Network Ten

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Network Ten

Type	Broadcast television network
Country	Australia
Availability	Metropolitan Australia
Founded	1965 as Independent Television Network
Owner	CanWest Global Communications
Launch date	1965 as Independent Television Network Later changed to 0-10 Network 1980 as Network Ten
Callsigns	TEN-10 (Sydney) ATV-10 (Melbourne) TVQ-10 (Brisbane) ADS-10 (Adelaide) NEW-10 (Perth)
Website	www.ten.com.au

This article is about the Australian television network. For the channel article, see Channel Ten.

Network Ten is one of Australia's three metropolitan commercial television networks.

1 History
2 Ownership
3 Free-to-air channels
- 3.1 Stations
  - 3.1.1 Callsigns
- 3.2 Affiliates
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Network Ten is one of the three Australian metropolitan commercial TV networks, and it was the last to be formed.

From the introduction of TV in Australia in 1956 until 1965 there were only two commercial networks in Australia — the Nine Network and the Seven Network — but in the early 1960s, the federal government began canvassing the idea of licencing a third commercial station in each city. This decision was seen by some commentators as a way for the government to defuse growing public dissatisfaction with the dominance of imported overseas programming and the paucity of local content.

Structurally, the Australian TV industry was closely modelled on the two-tiered system that had been in place in Australian radio since the late 1930s. One tier consisted of the network of publicly-funded TV stations run by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, which was funded by government budget allocation and (until 1972) by fees from TV viewer licences. The second tier consisted of the commercial networks and independent stations owned by private operators, whose income came from selling advertising time.

Founded in 1965, the new TV network was initially dubbed the "Independent Television Network" or ITN, but it quickly adopted the title The 0-10 Network which reflected the names of the first two stations in the group. In the early 1990s Ten also referred to itself by the acronym "The Entertainment Network" in network promotions.

Channel 0 in Melbourne, which opened on August 1, 1964, was majority-owned by the Ansett transport and media group, which at the time owned one of Australia's two internal airlines. Channel 10 in Sydney, which opened on April 5, 1965, was originally owned by United Telecasters Sydney Ltd (UTSL).

Over the next few years more stations opened in other capitals and regional centres, and gradually these new stations affiliated with the 0-10 Network. But Nine and Seven were already well entrenched, and for its first five years 0-10 led a hand-to-mouth existence. By the beginning of the 1970s the network was in a precarious financial position and there were predictions that it would fail.

Its salvation came thanks to the adult soap opera serial Number 96, which premiered in March 1972. The series broke new ground for Australian TV and captured the imagination of viewers like few programs before or since. For the next three years it was consistently Australia's top-rating TV program and, not surprisingly, its huge popularity attracted advertisers to TEN en masse, with the result that its revenue exploded from just $1 million in 1971 to more than $10 million in 1972.

However, the pattern of ratings dominance was already set, and since the mid-1960s there has been little deviation from the prevalent rankings, with Nine typically in first place, Seven second, Ten third and the ABC a distant fourth.

The gradual evolution of Network Ten into its current form has its origins in the ongoing attempts by media mogul Rupert Murdoch to acquire a prized commercial TV licence in Australia's largest capital city market, Sydney. This began when Murdoch's News Ltd purchased the Wollongong station WIN Television in the early 1960s, around the same time he bought Festival Records. In 1977, frustrated by regulatory blocks that prevented him from expanding into the Sydney market, Murdoch sold WIN and purchased a 46% share in Channel 10 Sydney.

In 1979 Murdoch made an unsuccessful takeover bid for the Melbourne-based Herald & Weekly Times media group. Although the H&WT bid failed, he gained a 50% stake in Ansett, which thus gave him control of Channel 0 in Melbourne. When Murdoch became a US citizen in 1985 so that he could expand his media empire there, Australia's media ownership laws obliged him to dispose of the flagship TV stations, which were sold to Northern Star, an offshoot of the Westfield conglomerate controlled by property tycoon Frank Lowy.

