Paramount delivered a slate of new announcements at its 2023 upfront event on Thursday, held at Sydney’s ICC Convention Centre.
The network unveiled a raft of new partnerships and expansions to its ecosystem, as well as new content and returning shows.
Below is a breakdown of what to expect from Paramount over the next 12 months.
PlutoTV
Paramount also revealed that in 2023 a selection of Pluto TV FAST channels will launch on 10 Play, expanding Paramount’s free streaming offering to consumers and partners in Australia.
Pluto TV is a free streaming television service with hundreds of channels that bring audiences movies and television series on-demand. Pluto TV is recognised as a FAST (free ad-supported television) service.
Pluto TV has a footprint spanning three continents and over 30 countries and territories – including the US, Europe, and Latin America – and has nearly 70 million global monthly active users. It is the top free ad-supported streaming TV service in the U.S. and Europe. The platform has also expanded its international presence recently, launching in the Nordics in partnership with Viaplay Group and an announced partnership with Corus in Canada, which will launch later this year.
The Upfront announcement marks an initial step in introducing Pluto TV in Australia.
For consumers, the platform will come with content spanning categories including movies and television, news and opinion, sports, comedy, reality, crime, classic TV, game shows, explore, gaming and anime, music, kids, and more. You won’t need a credit card to register, an email and name like 10 Play. Then viewers can drop in and stream for free.
For partners, clients, and investors, advertisers will be given an additional premium environment to reach hard-to-find audiences.
Paramount ANZ announced an Australian-first partnership with Twitter Australia to deliver a new advertising product called The Checkout.
Australian audiences are tuning into TV and simultaneously joining the conversation on Twitter where they comment, interact – and now, transact.
A recent report showed that four of the top five most Tweeted about reality shows in Australia were Channel 10 programs including MasterChef Australia, Australian Survivor, The Bachelor Australia, and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
This engagement presents an opportunity for marketers to connect with audiences while they’re talking about the shows they’re watching.
The Checkout builds on the success of Twitter Amplify, a global deal announced by the two companies in May that has already secured sponsorship sales and delivered results accessing audiences across content, including sport and tentpole programming.
A range of integrated branding opportunities are available with The Checkout, such as mentions in Tweets, logo placements, video content, and more.
The Checkout is in market now and joins a suite of advertising opportunities available with Paramount.
Innovid’s AdSelector
Paramount ANZ announced a new partnership with Innovid, providing new interactive, connected television (CTV) ad products to Paramount’s suite of digital advertising solutions.
Innovid, an independent advertising platform for delivery, personalisation, and measurement of converged TV, offers CTV advertising formats that give marketers access to ad products that deliver impact and engagement.
AdSelector is a new, Australian-first product providing a non-disruptive audience experience that asks the viewer simple, interactive inquiries related to the content. This builds scalable market segments that are interested in products or services relevant to their needs or interests.
The Innovid AdSelector interactive advertising experience is available now and joins a suite of recent announcements and ad products from Paramount ANZ, including KERV Interactive and Samba TV.
Paramount ANZ and KERV Interactive co-created and launched a global-first, CTV ad product that harnesses technology to provide optimisation for brands and net-new pathways for audiences to connect, engage and shop.
The technology allows for real-time adjustments of the creative image, creative message and QR code destination during ad playback, allowing several products to be simultaneously showcased based on customisable inputs. It also enables a feedback loop, iterating and amplifying the ads based on engagement and sales.
Ads can also update with other key inputs such as viewer attributes, time of day, TV program, deals and even product availability, maximising advertising variables.
In addition, Paramount ANZ’s Australian-first audience targeting deal with Samba TV brings a more holistic understanding of TV viewership across any device, channel and platform, including broadcast, linear and streaming.
SambaTV
Paramount has announced an Australian-first partnership with Samba TV that will help improve audience targeting and empower advertisers to reach TV viewers across every screen and achieve deduplicated, incremental reach across premium and differentiated digital programming inventory.
The partnership will unlock the power of Samba TV’s measurement technology to provide advertisers with a more accurate and holistic understanding of television viewership across any device, channel and platform, including broadcast, linear and streaming.
Paramount’s brand-safe environment and rich first-party data will be enhanced with Samba TV’s actionable viewership audiences across all platforms to create clear pathways to minimise waste, maximise efficiency and achieve true incremental audience reach with greater precision, scale and impact.
Sustainable Screens Australia
Paramount ANZ also announced it has joined Sustainable Screens Australia (SSA) and will put their commitment into action in 2023.
SSA aims to transform the Australian screen production industry to integrate sustainability into everyday practices and aims to build capacity at all levels of the industry to reduce our collective environmental footprint in line with science-based targets.
SSA will create an online hub for best practice checklists and toolkits, industry specific training, a vendor/services database and social impact partnerships to support the local screen industry to adopt a standardised approach to sustainable production.
To track, measure and reduce our industry’s environmental footprint, SSA will deploy a specialised carbon footprint calculator for screen production which has been developed and managed by We are Albert in the UK.
