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Imperfect 10.0% on Saturday

On Saturday night Network TEN sank to an ominous 10.0% network share -the lowest for figure all year.

On Saturday night Network TEN hit a low of 10.0% network share.

TEN managed just 9.3% while ONE was just 0.7%.

Meanwhile Nine won the night with 34.2%, tripling TEN, while Seven had 28.7 and even the ABC doubled the network with 20.7%. It even doubled TEN in primary channels.

The figure was the lowest for TEN all year -even below the weakest night of the Commonwealth Games.

TEN’s top show for the night was TEN News at Five on 520,000 viewers. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer pulled only 330,000 while Miami Vice movie was 302,000.

Meanwhile for the second week in a row Neighbours didn’t make the Weekly Top 100. Thankfully there was better news with Junior MasterChef, Glee, NCIS and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation. But the network is really feeling the lack of an entertainment digital channel. ELEVEN can’t come soon enough.

The figures comes at a time when James Packer is reportedly pushing for change.

New Director Jim Carroll says the network is on track to launch its new bulletins, despite media speculation on Packer’s plans.

“From our point of view the project is going ahead and we are continuing at full steam,” he told The Australian. “As a news division we are getting 100 per cent support from management and we are proceeding on that basis.

“There have been a lot of articles written,” he said. “I don’t know the sources of those articles but I’m sure some of our commercial competitors are stirring the pot as much as they possibly can.”

Source: The Australian

18 Responses

  1. Perhaps if they put some of the shows they are planning to put on eleven and showed them on ten instead of the ad-nausem repeats of existing shows, people might actually tune in….

  2. ONE is by far my favourite channel and for most sports fans it is as well. That is why Packer wants to get rid of it because us sports fans are supposed to be paying for sport according to him, not getting it free.

    Last night’s share was not helped by the fact the F1 race was actually on Monday morning not Sunday night like usual.

  3. The real problem is they have no decent movies to play, and those that they do air, repeat every few months. Now there are digital channels airing movies on Saturday nights as well, Ten should look towards a new direction and do something different on Saturday nights or risk being lost amonst the digital channels in shares.

    You’d expect Eleven to do about the same as 7mate or GO – but a digital channel share of 5 or 6% with a main of less than 10% and ONE at less than 1% is still going to be a bad result.

  4. I rather love OneHD… I actually follow the NFL and having the 3 games live each week has been great. Plus I get the Formula1 live as well… almost my favourite channel at the moment. Yes, I do acknowledge I may be a silent minority 😉

  5. Allie, Neighbours won’t be getting canned any time soon. Its still a huge revenue earner in Europe, which then subsidises the cost of “local drama” content for Ten. Buying it off Grundy is far cheaper than producing something else specific for the Australian market, especially with no guarantees the other would rate as well locally.

    One may be very different proposition when more sports rights become available, which is why Packer wants to close it down and leave no competition for Fox for things it currently has. Imagine if One got an NRL game or two to go with its AFL coverage, English Premier League, Socceroos, Super15, international cricket not in Australia, etc, all currently Fox exclusive (except Socceroos World Cup, and cricket World Cup and Ashes in England). And that’s without necessarily winning anything extra off other FTA networks or the rules regarding difital-only channels changing.

    1. Grundy?

      TEN doesn’t earn any $$ from the UK deals. Freo does. Unless the govt allows for local drama points on digital channels soon there could be a problem. But I agree the show is safe with many years to run on the UK contract.

  6. One is a big part of their overall problem – it’s pointless having a 24 X 7 sport channel if you don’t have any decent sport to put on it. Nine and Seven (even the ABC and SBS) have all the sports that appeal to most Australians, One is left with the low-rating scraps. And keeps simulcasting them in SD!

    Then there’s the problem of how they are going to support two entertainment channels when they currently don’t have enough compelling programming to fill even one…

  7. TEN needs some sporting events on a Saturday night, like in winter with the AFL. Perhaps an NBL game on saturday night? Or some classic movies.. or a variety entertainment show…

  8. See this is not an issue with ONE, their main channel just has nothing for most viewers some nights and Saturday is the worst. Personally I don’t watch any FTA on Saturday nights. Austar, online or DVDs are much better.

    I hope TENs new digital channel can help their fortunes in the new year.

  9. While a 9.3 share for Ten is pretty damn bad, Ten measure success by 18-49 share. So I’d be interested to see that. I suspect it is a little higher.

    But Saturday’s are tough, as the pool of viewers tend to be older. And Ten is the youngest skewing of the big three networks. So people just don’t come to Ten on a Sat.

    You look at what works on Sat nights and it tends to be local news, british fare and family movies.

    Does Ten not have Law & Order: UK?

    Could something like this work in 2011

    6 Ten News (local editions)
    6.30 A lifestyle show – real estate, gardening etc
    7.30 Law & Order: UK
    8.30 Law & Order: SVU
    9.30 Law & Order
    10.30 Ten News

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