Post by Inside Australian Idol on May 27, 2005 1:14:28 GMT 10
Ten's relationship builder
Lara Sinclair
May 26, 2005
IT could be argued that when Grant Blackley moved to Melbourne in 1994 as Ten's general manager of sales without selecting an AFL team to support, he hadn't done his homework, but Blackley doesn't see it that way.
"In the first six months, every media director tried to coax me across to their team," Blackley says. "I used to support 'the big fella'. Every team had one."
He later chose a team not supported by any media director: North Melbourne. The tactic will not surprise those who know him.
"Considered but forthright," is how one counterpart describes Blackley who, at 39, has been general manager, network sales at Ten for eight years.
Media analysts have largely given Blackley their tick of approval for the top job at Ten, which he will inherit in July when incumbent chief executive John McAlpine retires. The caveats are that his operational experience is limited and programming costs associated with protecting Ten's leading share among 16 to 39-year-old viewers may rise.
"A very clever young man," is the word from Harold Mitchell, founder of media buying agency Mitchell &Partners.
Blackley is one of the last of the dispatch kids turned chief executive, beginning his advertising career in 1985 in the dispatch department of advertising agency George Patterson.
"It was either that or become a surveyor," he says.
At Ten, his career has included stints as group sales manager in Sydney, the Melbourne gig and, two years later, the role of national sales manager, reporting to McAlpine, his mentor.
Media analysts such as Fusion Strategy's Steve Allen say Blackley has done the hard yards, from TV's halcyon days in the late 1980s when the oversupply of advertising could be as much as 30 or 40 per cent, through the media recessions of the early '90s and 2001, to the developing new media era, in which pay TV and the internet emerged as competitors for business.
He was there when Canadian media conglomerate CanWest developed Ten's strategy of targeting 16 to 39-year-olds and he can take most of the credit for repositioning the network in the mind of advertisers as having "a culture of access, not content", according to one source.
Blackley reckons Ten always benchmarked itself against other business sectors, not just rivals such as traditional market leader Nine.
Blackley has led Ten's charge into a more integrated media environment, establishing its business development unit to sell media products such as Big Brother.
"We had to spend a lot of time changing the skills sets of our people," Blackley says, beginning by hiring people with a background in marketing-specific industries: airlines, packaged goods and sectors that are not yet on TV.
Buying the Big Brother reality franchise in 2001 was seen as risky, but Ten is still reaping the benefits from top-line sponsor packages now worth about $2 million each and as much as $3 million for programs such as Australian Idol.
"In the past it was about selling billboards and spots at the highest price we could," Blackley says. "Now we find the content and we then sell it specifically at a price we think is appropriate. We'll help with in-store promotions. The marketers then become promoters of our brand. It heightens the potential for success."
A former colleague says as far as media operators go, Blackley is a risk-taker. He drove Ten's unsuccessful push to launch a virtual media industry marketplace five years ago, although Ten aims to book 80 per cent of its own inventory online by year's end.
One of his few recurring annoyances has been Ten's share of revenue from Mitchell & Partners compared with Nine and Seven, and this week is no exception.
Blackley cites a superannuation ad campaign that broke on the weekend booked by Mitchell exclusively on Nine. "Surprise me, with Harold," he grumbles. (Mitchell claims Ten gets a "fulsome share" of his business.) If anything, Blackley's "soft underbelly" is programming, according to one insider, and determining Ten's place in a "Microsoft media future".
Blackley says future programming sources are an issue but chief programmer David Mott is doing a great job, keeping strong properties up Ten's sleeve for the second half. Reality talent show The X Factor was a ratings disappointment this year, with Ten reportedly offering advertisers additional advertising or make-goods to make up for a shortfall in audience.
Blackley has a more positive spin: "X Factor from all reports was a failure. I disagree. The relationship [with the advertiser] is more important to us. It's not a make-good. It's a relationship builder."
Blackley says Ten's can-do corporate culture is crucial to his main goal of achieving "above-market sustainable growth and earnings". He predicts the network's revenue will grow at 7 per cent to 8 per cent; the total market at 6 per cent.
Ten has the highest earnings margins in television; above 40 per cent, compared with half that for Seven and about 35 per cent for Nine.
Despite that, Blackley may find himself running a good business in a declining market.
Total TV revenue increased 12 per cent last year to $3.4 billion and Ten expects to main a revenue share above 30 per cent of the $2.7 billion metropolitan market, but the prime-time audiences that generate 70 per cent to 80 per cent of that revenue are dropping by 1 per cent to 2 per cent a year, with younger viewers turning off even faster.
Blackley says he wants "multiple business cases" under development in a TV advertising marketplace that could be turned upside down within a few years. Technologies such as broadband TV and personal digital recorders that allow people to time-shift their TV viewing could play havoc with advertisers' schedules.
"We will continue to explore new partnerships, probably with 3G content. We think digital interactivity will be multilayered."
The words "big fella" spring to mind but, in fairness, the scope of Ten's partnerships will be determined partly by changes to foreign or cross-media ownership regulation to be introduced by the federal Government later this year.
Blackley claims not to know if CanWest will be a buyer or a seller, though phrases such as "if we're owned by a telephony company" may provide some clue to his thinking.
