About

Network TEN is one of Australia’s three commercial television broadcasters with stations in major Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. With over 1000 employees, Network TEN provides Australians with hit television programs such as Big Brother, Australian Idol, Rove, Thank God You’re Here, AFL, Neighbours, The Simpsons and Law & Order. Network TEN succeeded in winning six consecutive annual ratings in the 16-39 demographic (2001-6) and the 18-49 demographic in 2006. TEN Digital Media (TEN) was created in 2006 to increase the online presence of Network TEN and its programs. With 20 members, half of which are content editors, TEN’s focus is on the programming brands and the shows. “What is important to us is the TV shows and effectively delivering the content onto our online presence…[while] extending [the sites] with videos from TV shows, behind the scenes, and building a community around the program brand,” said Siva Ahilan, Head of Technology for TEN Digital Media.

Challenge

TEN faced many challenges in its development:

• With 4000+ pages on its sites, TEN faced the complex requirement in creating a consistent structure for all sites while maintaining the flexibility to be creative in design. With plans to develop 50 – 100 sites over the next few years, it was important for TEN to redesign and re-launch all Web sites rapidly and at minimal cost.
• TEN needed a framework for managing content from various sources and that would standardise and automate the content creation, and publishing processes.
• With content editors managing the Web sites, TEN needed a system that is intuitive, easy to use and produces immediate results.
• TEN recognised a clear need to be able to reuse content types created from other projects. The idea of a function repository was needed to reduce the amount of development required for new web initiatives.
• To further improve the user experience, TEN needed an identity management tool with a strong personalisation engine. These functions would allow website members to reuse their username and password across different web properties. TEN would also be able to personalise content delivery based on user behavior and preferences across multiple websites.
• To select and integrate components for all Web sites: identity management, CMS, personalisation engine, email/SMS, enterprise search, forum, blogs, instant messenger, video streaming, and electronic program guide.

Solution

RedDot supports TEN with its legendary easy-to-use interface, allowing content editors to easily contribute content without technical assistance. “Many CMS systems allow for content editors to change basic items such as text, images and links but fall over in many respects when it comes to navigational control and the ability to build complete new sections or even sites. RedDot has provided us with the ability to handover almost complete control to Content Editors within a project to create new content initiatives without the need for a team of developers behind them,” says Ahilan.

• As more sites are built with RedDot, TEN has been able to build a “library” of functions such as content types, video streaming, search, blogs, forums and user management. With appropriate skinning, these elements can be reused for other initiatives. This dramatically reduces the development time and time to market for new web sites.
• TEN also selected RedDot LiveServer for the flagship ten.com.au site. LiveServer was integrated with Automony for enterprise search capabilities and delivery of aggregated XML feeds. As more web site analytics are captured and further understanding of the user’s behavioral patterns are achieved, TEN plans to expand the use of LiveServer’s capabilities to deliver personalised content to website visitors and detailed demographics information to advertisers. The ultimate goal is to achieve a level where no two users will see the same Web site, all information will be completely tailored to the user.

Results

TEN reaped several benefits from using RedDot CMS and LiveServer throughout its various sites. The outcome has been positive, providing results that have directly impacted its initiatives:

• Reduced Development Time
  RedDot has enabled TEN to significantly reduce the time needed to develop new web initiatives by creating reusable models for all Web sites. The web development process, previously carried out site by site, is now simpler and faster for TEN. The Thank God You’re Here Web site (http://tgyh.com.au/ ) was developed with RedDot in one week by reusing existing components. The site proceeded to hit the Number 1 and 2 position on the top iTunes podcasts within one week of launch.
• Rapid Deployment
  RedDot delivered a solution that is easy to use for content editors within TEN, minimising the time needed for training. For example, one of TEN’s developers in Sydney was able to train a comedian, who works on the Rove Web site (http://www.rovedaily.com.au/) in Melbourne. In two hours time over the phone, the comedian was orientated in RedDot, with no prior experience.
• Empower Content Editors
  RedDot enables TEN content editors to take full control of their sites. The sites can be updated in real time, delivering consistent information over multiple channels. The Big Brother Web site (http://www.bigbrother.3mobile.com.au/) has over 40,000 concurrent visitors and is the highest trafficked Australian TV program Web site during the duration of the show. As it is a reality TV show, all contents in the online diary need to be updated almost minute by minute. RedDot enables the editors for constant updates and provides a consistent view of how entries are developed.

Facts and Figures

Customer: Network TEN
RedDot partner: Hyro
Project duration: Ongoing
Greatest challenge: Redesign and launch Web sites in minimal time frame

Web sites:
http://www.ten.com.au/
http://www.australianidol.com.au/
http://www.bigbrother.com.au/
http://www.tgyh.com.au/
www.ten.com.au/rugby

Integrated components: RedDot CMS, RedDot LiveServer, Email/SMS, Autonomy Enterprise Search, Forum/Blogs/Instant Messenger, Video Streaming, Electronic Program Guide