Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.

Today’s edition features a conversation with Paramount bosses Beverley McGarvey, and Jarrod Villani.

Australia’s most misunderstood TV company?

At this year’s Upfronts season, Paramount took a different path to its rivals. The owner of Network 10, along with streaming services, Tenplay, Paramount+ and Pluto TV, Paramount dispensed with the usual 1000-guests in a giant hall approach, for more select briefings. It had a different story to tell.

By some distance the third placed commercial TV network with Ten, the focus of the company increasingly follows the priorities of its US-based owner Paramount.

Most obviously, that will mean the launch of a local advertising tier for the fast growing Paramount+.

In conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, chief operating officer Jarrod Villani and chief content officer Beverley McGarvey, discussed Paramount’s programming strategy for the year ahead, beginning with the question of whether they have made the philosophical leap that linear television is no longer their first priority.

McGarvey argues that has not happened yet. “I wouldn't say that linear is not a priority. It is a priority. It's incredibly important. There's still massive reach on linear. And there's still massive advertising dollars on linear. However, what I would say is that philosophically we are in a place that we consider - what is the right scheduling for this? Where should it play? Where can we get the best value from it? Where do audiences want to consume it? So I think we are philosophically in a multi platform place, but 10 remains critical in that,” McGarvey says.

“When you look at any of our businesses, you see that the vast majority of content that is consumed on free streaming platforms like Tenplay comes from linear. So it is first shown on linear currently. To divorce linear from free IP based viewing on Tenplay is not the way in which we visualise our business,” Villani adds.

When asked the hard question of whetehr they are willing to go on tolerating the third place share Paramount is getting amongst the networks in the longterm, Villani argues the role of Ten in the landscape is ‘not fully understood yet’.

“We understand what makes up our share. We make tweaks to that every year to improve that. It really does come down to, what is the purpose of our free-to-view offering? How is it contributing to the business? When I say that, I mean contributing to all of the business. It's both an economic discussion and it's a promotional discussion. We've spoken a lot… about the evolving ecosystem of Paramount in Australia. That is not something that I think is fully understood yet and we'll continue to work away at that,” Villani says.

Survivor and I’m A Celebrity are set to appear early in the 2024 schedule, as well as the return of Gladiators to Australian television. A number of the Paramount+ commissions like NCIS Sydney and Top Gear Australia are also expected to eventually end up on Ten.

“The reason we commissioned Gladiators is we were looking for a big event series for January that felt like something the whole family could watch. And if you think about what we've had success in January with over the last number of years, it has been I'm a Celebrity and the Big Bash. Big family entertainment with sort of an adventurous feel. Gladiators is fantastic. You can get behind your favorite one. It appeals to kids, they're great athletes and the contenders are incredible,” McGarvey says.

Editing was courtesy of Abe’s Audio, the people to talk to about voiceovers, sound design and podcast production.

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