time slot - double digit percentage drops in some cases.
Good concept but I honestly think that they need to just keep early primetime the same, maybe something like this could work:
6:00- Family Fued/Other well-performing game or comedy program (maybe mix them up during different seasons or nights to offer something fresh but remain a stable performer)
6:30- The Project with an increased news presence and better cross-promotion and integration with Ten News (more live crosses to reporters etc.)
7:30- Reality offering OR a high rating local or imported series, especially M-rated ‘event’ dramas (e.g X-Files) and proven comedies.
8:30- Local news (Considering it airs only 3.5 hours after the flagship bulletin, you would think they could stretch staff to produce both, especially since there is no daytime news offering)
9:30- Normal drama offerings or other programming (such as local series)
10:30- Late Show
11:30- Late Late Show OR CBS factuals (e.g 48 hours) OR strike a deal with an overseas news network to bring live programming (e.g Al Jazeera- low licensing fees)
Let’s be honest- They have almost nothing to work with in terms of imported primetime fillers so they might as well fill each weeknight with other content which might distinguish Ten’s primetime offerings from other networks. Having that single hour for flagship programming offers better variety for viewers throughout the week- instead of existing reality series that air up to 4 nights per week. I guess if they really wanted to milk a series for ratings they could extend the slot to 1.5 or 2 hours, like they have done with Masterchef at times, and air local news after, but I think a regular schedule is more preferable.
I don’t know why this thread is titled early evening woes when mid-late evening is when the bloodshed begins, and it can be quite easily fixed.
the problem with 10 is multiple:
first, they went after a tech savvy market (18 to 35 year olds) meaning anything from OS that became a hit on 10 became fodder for filesharing.
they have no Must See TV on 10 - nothing that if i don’t watch i feel out of the loop at work. remeber with big brother was on and everyone was talking about Jess and Marty or the reverse kanga? (not that i’m saying they need to being BB Back).
lack of live sport is an issue (big bash aside as it’s in the non ratings period) we all know live sport is a driver of viewers but 10 is getting out of this market (look at what they have done with F1 last year) - sure the races may not rate high but to a marketer they are gold. they have a loyal somewhat dependable audience (you have to be loyal to get up at 2am to watch a race from the USA)
edit: what about another local soapie at 6:30 or so. run it against the second half of the other networks “news” broadcasts and i honestly think you’d have a good chance of capturing a good market
I have started a Mock Schedules topic in this forum - one that was previously very popular. A good place to outline schedule ideas.
This thread should just be “Ten woes”.
Poor early morning programming.
Dud sports deals aside from the big bash.
The fact that they will fall in a heap once the big bash finishes.
News department needs resourcing. Lack of news programming. Ten went from the best local news hour a few years ago to what is now a very bare bones bulletin without enough local reporters to cover local news.
No programming that works post 9:30.
Diabolical Saturday night ratings in ratings periods.
Poor selection of filler movies
Multi channels that rate below the main other multi channels.
All in all… Despite the inroads ten made in 2015 with some good programming in the 7:30 hour they still struggle. They have a lot to build on this year. If they continue to do what they did without evolving this year they will find themselves going backwards again.
Well my affection for live LOCAL news at 9.30 is well known, and Ten is the one to own that slot should they wish. They have an expensive news department, might as well exploit it as 5pm isn’t as strong as it once was.