WIN TV will reap the ratings rewards of the final five weeks of MasterChef, which on Friday switches from channel 5 to channel 8 on the TV remote controls of viewers in southern NSW, the ACT, regional Victoria and regional Queensland.
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“I think people will adapt relatively quickly and find the programming they want to find,” WIN boss Andrew Lancaster said of his network’s July 1 switch from showing Nine’s programs to showing all of Network Ten’s content, which also includes Offspring, The Bachelor, The Project and Big Bash cricket.
Mr Lancaster welcomed Ten CEO Paul Anderson to WIN’s headquarters in Wollongong this week to officially launch the five-year affiliation agreement between the regional broadcaster, which is owned by Bermuda-based billionaire Bruce Gordon, and Ten, which has Mr Gordon as its longest-standing and biggest shareholder.
Mr Anderson said the new program supply deal, which followed Nine’s April decision to end its 30-year ties to WIN and cut a deal with Southern Cross Austereo, had been a natural fit despite the way it came together.
“I would never say we were the last two partners left, but that’s effectively the way the cards fell,” Mr Anderson said. “From our point of view, we’re actually really happy, because we’ve got an affiliate now that is focused on regional Australia and regional news and the owner is our largest shareholder.”
Mr Lancaster dismissed suggestions that WIN News would suffer after its long and successful association with National Nine News.
“I think as a CEO of a media company, you’re constantly reviewing your business, but we’re committed to running the 16 half-hour bulletins that we run across Australia,” he said.
“It will be interesting to see what happens from an audience perspective between Ten Eyewitness News and The Project, which has probably the fastest growing audience in any of the news content in Australia.”
Visiting Wollongong for the first time, MasterChef’s George Calombaris said WIN’s loyal audience would warm to Ten’s shows.
“They’ll fall in love with what we do at Ten,” he said. “What we do at Ten is exceptional TV.”