More Than TV: Channel Ten and Diversity in Free-to-Air Broadcasting

Abstract

Free-to-air broadcasting is currently facing some tough challenges. Amidst declining viewing figures, the rise of competing technologies and the infiltration of pay TV, free-to-air broadcasters have watched their audience fragment and their revenue base become shaky. This paper examines the way the Ten Network has reconfigured itself in response to some of these challenges, recasting itself as a free-to-air broadcaster narrowcaster, appealing specifically to the youth market as a way of making itself economically viable. In doing so, Ten has introduced to the Australian television environment a new way of conceiving a television network — as an entity that transcends the broadcasting medium and configures itself as a desired cultural space. This paper examines Ten's shift from the position of a broadcaster to a narrowcaster through the introduction of niche marketing and determined counter-programming strategies. Hand in hand with this. Ten's branding strategies and expanded media interests have sought to establish the network as a youth cultural mecca rather than simply a youth-focused broadcaster. This paper will look at the way the reconfigured Ten exists as a portal for youth viewers to gain access to a youth-specific public sphere, a commercial space where they can engage in semiotic self-determination and utilise transnational products enabling a process of DIY citizenship (Hartley, 1999: 162).