Paramount ANZ is a seed-investor of Sustainable Screens Australia and we’re proud to be the first commercial broadcaster in the country to support the establishment the organisation, clearly cementing our commitment to sustainability in the Australian screen industry.
Ultimate Classroom
Paramount ANZ partnered with the Australian Government and Defence Force Recruiting via UM Australia and Mediabrands Content Studio to create the new brand-funded television series, Ultimate Classroom.
This four-part series tests 18 of Australia’s best and brightest high-school STEM students.
Harnessing their skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, the students will need to fly drones, build bridges, and decipher codes in order to become the 2022 Ultimate Classroom champion.
Guiding them will be maths teacher extraordinaire and WooTube creator Eddie Woo, TV presenter and gaming guru Stephanie Bendixsen, and the very best STEM specialists from the Australian Defence Force.
New Shows
Dessert Masters
Paramount announced the new show Dessert Masters, from the producers of MasterChef Australia. In a world-first, the top pastry chefs from around the country will battle for the title of Australia’s Dessert Master, premiering on 10 in 2023.
Produced by Endemol Shine Australia (a Banijay company), Dessert Masters sets a dozen of the nation’s sugar-hit specialists against each other in pastry-themed challenges – all beneath the bright lights of the MasterChef Australia kitchen.
To claim the crown, these pastry chefs will need to conceive an array of delectable desserts.
Who will enjoy the sweet taste of victory and become Australia’s first ever Dessert Master and walk away with the $100,000 cash prize?
Location, Location, Location
Buying a house can be a fraught business, especially in Australia. Thankfully in 2023, 10 is bringing property experts to the rescue of desperate house hunters in the premiere of the worldwide smash hit, Location, Location, Location.
The new series is based on Relocation Relocation Australia – an Australian lifestyle television series that first aired on The LifeStyle Channel in 2011.
From auction houses to estate agencies, websites to word-of-mouth, the team from Location, Location, Location will scour markets all over Australia for the perfect property. And whether it’s upsizing, downsizing, retiring or relocating, the mission is always the same: to make a dream home a reality.
With interest rates rising in the real estate market and pulse rates rising for both nervous sellers and anxious buyers, every property auction is an emotional mini-drama, and Location, Location, Location will be there to catch all the highs and lows.
Produced by EndemolShine Australia (a Banijay company), Location, Location, Location is an original format from IWC Media (a Banijay company) distributed by Banijay Rights.
Taskmaster
Tom Gleeson stars as the Taskmaster, with Tom Cashman as his assistant. Each week the two Toms set five comedians a range of tasks designed to test brains and put funny bones to the test.
Who’ll master the tasks? At the series’ end, the comedian with the most points will be crowned the champion.
The lineup of comedians ready to risk their reputations, includes Julia Morris, Luke McGregor, Jimmy Rees, Nina Oyama and Danielle Walker.
Produced by Avalon / Kevin &Co, executive producers are Alex Horne, Richard Allen-Turner, Rob Aslett, James Taylor, Jon Thoday and Andy Devonshire (The Apprentice and The Great British Bake Off), who also acts as series director.
Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly
Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly was also announced as a new show coming to 10 next year.
Master Trainer aka ‘The Dogfather’ Graeme Hall will help turn chaotic dogs into well-behaved canines.
With a proven track record of reforming over 5,000 dogs in the past decade, Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly will follow Graeme Hall as they observe the methods behind his mantra of “any dog, any age, any problem.”
The new series is based on the hit Avalon format Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly for UK broadcaster Channel 5.
North Shore
Crime thriller North Shore is also set to arrive at Paramount. Its creator is Mike Bullen of Cold Feet fame, it’s directed by the highly acclaimed Gregor Jordan, and it stars Joanne Froggatt.
What happens when a British detective and his Australian counterpart team up to solve a murder? The answer is a clash of cultures and personalities.
Paper Dolls
Another drama on the slate is Paper Dolls. The fictional series tracks the meteoric rise of a girl band spawned by a reality television show. A cautionary tale about the pitfalls of sudden fame, Paper Dolls will strike a chord with audiences who have grown up amid the boom in TV talent shows this century.
The First Inventors
New to Paramount is the factual series The First Inventors. The show will transport you back in time – between 70,000 and 120,000 years ago – to a community in the midst of developing sophisticated stone tools, art, agriculture, irrigation and much more.
In this story of knowledge, resilience, and invention, presenter Rob Collins will meet and collaborate with First Nations authorities whose frontline fieldwork offers a new insight into ancient Indigenous innovations and discoveries.
Returning content
The Bachelors, Australian Survivor and The Dog House Australia
The new season of The Bachelors will be screening throughout January 2023.
Host Osher Günsberg said: “We find love and celebrate love better than anyone. And it all happens in our glamorous new home on the Gold Coast.
“There’s a lot that’s going to look and feel very different. I mean, the name of the show for starters. It’s The Bachelors. Plural. There’s three of them. An abundance of Bachelors!
