Ten has opened new advertising opportunities with the addition of the football, fresh formats and the launch of parent company ViacomCBS’ Paramount+, says chief sales officer Rod Prosser.
He told AdNews the network has improved its revenue figures since last year, when the market was hit hard by the pandemic, recording some of its best revenue share results in a decade.
“I am hugely proud of our dynamic sales team who have been instrumental in growing our revenue share 18 of the last 19 months,” Prosser says.
“This growth includes our biggest revenue share on record in April, and an incredibly strong performance in March. I’m A Celebrity Australia delivered a huge uplift in revenue in January with more sponsors coming on board than ever before, which led to the largest share for the month since 2018.
“We are very pleased with how the second half is shaping up and I'm confident we will continue the strong performance of the first half of this year.”
The lockdown in Greater Sydney, now in its sixth week, has had a limited impact on the market when compared to last year, with some brands spending more on TV as it attracts more viewers stuck at home.
“It's [lockdown] has created a lot of churn,” Prosser says. “We're seeing a lot of advertisers shifting their schedules around. We’ve also seen a lot of advertisers moving money into television on the basis that there's other mediums that don't necessarily make sense when you're in a lockdown.
“It’s live, we're watching it very closely but we haven't been overly impacted and I would suggest more broadly television hasn't either. I think that's purely because the more people at home, the more television is being watched so it’s held up.”
Tent-pole shows have wrapped up at Ten such as MasterChef Australia which attracted 824,000 metro viewers for the finale, reaching 930,000 metro viewers for the winner announcement segment. Meanwhile, the current season of The Bachelor has received lucklastre audiences with 482,000 metro viewers tuning in for the launch episode.
However, Prosser is confident that upcoming shows will offer something new to viewers, and in turn advertisers, including its DIY show Making It, hosted by Harley Breen and Susie Youssef, as well as The Bachelorette which features its first Indigenous and bisexual star Brooke Blurton.
“What we're seeing from the first cuts of Making It is that it’s really something quite different this market hasn't seen yet,” Prosser says. “The fact that we're bringing new content and a new product to the market is really exciting.
“This season of The Bachelorette is quite different to the previous seasons with Brooke Blurton bringing something very different to the show and there’s going to be both guys and girls in this season which makes for quite an interesting take.
“We've had a really nice response from advertisers purely because of that diversity this year.”
Ten recently secured a deal with the Australian Professional League to broadcast the A-League and W-League matches. The network also signed a deal with Football Australia to broadcast national team matches which kick off from September.
The football will air across 10 and its multi-channels, as well as Paramount+ which launches August 11 in Australia.
“What’s really interesting for us and where we see great opportunities is when you look at the clubs themselves. They all have a long list of brands and partners from all different categories,” Prosser says.
“When we looked at that original list, that's where we saw such a huge opportunity. We’re having some dialogue with retail, FMCG, finance, and auto. You'll see a really strong mix of categories.”
![James Johnson (FA), Beverley McGarvey (10), Jarrod Villani (10), Sarah Walsh (FA).[54619]](http://res.cloudinary.com/yaffa-publishing/image/fetch/q_auto:best,c_fit,w_630,f_auto/http%3A%2F%2Fyaffa%2Dcdn%2Es3%2Eamazonaws%2Ecom%2Fadnews%2Flive%2Fimages%2FdmImage%2FSourceImage%2Fjames%2Djohnson%2Dfa%2Dbeverley%2Dmcgarvey%2D10%2Djarrod%2Dvillani%2D10%2Dsarah%2Dwalsh%2Dfa%2E546191%2Ejpg)
L-R: James Johnson (FA), Beverley McGarvey (10), Jarrod Villani (10), Sarah Walsh (FA)
The addition of an ad-free Paramount+ means brands will also be able to advertise within the football to reach viewers in a more premium environment.
“That’s a really strong proposition for a number of reasons,” Prosser says.
“It gives the advertisers a unique audience they may not normally be able to connect with. It also gives them a high share of voice because there's less ads and commercial messages.
“It also will be done in a way that’s respectful of the subscriber. From the research we’ve done, sports viewers are conditioned to see ads and in a lot of parts enjoy the ads within sports, so we will make sure it’s seamless.”
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