Channel Ten has gone into voluntary administration mere days after two billionaire shareholders backed out of guaranteeing more loans for the free-to-air network.
If you’re a fan of popular Channel Ten shows like Neighbours, Survivor Australia, The Project, Masterchef, Offspring , The Bachelor and The Simpsons, you’re probably wondering where this leaves viewers. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is voluntary administration?
Voluntary administration is when an external administrator is called into a company that is experiencing cash flow issues and having serious trouble with paying off its debts. The administrator will then look at the company’s assets and assess the business to determine the best course of action. The administration process usually takes around a month.
Why is this happening?
Earlier in the week, Channel Ten informed the ASX that two key shareholders – Illyria Pty Limited and Birketu Pty Limited – would not be extending or increasing their support to the network. This follows the company posting a loss of $232.19 million in April.
The network’s current credit facility of $200 million with the Commonwealth Bank expires on December 23. The company was seeking to replace this with a new $250 million loan, but Illyria and Birketu declined to renew their guarantees.
The loss of these guarantees essentially left Ten with no choice but to appoint KordaMentha as administrators. KordaMentha will now attempt to secure new financing and will also explore a potential sale of the network.
Does this mean Channel Ten is going out of business?
No. All your favourite Channel Ten shows are safe. (For now.)
The aim of this whole process is to give companies some breathing room to restructure and recover without having to deal with debt collectors knocking on the door. While the administrators do their thing, Channel Ten expects programming to run as normal.
“During this period, the Administrators intend to continue operations as much as possible on a business as usual basis,” the network said in a statement.
According to a B&T editorial , being forced into the hands of receivers could even work in the network’s favour. If nothing else, it would give Ten an opportunity to rid itself of costly broadcasting contracts with CBS and 20th Century Fox.
These contracts – for lacklustre shows like Madam Secretary, NCIS and Homeland – are worth a reported $150 million a year. (The aforementioned B&T op ed is well worth a read – it predicts that News Corp might step in and acquire the network. You can find it at the link above.)
Even if the above is true, voluntary administration obviously isn’t a sign of a healthy business – the move effectively puts Network Ten on life support. We’ll be updating the story as it progresses.
Comments
15 responses to “Channel Ten Has Gone Into Administration: How Does This Affect Viewers?”
Will FTA ever die? One can hope.
No… the restructure or subsequent liquidation of Channel Ten will release all their productions to the highest bidder. So either the other channels or paytv.
The question is who is going to re-run the Simpsons?
Why, so we can all bow down and bend over for Rupert Murdoch & Foxtel? No thanks. Free to air TV has its place. I don’t watch a lot of it any more, mostly because i’m working when I would otherwise watch it. But it really needs to take a good long look at itself and invest in quality programming, not this “reality” shit, or boring American crime dramas etc. ABC & SBS seem to have mostly decent programming (well imo they do) like SBS is airing the new series of Fargo. There’s also other quality programmes that have been established for a long time, like Landline & Gardening Australia. Channel 10 doesn’t have anything with substance, there’s what The Project & Masterchef.
Also motorsport (channel 10 exclusive) & sport in general is still for the most part shown on free to air, which attracts a lot of viewers. I don’t see why it should die off, since that will only put everything that we currently watch for free (well the products we buy fund it, but that’s not really relevant here) will only be put behind a pay wall & since it will most likely be the only way to watch those things you watch, and we will probably see the subscriber fees jump in price significantly for those services, because squirrel grip.
Should have said commercial FTA. ABC and SBS have some good stuff but not really anything that grabs my attention past a look at The Checkout now and then. We removed our aerial awhile ago and haven’t looked back. iView can take care of any ABC that I care for. Netflix, Google and good old physical media on occasion at our place.
get the message FTA tv and enough with the shitty reality tv shows.
no one wants to watch a bunch of b-grade celebrity wannabees trying to get famous.
how bout hire some talented writers and actors and make some good shows?
this this this!!
they dug their own grave, now they should lie down in it
The reasons we have reality TV in the first place are that it’s cheaper to produce and enough people are (were?) watching it. But, as with anything, cutting costs can only get you so far if your revenues keep decreasing, which is when we get to this kind of situation.
I’m hoping Channel Ten can use this as an opportunity to restructure, and reinvent themselves as a 21st century media company, and I’ll be keen to see how they handle this.
Bring back Water Rats!
Nah. Bring back Ridgy Didge
Water Rats was a Channel 9 / NBN show.
Now I’m no expert on the matter, but this is definitely because they cancelled the incredible Good News Week. In all honesty that show was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on FTA.
Master Chef, The Voice, House Rules…basically all the cheap-to-make ‘reality’ shows all consistently rate remarkably (and puzzlingly) high.
Where does Channel 10 go from here? I can’t even picture what a successful Channel 10 would look like.
Is Free-to-air television the next endangered species? The new print media?
Madam Secretary lacklustre? You’re kidding aren’t you?
Perhaps it’s got more to do with the ‘right show, wrong network’ philosophy than anything else.
IMHO, it’s the best show on FTA by a country mile!
I was referring more to ratings. None of the aforementioned shows are huge hits, which is what Ten’s advertisers want.
TV stations are similar to shops, if they don’t have what people want they will fail.