On 20 January 1980, the 0-10 Network became known as Network Ten to reflect ATV-0's transition to ATV-10 -- although the Brisbane station continued to broadcast as TVQ-0 until 10 September 1988. On December 27, 1987, Adelaide's SAS-10 gave ADS-7 the hands of the Ten Network (as ADS-10).

Northern Star was badly hit by the stock market crash of 1987, having overcapitalised on the TEN acquisition, and in 1989 Westfield sold TEN to a consortium led by Charles Curran and former TV journalist Steve Cosser.

On 23 July 1989, ratings were at an all-time-low. Ten then brought in American program executive Bob Shanks who revamped it as the Game Show Network and gave it a new slogan 10 TV Australia. By the end of 1989, ratings hadn't improved, and most of the new shows had been cancelled.

In 1990, both Network Ten and the Seven Network filed for receivership. In 1992 TEN's flagship stations were sold to the Canadian-based CanWest media group, which currently holds a 56% stake in the network. Ten also has an affiliate broadcasting agreement with Southern Cross Broadcasting (SBC), which owns numerous regional stations in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, and in which CanWest also has a considerable stake.

TEN was nearly folded into the Seven Network in the early 1990s, but due to the lobbying power of billionaire Kerry Packer, owner of the Nine Network, this was successfully resisted.

In 2005, it was revealed CanWest was in discussions with newspaper publisher John Fairfax Holdings about a possible sale of the network, after the federal government had indicated it may consider relaxing Australia's media cross-ownership laws. Currently, newspaper owners cannot own television stations in the same city. Fairfax owned the Seven Network until the mid 1980s, and has been looking for a way back into television for a long time.

Ten is Australia's most profitable station, thanks to tight spending habits and wise product investments, most notably the Australian Idol and Big Brother franchises and the heavily-repeated The Simpsons, which have proved to be ratings bonanzas. Its main focus is on viewers aged 16-39 and for the last four ratings years has won this demographic, in spite of being the lowest rating of the 3 commercial Australian television stations overall.

Ten has headquarters in the Sydney suburb of Pyrmont, which is where all national news programming and the network feeds are broadcast from.

On 21 August 2005, the network celebrated its 40th birthday with a two-hour highlights package called Ten: Seriously 40 hosted by Bert Newton and Rove McManus.

The station is coming under increasing criticism for the poor treatment given to motorsport, with some events being delayed by times ranging from half an hour to several hours, up to and possibly over 6 hours.

Coincidentally, the station (with the Seven Network) paid a record $780 Million^{(AUD) ^[1]} for the rights to the highly watched AFL. Some media commentators, however, believe the figure may be overpriced given the fact that 10 and 7 are struggling to onsell games to Pay TV provider Foxtel.

[edit] Ownership

Network Ten is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: TEN). Its largest shareholder at 56.4% is Canada's CanWest Global Communications which is at the beginning of 2007 is attemting to sell its shares. CanWest has a 14.4% voting interest.

[edit] Free-to-air channels

Channel Ten

The Network's primary channel, broadcasting mainstream comedy, drama, news, films, sport, and reality television programmes. Channel Ten is the home of Ten News, currently shown 6.00, 11.00 and 5.00 during the week. The channel is available free-to-air, via satellite and via cable, in analogue, standard-definition and high-definition.

Ten Guide

An electronic program guide channel provided by the Network Ten. The channel is available in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. The eletronic program guide is only available via free-to-air digital television.

[edit] Stations

[edit] Callsigns

Callsigns for Network Ten stations in the capital cities:

TEN-10, Sydney
ATV-10, Melbourne (originally ATV-0)
TVQ-10, Brisbane (originally TVQ-0)
ADS-10, Adelaide (originally ADS-7, transferred frequency and network affiliation to Ten in 1987)
NEW-10, Perth (commenced transmission in 1988)