Report: "Uncertain future" after "ratings disaster"

[Gayspie]

The Bachelor(s) has been on borrowed time a few years whilst Masked Singer is just too costly.

10 on Masked Singer, Bachelor axe: “To be honest, we just need to walk away sometimes" | TV Tonight

"No ratings, no revenue, means no show," says programming exec.

tvtonight.com.au

Seems a second Survivor season will partly fill the gap next year so they will invest in content that pays, but like with most the industry nowadays its an extension of a franchise known to work.

Bringing this back on topic sadly after what Seven did Big Brother is probably considered by the industry in Australia to be a franchise that doesn't work now, although it's potential high volume of content would work in it's favour.

why is Masked Singer so expensive?

 

[Tim]

Article from Yahoo today says that BBAU has not been renewed:

EXCLUSIVE: 34 axed Aussie shows revealed as future of free-to-air TV 'uncertain'

34 shows across Seven, Nine and Ten have been axed, put on an indefinite hiatus, or removed from schedules over the past five years. Read more.

au.lifestyle.yahoo.com

The article also goes into some detail about people leaving the TV industry because there's so little work in Australia.

Youtube, Tiktok and streaming all factor into it but I still think the executives at 7, 9, 10 deserve some hefty blame for the sorry state of FTA in Australia.

TV was fairly experimental in the early 2000s, but from the 2010s everything became increasingly lazy and conservative and it all began circling the drain. Some of the problems:

• Trying too hard to be family friendly but then getting confused about the audience (Big Brother Channel 9 era)
• New formats were always too safe and boring as shit (Sonia Kruger mini golf show... honestly what the fuck)
• New formats were mostly duplications of the US version with much lower production quality.
• Same group of hosts from the 2000s always on rotation, even though they've become much too old for a young audience (Sonia Kruger, Osher Gunsburg, Hamish Blake)
• Whenever a "legacy" format was rebooted, every decision possible was made to destroy the franchise to be "safer" (Big Brother Channel 7 era).
• All the people who are good at coming up with ideas have likely left Australia for careers in the US and UK.

I watch FTA when I visit my parents and I always think "wow, they have just given up completely on any audience that isn't a retired boomer couple or a family with kids who have no energy to scroll streaming"

RIP FTA. You brought this on yourself.

 

[Brekkie]

The lack of scripted content is particularly noteable - yes drama has got way more expensive in recent years but elsewhere FTA channels have pivotted their strategies to continue to produce it - generally less hours but of a higher quality.

Anyone recall when the last year the three commercial networks had a more traditional schedule with different programmes each night rather than one multi-night franchise changing every few weeks? Even Big Brother on 10 largely left them able to schedule freely from 7.30pm, though of course more and more 7.30 shows were added in the latter years.

 

[timmy]

Obviously Ten started stripping shows with BB in 2001. Nine didn't start stripping until 2011 with The Block* (although prior to that they'd been running Two and a Half Men, at 7pm Monday to Friday. The popularity of that show on Nine never made sense to me).

I can't remember what Seven started stripping with. My Restaurant Rules, maybe? (edit: no, that was only Mondays and Thursdays)

* https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/stripped-showntell-20111130-1o5mj.html

 

[Tim]

Obviously Ten started stripping shows with BB in 2001. Nine didn't start stripping until 2011 with The Block* (although prior to that they'd been running Two and a Half Men, at 7pm Monday to Friday. The popularity of that show on Nine never made sense to me).

I can't remember what Seven started stripping with. My Restaurant Rules, maybe? (edit: no, that was only Mondays and Thursdays)

* https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/stripped-showntell-20111130-1o5mj.html

lol this article from 13 years ago promoting Sonia Kruger and Hamish and Andy as hosts of shows.
For real... Aus FTA cannibalised itself so bad.

 

[Gayspie]

Article from Yahoo today says that BBAU has not been renewed:

EXCLUSIVE: 34 axed Aussie shows revealed as future of free-to-air TV 'uncertain'

34 shows across Seven, Nine and Ten have been axed, put on an indefinite hiatus, or removed from schedules over the past five years. Read more.

au.lifestyle.yahoo.com

The article also goes into some detail about people leaving the TV industry because there's so little work in Australia.

Youtube, Tiktok and streaming all factor into it but I still think the executives at 7, 9, 10 deserve some hefty blame for the sorry state of FTA in Australia.

TV was fairly experimental in the early 2000s, but from the 2010s everything became increasingly lazy and conservative and it all began circling the drain. Some of the problems:

• Trying too hard to be family friendly but then getting confused about the audience (Big Brother Channel 9 era)
• New formats were always too safe and boring as shit (Sonia Kruger mini golf show... honestly what the fuck)
• New formats were mostly duplications of the US version with much lower production quality.
• Same group of hosts from the 2000s always on rotation, even though they've become much too old for a young audience (Sonia Kruger, Osher Gunsburg, Hamish Blake)
• Whenever a "legacy" format was rebooted, every decision possible was made to destroy the franchise to be "safer" (Big Brother Channel 7 era).
• All the people who are good at coming up with ideas have likely left Australia for careers in the US and UK.

I watch FTA when I visit my parents and I always think "wow, they have just given up completely on any audience that isn't a retired boomer couple or a family with kids who have no energy to scroll streaming"

RIP FTA. You brought this on yourself.

government policy settings, which were well intended but had negative consequences, hastened the decline of free tv in Australia too.

 

[timmy]

government policy settings, which were well intended but had negative consequences

...specifically?

 

[beardymac]

I think he's referring to the Aussie content quotas that were intended to prop the Australian TV industry up but just led to mass amounts of cheap reality tv with tonnes of cut corners.

 

[Kingston]

Wouldn’t be surprised if Paramount’s new owners cut Ten loose.

