market news, page-48

NETWORK Ten is counting on new and returning US dramas and the promising Australian telemovie Underground: The Julian Assange Story to lift it out of its worst ever ratings slump before the end of the year.

Next week the network will launch one new US comedy, Ben and Kate, from Fox and has yet to announce a date for the premiere of the Julian Assange movie.

Two other new US series The New Normal and Vegas will be fast-tacked and Ten also has new seasons of Merlin and Jamie's 15 Minute Meals.

But fast-tracking is risky because most of the new US programs are untested, and many fail.

Also in its armory for the ratings fightback are nine popular returning US shows, all of which will be fast tracked: Homeland, Modern Family, Glee, NCIS, Hawaii Five-O, NCIS: Los Angeles, New Girl, The Good Wife and Law & Order: SVU.

This week the network is expected to release a promotional reel designed to turn around negative attitudes towards the network, with the catchline "Fun, fantasy and food'' and "Take a fresh look''.


It follows another disastrous week which saw the network finish behind the ABC, with a total people share of 16.1 per cent to the ABC's 18.0 per cent. Seven was on 33.4 per cent and Nine 27.2 per cent. SBS was on 5.5 per cent.

Ten was also forced to halve another new show's time on air from two to just one episode a week.

I Will Survive, hosted by former Seven star Hugh Sheridan and produced by FremantleMedia Australia, slumped to just 281,00 viewers on Wednesday night, finishing behind 7TWO and SBS. The next day Ten slashed it to just just one night a week.

It was the same fate dished out to Sarah Murdoch's Everybody Dance Now last month, when the number of episodes were cut before it was cancelled completely. I Will Survive has been replaced by the US sitcom Last Man Standing.

The week also saw Ten appoint a new network head of publicity, former ONE publicist Catherine Donovan, following the departure of Jo'an Papadopoulos last month.

Ten CEO James Warburton is also preparing for the 2013 Upfronts, in which new shows are unveiled to advertisers, expected to be held next month, after what has been an extremely challenging first nine months in the job.

Mr Warburton restructured his management team after arriving in January, but has already lost one of his own appointees, sales chief Mike Morrison, after just a few months.

The departure of Papadopoulos came a week after the resignation of chief programmer David Mott after 16 years.

Mott was undermined by the restructure and the appointment of television researcher David Castran to work on testing programs he commissioned.

Sources say Castran was "on equal footing'' with Mott and the two personalities clashed.

"Ten is now trying to create programs based on research, whereas research is really to tell you what's working and what isn't after the programs have actually gone to air,'' one independent producer told Media. "Very strange strategy.''