Southern Cross & TEN ink new deal

Southern Cross Media and the TEN Network have today announced a new three year affiliation deal.

The SCA and TEN relationship has been a difficult one. The new deal follows months of rumours about Southern Cross and the Nine Network partnering up, however this marriage was reliant on the media ownership laws changing, and they failed to make it through parliament.

Following the end of any partnership possibility with Nine, SCA returned to the negotiation table with TEN.

SCA have made numerous comments over the past few months about the impact the poor performance of TEN programming has had on their regional television performance, however with no chance of a Nine deal, they were forced to negotiate with TEN.

It is believed that Southern Cross have agreed to a fee increase of 32% of gross revenue, increased from the current 29%. The fee will rise for special event programming such as the Winter Olympics and the Commonwealth Games to 35%. 

Southern Cross Chairman, Max Moore-Wilton said;

"We are pleased to have renewed our agreement with TEN for a further three years and look forward to a stronger collaboration, focussed on improving TEN's national audience share and revenue-generating opportunities"

The new TEN CEO Hamish McLennan said;

"After constructive discussions with Max Moore-Wilton and his team, we have collectively achieved a fair outcome for both parties".

Following the release of the news, TEN shares were flat, whilst Southern Cross Media shares fell by 2c to $1.44.