Network Ten’s five-year plan to cut jobs and programs

POPULAR Australian-made shows Bondi Rescue, Shark Tank and The Biggest Loser could be scrapped under a Network Ten secret management plan.

The team from Bondi Rescue would be gone from Ten’s stable after next year’s series.

• Network Ten to be placed into voluntary administration
• Ten Network status report delayed

POPULAR Australian-made shows Bondi Rescue, Shark Tank and The Biggest Loser face the axe under a Network Ten secret management plan that would also slice almost $19 million in costs from news divisions alone.

The five-year plan, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, was formulated in July as Ten went bust. It also reveals all news bulletins would be produced out of Sydney, while broadcasts of Formula 1 and V8 Supercars would disappear from the ­network.

Under the secret plans, production of Family Feud would move to Sydney and 15 per cent of jobs across the board would go.

Family Fued with Grant Denyer would become a Sydney venture under the plans. Picture: Norm Oorloff

In the cost-cutting document under the subheading “+ bankable plan” it reveals state-based newsrooms would be decimated with the one-hour news bulletin to be produced and broadcast in Sydney seven days a week.

A segment of local state-based news would also be produced from Sydney. Currently weekend bulle­tins are produced in Sydney.

A bid by US entertainment giant CBS to take over the network won the support of the network’s 14-member creditors’ committee, which includes veteran reporter and employee representative Hugh Riminton. The vote from the network’s 750 staff was crucial to getting the bid by CBS — one of Ten’s biggest creditors — over the line.

After the September 19 creditors meeting administrator Mark Korda, who described CBS as a “$27 billion big brother looking after Channel 10”, said it would be “business as usual for employees, business as usual for ­programmers”.

CBS have not revealed what, if any, cuts formulated by current management it will adopt.

However, the Daily Telegraph can reveal that under the management plan formulated in July, the 15 per cent reduction in staff would include 43 jobs gone from news and 59 in ­operations and engineering. Sydney’s newsroom would emerge the winner with a concentration of jobs in the city while regional and non-central news jobs would go.

Expenditure on expensive news talent would also be targeted, with editorial salaries smashed by $7.5 million within two years. Operations, technology and engineering costs would be slashed by $7.9 million.

Shark Tank would be an endangered species by 2020.

The network’s Australian content would be flattened under the plan, with the Biggest Loser and Bondi Rescue  gone  after next year’s ­seasons and Shark Tank in doubt ­beyond 2019.

The morning chat show Studio 10, which is relatively cheap to make, would get an extra hour of coverage.

Ten’s motorsport coverage — kicking off in just over a week with the Bathurst 1000 and V8 Supercars and also including the Formula 1 — would not extend beyond current contracts.

The cost-cutting document is understood to have been prepared to give prospective buyers an insight into Ten’s operating performance and the amount of cash it is burning through.

The Biggest Loser trainers Shannon Ponton and Libby Babet. Picture: Supplied

The Biggest Loser made Steve “Commando” Willis a household name.

A Ten spokesman last night said: “It would be wrong and misleading to assume that any information given during the recent due diligence process will turn into firm plans.

“Interested parties were furnished with a range of documents a lot of information. Their plans for Ten are something that only they can comment on.”

Administrators KordaMentha’s report to creditors on September 4 said under the CBS plan: “The business of the Ten Group will continue as usual and all employees will continue to be employed.”

But shareholders, staff and creditors will be waiting until at least ­November to discover who will emerge as the owner of the network and how much of the secret cost-cutting plan would be implemented after a Supreme Court hearing yesterday.  

Ten creditors and staff voted in favour of the CBS ownership bid last month but joint bid partners Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman of The Daily Telegraph publisher News Corporation, and Bruce Gordon, owner of Ten’s regional affiliate WIN Corporation, are understood to be awaiting an independent expert report due to be filed with the corporate regulator on October 10 before deciding ­whether to block the transfer to CBS.