The future of Channel Ten appears uncertain after its parent company, American media giant Paramount Global, was sold to Skydance Pictures.
The film production studio will merge with Paramount and its owners, the Ellison family, will buy out the controlling stake in Paramount from the Redstone family – reportedly spending US$6.4billion in the process.
In a statement on Monday announcing the transaction, Skydance said it planned to enhance Paramount’s platforms with more technology and infrastructure.
The company also claimed it would enhance Paramount’s television networks but didn’t mention Ten directly.
Channel Ten employees were notified of the changes on Monday, which confirmed the ‘transaction will be closed by the first half of 2025’.
It comes after Ten’s on-air talent Dave Hughes and Osher Günsberg publicly confirmed two of Channel Ten’s biggest reality TV shows, The Masked Singer and The Bachelor, had been axed from the network in May.
Media analyst and Pearman director of strategy and research Steve Allen said at the time: ‘A new owner of Paramount Global is unlikely to see Ten as an asset worth retaining because the business is in serious turmoil.
‘There’s no programming momentum and they haven’t found a really solid anchor for prime time, their revenue looks steady but they can’t seem to significantly reduce overheads, and now there’s upheaval in terms of their US ownership.
The future of Channel Ten appears uncertain after its parent company, American media giant Paramount Global, sold itself to Skydance Pictures. Pictured: Osher Gunsberg
‘Network 10 is in a real pickle and I don’t see a way out for them.’
Professors Amanda Lotz and Anna Potter from the Queensland University of Technology both shared their agreement, but added it was as much about the current media landscape as it is funding issues.
Lotz, who leads the Transforming Media Industries research program, said she believes Ten will drown ‘by the end of the decade’ and leave behind only ‘two commercial broadcasters’ – rivals Nine and Seven.
She added that ‘it’s just math’ and claimed the commercial television industry is in a ‘death spiral’ which could see only one network survive by the end.
In a statement on Monday announcing the transaction, Skydance said it planned to enhance Paramount’s platforms with more technology and infrastructure. Pictured: MasterChef judge Poh Ling Yeow
Network Ten has had various owners over the years.
In 2010, James Packer purchased an 18 per cent stake worth $244million at the time, which was later split with fellow media mogul Lachlan Murdoch.
It proved not enough to help the network, with Ten plunged into administration in 2017.
The network was then bought out by US television giant CBS in the same year, but just two years later CBS merged with Paramount.
It comes after Ten’s on-air talent Dave Hughes and Osher Günsberg publicly confirmed two of Channel Ten ‘s biggest reality TV shows, The Masked Singer and The Bachelor, had been axed from the network in May
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