Paramount Agrees to Skydance Deal, Ending Redstone Era

(Bloomberg) -- Paramount Global agreed to merge with Skydance Media in a deal that hands control of the storied Hollywood studio to producer David Ellison, ending one of the industry’s most dramatic acquisitions.Most Read from BloombergMicrosoft Orders China Staff to Use iPhones for Work and...

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Gayspie]

I think he's referring to the Aussie content quotas that were intended to prop the Australian TV industry up but just led to mass amounts of cheap reality tv with tonnes of cut corners.

not to mention the additional genre-specific content quotas (children's, drama, etc.) which were well-intended but ended up with decades of home and away episodes featuring rinse and repeat storylines and cheesy children's programs that in some cases were literally watched by next to no one.

 

[timmy]

Here's what Media Watch had to say on the state of FTA last week:

Ep 22 - Free-to-air ‘death spiral - Media Watch

Free-to-air television cuts hundreds of jobs following a double digit decline in advertising revenue, the end of Meta funding and the ongoing decline in viewers. Can commercial TV survive the changing times?

www.abc.net.au

 

[Gayspie]

Here's what Media Watch had to say on the state of FTA last week:

Ep 22 - Free-to-air ‘death spiral - Media Watch

Free-to-air television cuts hundreds of jobs following a double digit decline in advertising revenue, the end of Meta funding and the ongoing decline in viewers. Can commercial TV survive the changing times?

www.abc.net.au

I think there is still a place for television in the world, however major reforms will need to be made for the medium to survive.

 

[Kingston]

I think there is still a place for television in the world, however major reforms will need to be made for the medium to survive.

Traditional broadcast television would be essentially dead at this point if there weren’t still huge gaps in infrastructure.

Another issue holding things back are the obvious losses and/or consolidation that are going to happen as a result of the transition.

 

[Brekkie]

To be honest people have been saying traditional TV is about to die for 25 odd years now. Obviously streaming is very much part of it's future but if anything it's already peaked and ultimately it's content that is king. We've already seen Netflix switch from providing the sort of high end dramas that were lacking on TV which bought viewers to them to churning out the cheaper documentaries and reality shows that had already pushed drama out on broadcast.

Now in terms of Big Brother streamers moving towards more reality content might create some interest in it, but it's a format where the audience is largely watching at first broadcast so they have to make it pay then. There probably would be value in the archive - I've certainly found myself using streaming much more for archive content in the last year than new programming - but outside the North American format the high episode count is possibly more of a burden than an asset into realising the shows value.

 

[kamui]

but outside the North American format the high episode count is possibly more of a burden than an asset into realising the shows value.

They've once tried to unlock some value with the Big Brother Universe Youtube channel but I think it was only Bigg Boss content that took off. Which I don't think was very surprising. The way the channel was operated lacked enthusiasm, it was just clips and probably nothing that resonated with people. It was missing the context way too often, e.g. why watch a screaming contest when you don't know people anyways.

I know Portugal has re-aired the first civilian and celebrity season on their TVI Reality channel before they've rebooted their civilian series.

EndemolShine in Germany has started to upload episodes from the very first season. Weirdly enough while the rebooted civilian series was on, which could also explain the low viewing numbers. But they went to the effort and blurred out private parts that were visible during the original broadcast. I would assume that they'll eventually upload the second season there, too. They've recently launched a Big Brother Classics FAST-style channel on one of the streaming platforms that features the first two seasons.

 

[Gayspie]

To be honest people have been saying traditional TV is about to die for 25 odd years now. Obviously streaming is very much part of it's future but if anything it's already peaked and ultimately it's content that is king. We've already seen Netflix switch from providing the sort of high end dramas that were lacking on TV which bought viewers to them to churning out the cheaper documentaries and reality shows that had already pushed drama out on broadcast.

To be fair the 1980s really were the peak of the Australian TV industry, the technology had matured, but the internet did not exist yet.

 

[Brekkie]

It does feel like that when history records the recent "golden age of TV" there will need to be an asterix saying *except Australia.

In terms of scripted content whilst most traditional broadcasters in the UK and Europe especially, but elsewhere too, were also delivering high quality content, even if in lesser volumes than previously, the Aussie FTAs were asking themselves how many episodes of The Block is too many and commissioning Blow Up and Ultimate Tag.

 

[Gayspie]

It does feel like that when history records the recent "golden age of TV".

The 1980s was when both relative ratings and advertising revenue were at their greatest for the Australian television industry.

 

[Isee]

To be fair the 1980s really were the peak of the Australian TV industry, the technology had matured, but the internet did not exist yet.

The eighties and nineties and even early 2000's showed that Australia could do great scripted TV especially dramas like Blue Heelers, Flying doctors, Packed to the Rafters, Winners and Losers etc. But all channels went hard in on Reality TV and left the dramas behind. I am surprised that Australia has the talented Actors it does known in Hollywood with the lack of options to become known in Australia first. Home and Away is really about it now.

 

[timmy]

The eighties and nineties and even early 2000's showed that Australia could do great scripted TV especially dramas like Blue Heelers, Flying doctors, Packed to the Rafters, Winners and Losers etc. But all channels went hard in on Reality TV and left the dramas behind. I am surprised that Australia has the talented Actors it does known in Hollywood with the lack of options to become known in Australia first. Home and Away is really about it now.

Once the commercial networks started stripping reality it was all downhill from there. Big Brother kicked it off, but at least the main daily eps were only 30 minutes. Those were the days.

The US was producing huge hits in the early 2000s: Lost, Heroes, Desperate Housewives, Six Feet Under, Dexter, Weeds, House... lots of shows to get hooked on. People had better options than Aus produced dramas.