Don’t you just love the Ten Network — charging on with programming announcements as the share price continues to sink to new all-time lows? Yesterday the network revealed that The Bachelorette this year won’t be an unknown woman, but a 37-year-old one-time singer and wannabe TV personality Sophie Monk. Of all the appointments, this is a bit over the top, a bit too obvious. 

Ten though went to the Mixmaster to try and hook the audience’s attention in the statement.

“Refreshingly honest, funny and relatable, the television, radio and music star is the perfect choice for the third season of the exciting and romantic hit series. While her professional life has gone from strength to strength, unlucky-in-love Sophie, 37, has never shied away from the trials and tribulations of finding ‘the one’.”

But for investors thing are much less attractive. Ten shares fell 4.1% on Friday to 46 cents (4.6 cents before the one-for-10 share consolidation last year). That means the shares have lost $1.01 since their all-time high in October 2016 of $1.47, and have all but halved in value since their 2017 high of 91.5 cents on February 14, the day before the company warned of weak revenue, a loss instead of a profit for the half year to February 28 (and possibly for the year to the end of August) and a possible impairment of the value of the company’s assets, which are its TV licences. — Glenn Dyer