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15404084%255E7582,00.html
Lara Sinclair
May 26, 2005
IT could be argued that when Grant Blackley moved to Melbourne in 1994 as Ten's general manager of sales without selecting an AFL team to support, he hadn't done his homework, but Blackley doesn't see it that way.
"In the first six months, every media director tried to coax me across to their team," Blackley says. "I used to support 'the big fella'. Every team had one."
He later chose a team not supported by any media director: North Melbourne. The tactic will not surprise those who know him.
"Considered but forthright," is how one counterpart describes Blackley who, at 39, has been general manager, network sales at Ten for eight years.
Media analysts have largely given Blackley their tick of approval for the top job at Ten, which he will inherit in July when incumbent chief executive John McAlpine retires. The caveats are that his operational experience is limited and programming costs associated with protecting Ten's leading share among 16 to 39-year-old viewers may rise.
"A very clever young man," is the word from Harold Mitchell, founder of media buying agency Mitchell &Partners.
Blackley is one of the last of the dispatch kids turned chief executive, beginning his advertising career in 1985 in the dispatch department of advertising agency George Patterson.
"It was either that or become a surveyor," he says.
At Ten, his career has included stints as group sales manager in Sydney, the Melbourne gig and, two years later, the role of national sales manager, reporting to McAlpine, his mentor.
Media analysts such as Fusion Strategy's Steve Allen say Blackley has done the hard yards, from TV's halcyon days in the late 1980s when the oversupply of advertising could be as much as 30 or 40 per cent, through the media recessions of the early '90s and 2001, to the developing new media era, in which pay TV and the internet emerged as competitors for business.
He was there when Canadian media conglomerate CanWest developed Ten's strategy of targeting 16 to 39-year-olds and he can take most of the credit for repositioning the network in the mind of advertisers as having "a culture of access, not content", according to one source.
Blackley reckons Ten always benchmarked itself against other business sectors, not just rivals such as traditional market leader Nine.
Blackley has led Ten's charge into a more integrated media environment, establishing its business development unit to sell media products such as Big Brother.
"We had to spend a lot of time changing the skills sets of our people," Blackley says, beginning by hiring people with a background in marketing-specific industries: airlines, packaged goods and sectors that are not yet on TV.
Buying the Big Brother reality franchise in 2001 was seen as risky, but Ten is still reaping the benefits from top-line sponsor packages now worth about $2 million each and as much as $3 million for programs such as Australian Idol.
"In the past it was about selling billboards and spots at the highest price we could," Blackley says. "Now we find the content and we then sell it specifically at a price we think is appropriate. We'll help with in-store promotions. The marketers then become promoters of our brand. It heightens the potential for success."
A former colleague says as far as media operators go, Blackley is a risk-taker. He drove Ten's unsuccessful push to launch a virtual media industry marketplace five years ago, although Ten aims to book 80 per cent of its own inventory online by year's end.
One of his few recurring annoyances has been Ten's share of revenue from Mitchell & Partners compared with Nine and Seven, and this week is no exception.
Blackley cites a superannuation ad campaign that broke on the weekend booked by Mitchell exclusively on Nine. "Surprise me, with Harold," he grumbles. (Mitchell claims Ten gets a "fulsome share" of his business.) If anything, Blackley's "soft underbelly" is programming, according to one insider, and determining Ten's place in a "Microsoft media future".
Blackley says future programming sources are an issue but chief programmer David Mott is doing a great job, keeping strong properties up Ten's sleeve for the second half. Reality talent show The X Factor was a ratings disappointment this year, with Ten reportedly offering advertisers additional advertising or make-goods to make up for a shortfall in audience.
Blackley has a more positive spin: "X Factor from all reports was a failure. I disagree. The relationship [with the advertiser] is more important to us. It's not a make-good. It's a relationship builder."
Blackley says Ten's can-do corporate culture is crucial to his main goal of achieving "above-market sustainable growth and earnings". He predicts the network's revenue will grow at 7 per cent to 8 per cent; the total market at 6 per cent.
Ten has the highest earnings margins in television; above 40 per cent, compared with half that for Seven and about 35 per cent for Nine.
Despite that, Blackley may find himself running a good business in a declining market.
Total TV revenue increased 12 per cent last year to $3.4 billion and Ten expects to main a revenue share above 30 per cent of the $2.7 billion metropolitan market, but the prime-time audiences that generate 70 per cent to 80 per cent of that revenue are dropping by 1 per cent to 2 per cent a year, with younger viewers turning off even faster.
Blackley says he wants "multiple business cases" under development in a TV advertising marketplace that could be turned upside down within a few years. Technologies such as broadband TV and personal digital recorders that allow people to time-shift their TV viewing could play havoc with advertisers' schedules.
"We will continue to explore new partnerships, probably with 3G content. We think digital interactivity will be multilayered."
The words "big fella" spring to mind but, in fairness, the scope of Ten's partnerships will be determined partly by changes to foreign or cross-media ownership regulation to be introduced by the federal Government later this year.
Blackley claims not to know if CanWest will be a buyer or a seller, though phrases such as "if we're owned by a telephony company" may provide some clue to his thinking.
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15404084%255E7582,00.html