Network 10
Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's UK & Australia division. One of five national free-to-air networks, 10's owned-and-operated stations can be found in the state capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth while affiliates extend the network to regional areas of the country.
"Independent Television System" and "10 TV Australia" redirect here. For other uses, see Independent Television, 10 TV, and ITS.Type
- Southern Cross 10 (QLD/Southern NSW/ACT/VIC/Broken Hill/Spencer Gulf)
- WIN Television (Gold Coast/Northern NSW/Griffith/South East SA)
- Mildura Digital Television (Mildura)
- Tasmanian Digital Television (Tasmania)
- Darwin Digital Television (Darwin)
- Central Digital Television (Alice Springs/Bourke/Ceduna/Mount Isa)
- West Digital Television (Western Australia)
1 Saunders Street
Pyrmont, New South Wales
English
- 10 HD
- 10 Peach
- 10 Bold
- Nickelodeon
- TVSN
- Gecko TV
1 August 1964
Independent Television System (1965–1970)
The 0-10 Network (1970–1980)
Network Ten (1980–1989, 1991–2018)
10 TV Australia (1989–1991)
1570 @ 11 (219.5 MHz)
1586 @ 11 (219.5 MHz)
1602 @ 11 (219.5 MHz)
1618 @ 11 (219.5 MHz)
1666 @ 11 (219.5 MHz)
10
1/15
5
5
As of 2023, Network 10 is usually the fourth-rated television network and primary channel in Australia, behind the Seven Network, Nine Network and ABC TV and ahead of SBS.[1]
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
From the introduction of TV in 1956 until 1965, there were three television networks in Australia, the National Television Network (now the Nine Network), the Australian Television Network (now the Seven Network), and the public ABC National Television Service (now ABC TV). In the early 1960s, the Australian Government began canvassing the idea of licensing a third commercial television station in each capital city. This decision was seen by some as a way for the government to defuse growing public dissatisfaction with the dominance of imported overseas programming and the paucity of local content. The first of these third licences was granted to United Telecasters (a consortium of Amalgamated Wireless, Colonial Sugar Refining Company, Email, Bank of New South Wales and the NRMA) on 4 April 1963.[2]
Structurally, the Australian television industry was closely modelled on the two-tiered system that had been in place in Australian radio since the late 1930s. One tier consisted of a network of publicly funded television stations run by the ABC, which was funded by government budget allocation and (until 1972) by fees from television viewer licences. The second tier consisted of the commercial networks and independent stations owned by private operators, whose income came from selling advertising time.
Launch[edit]
The network was launched as ATV-0 in Melbourne opened on 1 August 1964 and was owned by the Ansett Transport Industries, which at the time owned one of Australia's two domestic airlines. TEN-10 in Sydney, which opened on 5 April 1965, was originally owned by United Telecasters, which also in July that year opened TVQ-0 in Brisbane. Also opened later that month was SAS-10, serving the city of Adelaide.
The new television network was initially dubbed the Independent Television System or ITS, but in 1970 adopted the title The 0-10 Network, which reflected the channels used by the first two stations launched in the group, ATV and TEN.
Melbourne's ATV was the first station of the network to stage colour broadcasts in 1967, the broadcast was that of the horse races in Pakenham, Victoria, which was seen by network and RCA executives and invited members of the media and press. This would be the first of many test colour telecasts for the station, and in tribute to this event, the 0-10 Network adopted the First in Colour slogan in 1974, within months before the 1 March 1975 transition to colour broadcasting.
1970–1988: Expansion and original run[edit]
For its first five years, the 0-10 Network led a hand-to-mouth existence. By the beginning of the 1970s the network was in a precarious financial position and there were predictions that it would fail.
In 1971, the 0-10 Network first aired Young Talent Time, which was a huge rating success, and ran for 17 years.
However, the network's true financial reprise came about due to the fact that the controversial adult soap opera serial Number 96 premiered in March 1972 on the night that "Australian TV lost its virginity". The series broke new ground for Australian television and captured the imagination of viewers like few programs before or since. For the next three years it was consistently Australia's top-rating television program and, not surprisingly, its huge popularity attracted advertisers to Ten en masse, with the result that its revenue increased significantly from $1 million in 1971 to more than $10 million in 1972.
However, the pattern of rating dominance was already set, and for most of the next five decades from the mid-1960s, there was little deviation from the prevalent rankings, with the Nine Network typically in the first place, the Seven Network second, 0-10 third and ABC TV fourth.
The gradual evolution of Network Ten into its current form has its origins in the ongoing attempts by media mogul Rupert Murdoch to acquire a prized commercial television licence in Australia's largest capital city market, Sydney. This began when Murdoch's News Limited purchased the Wollongong station WIN-4 in the early 1960s, around the same time he bought Festival Records. In 1977, frustrated by regulatory blocks that prevented him from expanding into the Sydney market, Murdoch sold WIN and purchased a 46% share in Ten Sydney.
In 1979, Murdoch made an unsuccessful takeover bid for the Melbourne-based The Herald and Weekly Times media group, which originally owned HSV-7. Although the bid failed, he gained a 50% stake in Ansett, which thus gave him control of channel 0 in Melbourne.
In 1979, 0-10 first aired the soap opera Prisoner, which was a huge rating success.
On 20 January 1980, the 0-10 Network became known as Network Ten to reflect ATV moving from channel 0 to channel 10 – although the Brisbane station continued to broadcast as TVQ-0 until 10 September 1988 when the station changed to TVQ-10. In 1987 Adelaide's Network Ten affiliate (SAS-10) and Seven Network affiliate (ADS-7) successfully negotiated to exchange affiliation rights and channel frequencies due to ownership problems. On 27 December 1987, the exchange came into effect and ADS-7, owned by the same owners as the main Network Ten stations, became ADS-10 with SAS-10 converting to SAS-7, operated by TVW-7 in Perth.
