While live-streaming has been a focus of some of the other TV networks, Ten CEO Paul Anderson has said it will be “smart and selective” when it comes to offering its television content live online.
Speaking on an investor call to the market this morning (Monday 26 October), Anderson, who took up the reigns as CEO in July, said Tenplay has had the capability to live-stream several of its shows, including Ten Eyewitness News, The Project and Family Feud for some time.
Despite seeing strong growth online with Tenplay, he indicated that Ten won't be rushing in to deliver all of its content live online.
“We continue to be smart and selective about what content we live-stream, taking into account demand and the cost of providing this service,” Anderson said.
Ten also said it's eyeing a bigger audience share with new sales representative, Multi Channel Network (MCN), tasked with bolstering its revenue share to match audience.
Anderson said the company arrangement with MCN, which started on 1 September, had already borne fruit in terms of Ten's share of the advertising market.
However, Anderson confirmed that getting Ten's revenue to reach 100% parity with its audience share was the aim of the partnership deal.
“Clearly that is the target,” Anderson said. “Over the past four months our share has increased markedly across every one of those four months. We've been operating with them since September and we couldn’t be happier with the way that the transition has gone ... so we have confidence they'll be able to do it.
“Our job is to deliver the audience and we're doing that. We've seen some encouraging signs in terms of both delivery of share over the past few months and conversations we're having with advertisers and agencies for our coming fiscal year.”
Anderson said while discussions with agencies have been positive it needs to be underpinned by audience performance. He pointed to results showing that Ten has increased in all key audience groups across the ratings survey year to date, including 9% in total people, 9% in the 25-54 age demographic and 8% in the under-55s' age demographic.
Its audience share is the highest recorded for the network since 2011.
In order to boost those audiences, Anderson said that all of Ten's newly introduced series for 2015 – I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, Shark Tank, Gogglebox, The Great Australian Spelling Bee and The Bachelorette – have been renewed for 2016.
In addition, Anderson pointed to a number of returning hits for 2016 and new shows to be unveiled at its upfront event in November.
Sport is also a focus for the network in terms of content, with Anderson noting the KFC Big Bash league starting on 17 December, with 35 out of 39 matches being aired, in prime time. Other sporting events include the Rugby Union and V8 Supercars.
Despite rumours of Ten having access to AFL games through its arrangement with Foxtel, Anderson ruled it out as an option.
“In terms of AFL, we have had no discussion around them,” he said.
“We're open to having discussions on any sports rights but clearly what we want are sports rights that give us a franchise.
“A game just by itself is more problematic than having a franchise that gives you finals and the opportunity to cross-sell and integrate across the whole year.”
Ten released its full year financial results today.
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