Mal Walden: "Rumours of the imminent death of Network Ten are greatly exaggerated"

EXCLUSIVE: With Network 10 facing more troubles, it's owner Paramount looking for a buyer, I asked Network 10 legend Mal Walden for his thoughts on the current state of the company.

Mal Walden is a stalwart and legend of Melbourne news and television, he was on our screens for decades until he retired a decade ago, and since then, he has been busy penning books on everything from his career in the news business, to the history and eccentricities of Melbourne.

Since he was at the network during some of its most tumultuous times coming out of receivership in the early 1990s, to the ill-fated takeover by Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer, I thought I’d ask him what he thought of the channel, and especially the news department.

Why has 10 struggled so much over its history, and are there recurring issues at play?

History has a sad legacy of repeating. No more so than in television.

In 1964 Ten was the third and youngest kid on the block. As such it was prepared to take risks to make a point of difference and News led the challenge.

Tens News was the first bulletin in an hourly format. It was the first news to introduce a two-reader format. It was the first to reach an audience of one million viewers a night and it was the first to break with tradition and move to afternoons at 5 pm.

Some risks paid off and others were not so successful, but on reflection, most decisions were forced on them by the tycoons who bought into the television Industry. Some with no idea of the sensitivities of television.

When the corporate history of Network Ten has been written the James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch takeover in 2011 will be characterised as the most disastrous chapter of all.

Sadly, I believe Channel Ten never fully recovered.

I have long held that a local late-night news service (9:30 pm start time, regularly every night), local news consistently rates the highest of all programming, and all of 10 News current bulletins sit outside of primetime, I think this is an opportunity begging for a channel to seize, Walden isn’t so sure.

Admitting my first break in television was reading late news on HSV7 in 1970, I now fear there is little benefit in late-night bulletins other than extending a creditable News image flowing from their prime-time bulletins.

It is still a launching pad for future talent but serves little further benefits with rising costs and falling viewers.

Confusion over rotating times Networks schedule their late-night bulletins only emphasises the lack of importance they hold for them. While many have been dropped over the years with very little fanfare, they will no doubt continue from time to time at the whim of a news director. Having said that, selected late-night news services have proven to be generally accepted, despite being networked nationally.

I asked Mal whether strengthening the news service, in general, would be of any assistance to the channel.

In a word NO. I believe Ten has missed the boat on expanding its news service under the current management and ownership. I base this on Tens’ failed attempt to introduce a ‘News Revolution’ in 2011. It was a desperate bid to turn the Network’s flagging fortunes around.

Monday, 24 January Channel Ten launched its $20 million News Revolution.

The well-established 5 p.m. bulletin was intended to become the launching pad for the introduction of state-based news bulletins at 6.30 while veteran newsman George Negus was brought in to host a news/current affair show at 7 pm. The so-called ‘revolution’ was the brainchild of the management at the time, unaware of an imminent James Packer/Lachlan Murdoch takeover of the Ten Network. Packer was the first to voice total opposition to the news expansion. But it was Lachlan Murdoch who swung the axe.

There were 42 staff members at the height of the news revolution. On the day I retired three years later, there were only 6. It has since recovered some lost ground but once bitten twice shy. Given the memories of that unmitigated failure of Ten’s news revolution, today’s rising production costs, the loss of viewers and the social media landscape, it would take a brave executive to green light another expansion of its News.

Asked whether the talk of the death of Network 10 is premature, Walden pens a strong defence of the perennial third or fourth-placed network and has some history to back it up.

Ten recovered from receivership in the early ’90s coming to within 24 hours of shutting down. They emerged by attracting a young demographic becoming the corporate success story of the time. Then came the disastrous Packer Murdoch takeover in 2011.

There is a certain irony that Tens’ most successful period in News followed Rupert Murdoch’s takeover in 1977. Lachlan’s arrival at Ten was precisely 27 years to the day his father Rupert sold his interest in the Ten Network. The acorn fell far from the tree

As I have frequently stated rumours of the imminent death of Network Ten are greatly exaggerated. There is no question in my mind that of all the TV Networks, Ten has proven to be the most resilient.

In his book ‘The Newsman’, Mal Walden wrote extensively about his time with Network 10 and his memorable dumping from Seven News in Melbourne that led to disastrously low ratings upon his removal. Some of that material also appears here.