When Murdoch became an American citizen in 1985 so that he could expand his media empire in the United States with the Fox network, Australia's media ownership laws obliged him to dispose of the flagship television stations, which were sold to The Northern Star, an offshoot of the Westfield Group conglomerate controlled by property tycoon Frank Lowy. However, Westfield was badly hit by the stock market crash of 1987, and in 1989 sold Network Ten to a consortium led by Charles Curran and former television journalist Steve Cosser.
The network became fully national in 1988 with the launch of NEW-10 in Perth after the introduction of satellite facilities made it economical for the network to broadcast to Western Australia. Northern Star officially took hold of TVQ-10 later in the year because of swapping frequencies with neighbouring DDQ-0 in Toowoomba and rebranded CTC Canberra under the network banner in time for aggregation.
Controversy[edit]
For the 2006 series of Big Brother, Ten appointed two censors to review the show instead of one. The Federal Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan, was reported to have said that she would be keeping a "close watch on the show's 2006 series". This controversy resulted in Big Brother Uncut being renamed Big Brother: Adults Only for the 2006 season of Big Brother. In two separate findings, the Australian Communications and Media Authority determined Network Ten breached clause 2.4 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. These two breaches were in relation to the broadcast of Big Brother Uncut on 30 May, 13 June and 4 July 2005. The broadcast material was not classified according to the Television Classification Guidelines.
Despite toning down Big Brother: Adults Only significantly in comparison to 2005, the series continued to attract controversy. After Big Brother: Adults Only was abruptly cancelled several weeks early, a subsequent incident of alleged sexual assault in the house saw the removal of two housemates and a huge public outcry calling for the series to be cancelled entirely.[110] This incident generated significant publicity for the show, even prompting the Prime Minister of Australia to call on Network Ten to "do a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid program off the air."[111]
Just prior to the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Network Ten broadcast 911: In Plane Site, a documentary that examined conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks. Federal Labor politician Michael Danby demanded that the programming director of the station be sacked.[112]
On 8 October 2008, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found Network Ten guilty of breaching the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice by using subliminal advertising during the broadcast of the 2007 ARIA Music Awards on 28 October 2007.[113] Network Ten had inserted single frames (lasting 1/25th of a second) into the program broadcast. This was exposed on ABC's Media Watch program.[114][115]
ATV10: 20 January 1980 – 3 June 1984
TEN-10: 16 January 1983 – 24 January 1988;
ATV-10: 3 June 1984 – 24 January 1988;
SAS-10: November 1985 – 27 December 1987;
ADS-10: 27 December 1987 – 24 January 1988
ATV-10, ADS-10, TEN-10:
24 January 1988 – 23 July 1989;
NEW-10: 20 May 1988 – 23 July 1989;
TVQ-10: 10 September 1988 – 23 July 1989
13 January 1991 – 1 October 1999
1 October 1999 – January 2008
January 2008 – 22 June 2013
22 January 2012 – 6 May 2012
(Alternative logo)
22 June 2013 – 31 October 2018
31 October 2018 – present
From 1964 to 1984 Network Ten's four stations – ATV-0/ATV-10 Melbourne, TEN-10 Sydney, TVQ-0 Brisbane and SAS-10 Adelaide – used different logos to identify themselves. There had also been a number of network-wide logos used from the mid-1960s through to the early 1980s.
By late-1985 ATV-10, SAS-10 and TEN-10 were all using the same logo – a circle with "TEN" in the centre, somewhat in the style of a neon sign. This logo had been introduced by TEN-10 on 16 January 1983, was adopted by ATV-10 in June 1984 and by SAS-10 in November 1985. The logo was also similar to the new logo adopted by Brisbane's TVQ-0 in April 1983, when that station became branded as TV0 – a neon sign-style circle with "TV" in the centre.
Kicking off several years of branding upheaval, on 24 January 1988 ATV-10, ADS-10 and TEN-10 all adopted the "X TEN" logo, followed by Perth's NEW-10 when the station launched in May of that year, and finally TVQ-0 on 10 September, when the station changed frequency and became TVQ-10. On 23 July 1989, the network rebranded again to "10 TV Australia".
On 13 January 1991, the network introduced a new logo featuring a lowercase "ten" in a circle; four variations of this logo would appear over the next 27 years. The first version consisted of a white, silver or metallic ring enclosing a blue circle with "ten" in yellow lowercase text. A revision of the logo with a yellow ring was introduced with the "Give Me Ten" ident campaign in 1995, but the white/silver/metallic ring was reintroduced with the network's 1997 idents. It was not until 1 October 1999 when the "Electric" ident was launched that the ring became yellow permanently.
In January 2008, the logo was enhanced for HD with a glossy "ball" effect similar to the logo of the American network ABC. On 22 June 2013, the logo changed again, when the ring and lettering became blue as well.
On 31 October 2018, Ten unveiled a completely new logo, in its first major rebranding since 1991. The new branding replaced the "ten" wordmark with a numeric 10 in a circle.[55] The "10" used in the logo is similar to those of American local TV stations WBNS-TV and WTSP. Coincidentally, the stations are affiliates of the CBS television network in the U.S., albeit as affiliates owned by Tegna Inc. as opposed to owned-and-operated stations part of CBS Television Stations.
The 0–10 Network (1970–1980)
Network Ten (1980–2018)
Network 10 (2018–present)