"Dying in front of our eyes": Channel 10 in crisis
Channel 10’s future is in question after this year saw tentpole shows such as MasterChef Australia, The Bachelor, and The Bachelorette all take huge hits to their ratings. In addition, flagship current affairs program The Project has lost almost a third of its audience since 2011. Key shows Studio 10 and 10 News First are also on a downhill trend.
There are now concerns that the ViacomCBS-owned network simply can’t continue like this if the numbers don’t improve. On the TV Blackbox podcast this week, former TV executive Rob McKnight described the beleaguered station as “a network that is dying in front of our eyes”. He added, “I know they're making a play for streaming [but] how low can these ratings go before they can't make revenue? I find it extraordinary. I just do.” He suggested that the channel’s American owners aren’t concerned with ratings.
Channel 10 has rejected these concerns, claiming that some of the figures being publicised in the trade press are misleading, especially considering TV viewership is down across the board. While the channel maintains a decent audience on its streaming platform, 10 Play, it is struggling in the overnight five-city metro ratings, which remain crucial for advertisers.
McKnight elaborated on his concerns, saying, “I always supported the idea that there could be three free-to-air commercial networks. What this is showing me is that that is not the case anymore.
“They're all struggling but 10 seriously is the wounded animal limping and the fact is they keep running the same s**t and recommissioning the same s**t and it's not flying with the public.'
The Project’s decline is one of the most stark: it has lost almost a third of its audience since 2011, with metro ratings falling to just 367,000 this year, compared to 538,000 ten years ago. The national audience, which includes regional viewers, has also seen a similar drop, from 725,000 in 2011 to 490,000 this year. As a result, The Project is now commercial TV’s worst-performing nightly premium program. A spokesperson for 10 said that comparing ratings 10 years apart is “unfair”, pointing out that total TV viewing in the time slot is down a similar amount from 2011, with 7 down 26 per cent.
However, ratings for 10’s other programs have fallen, including Studio 10, which peaked in 2016 and 2017, but has since fallen back to its launch figure of 42,000 metro viewers. 10 News First is also struggling, losing 70 per cent of its audience since 2001, when it recorded metro ratings of 1.07 million, compared to 2021’s figures of 363,000.
Prime time programs are also seeing declines, with the network’s prime time audience down nine per cent overall. MasterChef was down 39 per cent this year compared to 2020, and The Masked Singer was down by 25 per cent in the same period. Meanwhile, The Bachelor’s audience dropped by 29 per cent from 2020, and The Bachelorette is down by more than 30 per cent since its previous season. Fortunately, in The Bachelorette’s case, its streaming numbers are solid.
The station’s only saving grace was Australian Survivor, which has maintained a consistent audience years after year.
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