Network Ten CEO Hamish McLennan is confident that the love will come back from advertisers, it's just taking time to work through the ratings flops from early this year and an internal reset.
Speaking to analysts after presenting its full-year results to the market, several analysts questioned why Ten had not been able to reconcile an audience share of about 23% with a revenue share languishing at 18 to 19%.
Ten said its share of the free-to-air ratings was 22.8% while ad revenue share was 20.5% for the year to the end of August.
McLennan put it down to the well-publicised flops such as The Biggest Loser, which aired early in the year.
"Those shows really failed to deliver and we can't hide from that," McLennan said.
He said advertisers had lost some faith with Ten, and said he hoped to win them back with offerings of an Australian version of "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" and "Shark Tank" following on from another Big Bash League season.
Meanwhile, he said advertisers and buyers had yet to fully digest the increased performance of the network since an internal re-structure in July.
"If you think about it, our internal May reset....The new re-structure was only completed in July and then it takes a few months...to get that established and then you get the confidence of media buyers," McLennan said.
"I do believe we deserve more, believe you me, but I think while we got the results from May onwards but it just takes time."
He also mentioned that The Bachelor had been "an absolute bloody hit this year" and pointed to increased ratings for MasterChef, something which he said he was proud of.
"So when we go to the market and we say we're going to lauch I'm a Celebrity and Shark Tank, I think they will look at it with greater confidence and say 'well, you can launch a show'."
MEC's Sydney Trading Director Claire Butterworth told AdNews yesterday that buyers had taken note of Ten's recovery.
"It's pleasing to see Channel Ten has had a far better year than they did last year, it's made the market a bit more stable which is really important," Butterworth said.
"It's very important that we have three strong networks, so it's great that Ten has been able to deliver some solid audience results in 2014.
"When you have the majority of revenue going into those two networks, then availability becomes really difficult. If you stick with the network that's not delivering, it creates more pressure for both network and agency to deliver what you've agreed to because the audience isn't there.
Earlier today Network Ten posted an earnings loss before tax of $79.3 million for the 12 months to the end of August, with a total loss of $168.3 attributable to members.
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