From Spyreport 21/10/11The Ten Network has fired its first 2012...

From Spyreport 21/10/11

The Ten Network has fired its first 2012 salvo by boldly declaring that it will beat the Nine Network in both ratings and revenue next year.

Ten's acting chief executive Lachlan Murdoch has told AdNews that Nine will struggle to contend with its lineup.

"From 7:00pm, which is after the news hour, we out-perform Nine across every single demographic and that is not well understood in the market today," he said.

Murdoch says he resisted the temptation to bring key 2012 programmes to the market early, with Ten struggling with sagging ratings and the axing this week of 6.30 with George Negus - its much-publicised foray into serious news journalism.

Ten will introduce a new programme in the mornings from January to battle heavyweights Sunrise and Today.

"Since The Renovators has come off, our ratings have bounced back very strongly. We have never spent as much money as we will next year on new programming across all of primetime, but also very significantly breakfast. Breakfast for us has been cartoons. We effectively have three new hours of television we've never had before."

Murdoch also believes with Nine waiting to launch its 2012 programming lineup in late November, it will be too late for the market and ad-spend will have been distributed elsewhere across Seven and Ten