overview

landmarks

     overview

This profile considers the Australian TEN television broadcasting network.

Background information is available through the Australian Networks profile and CanWest profile.

     the current network

The Ten Group Pty Ltd (TEN) owns and operates the network's five capital city television stations in the metropolitan markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

TEN Sydney is the network headquarters and provides the program feed into each of those stations, with some local programming and commercials inserted locally.

As noted in the profile on the Asper-controlled CanWest Global newspaper and broadcasting group - which holds around 56% of the equity in TEN - it also owns Eye Corp Ltd, an Australian "out-of-home advertising" company.

TEN has an affiliate broadcasting agreement with Southern Cross Broadcasting (SBC).

Southern Cross broadcasts as TEN Capital to viewers in Canberra, Wollongong, Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst and Wagga. As TEN Victoria it broadcasts to regional Victoria from its base in Bendigo. Southern Cross Television Tasmania broadcasts across Tasmania (a two-station commercial market) with some TEN programming. Southern Cross broadcasts in Queensland from its station in Townsville, with programming to stations in Cairns, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast. In Northern New South Wales it broadcasts TEN programmes from its station in Coffs Harbour, with a feed to stations at Tamworth, Lismore, Taree, Port Macquarie, Newcastle and on the Gold Coast.

     history

The network dates from Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of the 10 Sydney station and subsequently the 10 Melbourne station as part of his unsuccessful 1979 bid for the Herald & Weekly Times (H&WT) media group. Although that bid failed, Murdoch gained 50% of transport and broadcasting group Ansett, delivering control of the Melbourne station.

Murdoch became a US citizen in 1985, resulting in disposal of the flagship stations to Northern Star, an offshoot of Westfield Capital and thus under the control of Westfield property magnate Frank Lowy.

During 1987 Murdoch's renewed bid for H&WT was successful, requiring the disposal of HSV-7 station. That was sold to Fairfax (which subsequently sold it to Skase's Qintex).

Northern Star - rebadged as TEN - arguably paid too much and was burnt by the 1987 crash. In 1989 Westfield exited from broadcasting through sale of the stations to companies led by Steve Cosser and Charles Curran.

The receivers were in control of the flagship stations in 1990, with the network being sold to Asper's CanWest in 1992 through a complicated mechanism that gave the Canadians over 50% of the equity without formal management control.

CanWest and the Aspers also took a substantial stake in affiliate Southern Cross.

A chronology of the Ten stations from the 1960s onwards is here.






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