“Joining these three eligible young men from across the country are smart, powerful, beautiful women who – like our Bachelors – are over the dating apps, the ghosting and the inability to commit.”
The Bachelors
From February, Australian Survivor returns to Paramount with the most popular theme the franchise has ever seen: Heroes Versus Villains.
Complementing Australian Survivor is the third season of The Dog House Australia.
Would I Lie To You? and Gogglebox
Returning to Monday nights is the second season of Would I Lie To You? with Chrissie Swan, Frank Woodley and a new team captain – the always funny Charlie Pickering.
Pickering said: “I have always loved the show, and as a new team captain I can’t wait to maximise my opportunities to lie to the Australian public.”
Hitting the couch once again is Gogglebox Australia.
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! MasterChef Australia
And after two years locked Down Under, the ninth season of the Logie award-winning I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! is returning to South Africa, just in time for Easter.
MasterChef Australia returns in winter for a shorter, more compact run. This year the aim is to keep audiences not entertained as well as guessing, with Season 15 branded as MasterChef Australia: Secrets & Surprises.
Have You Been Paying Attention?, The Cheap Seat and The Real Love Boat
MasterChef
Joining the MasterChef quarter are award-winning comedies Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Cheap Seats.
In the second half of 2023, there are more fugitives working to avoid capture in Hunted and lonely-hearts setting sail aboard The Real Love Boat.
Factual series such as Ambulance Australia and Bondi Rescue will also be back to Paramount.
Have You Been Paying Attention?
About to launch
The Traitors
The Traitors is a new show that takes the whodunit murder mystery to the next level. Hosted by Rodger Corser, the series sees 24 strangers meet in an old hotel in the countryside where they’re forced to lie and deceive to win a $250,000 prize.
Corser said: “The Traitors will grip you within the first few minutes. I always thought country life was laid back, not stab-in-the-back!”
The Traitors
The Challenge Australia
Celebrities will be living in each other’s pockets while battling it out in physical challenges on The Challenge Australia.
Host Brihony Dawson said: “Earlier this year some of the biggest names in Australian sport and entertainment descended on the Argentinian wilderness to compete in the world’s most gruelling – not to mention, cutthroat – competition.
“With the unique challenges I’ll be setting and the curveballs I’ll be throwing, only two competitors will survive to be crowned champions of The Challenge Australia.”
Host Brihony Dawson
News
10 News First reaches three million Australians every week, while the live stream and off-network news presence continues to grow.
Host Sandra Sully said: “In a world that’s getting smaller, news has never been more relied upon, more sought after or simply, more important.
“News you can trust is more critical than ever – and our journalists, producers and crews across the country work around the clock and across multiple platforms to ensure our viewers can access the latest news quickly and accurately.”
Sandra Sully
Every week more than three million Australians join the conversation on The Project – the youngest news and current affairs show on TV. More than half The Project’s audience is under the age of 50.
Host Waleed Aly said: “The Project team is there to test new ideas, debate opinions, and engage candidly and comically with the world’s biggest stars and newsmakers. All this incredible news content, delivered straight to your TV, tablet, or phone – anytime, anyplace.”
And, Studio 10 is back weekday mornings.
Hosts Tristan MacManus and Sarah Harris
Sport
From the Australian MotoGP and the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix to the Melbourne Cup Carnival, 10 will deliver memorable sporting moments in 2023 for Paramount.
Plus, 10 Bold will continue to kick goals with the Isuzu UTE A-League matches across the season, along with NBL games every Sunday on 10 Peach.
Multichannels
On 10 Bold, there are plenty of favourites returning for the new year – shows like Star Trek: Discovery, Law & Order: SVU, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, Blue Bloods and Bull.
Meanwhile, 10 Peach continues to be the go-to channel for ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s nostalgia with The Big Bang Theory, Mom, Seinfeld, and Friends.
Over on 10 Shake, it’s sitcoms, romcoms, stand-up comedy. Shows like PAW Patrol, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Blue’s Clues & You!, The Loud House, The Thundermans and Game Shakers will keep the little ones entertained, while The Office US, South Park, Workaholics, Catfish, Comedy Central Roasts, Comedy Central Stand Up and Aussie stand up specials will have grown-ups laughing.
Paramount+
Streaming service Paramount+ will to enhance its on-platform experience through a balance of curation and personalisation. It will also continue to expand its platform rollout with three major launches on the near horizon.
In their first year, Paramount+ commissioned 12 local shows, including Undressed – a brand new transformation series hosted by Kathryn Eisman.
Coming soon are local originals The Last King of the Cross and The Appleton Ladies, Potato Race and many more.
Also new to Paramount+ is Halo, Yellowjackets and Mayor of Kingstown – all in their second seasons – as well as Rise of the Pink Ladies, Ripley and Three Women.
The A Leagues also kick off this weekend and every game will be live on P+ with select games on 10 and 10 Play and a mountain of new tentpoles coming very soon.
