Ten gobbles up more MasterChef

Network Ten has secured rights to hit cooking competition format MasterChef for at least the next three years after signing a new multimillion-dollar deal with Shine Australia.

A new long-term pact for the programme kicks in from 2012, with Ten reportedly paying A$50m (US$49m) per season for the privilege – a mark-up of some A$20m on last year’s deal, according to local newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

Shine Australia, set up by former FremantleMedia Australia chiefs Mark and Carl Fennessy in 2009, takes over MasterChef format rights from the latter company next year. The finale of MasterChef Australia pulled in four million viewers in 2010, with the season averaging 1.9 million per episode.

Ten CEO Grant Blackley said the show had “not only won the hearts of our audience, it has inspired a nation.”

“This agreement with Shine Australia represents the commencement of an exciting new era in the relationship between Network Ten and Shine, as we seek to most effectively realise the full potential inherent in our content rights across multiple platforms, including, but not limited to, broadcast, online, mobile and IPTV.”

Chief programming officer David Mott added: “We have established a strong and effective working relationship with Shine Australia, most recently with Junior MasterChef and The Biggest Loser, and coming later in the year the brand new Australian format The Renovators.”

The deal is a boon to Shine Australia parent Shine Group, which recently appointed JP Morgan to advise it on strategic options after the company received a number of approaches from potential suitors – Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp among them.

Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth – Shine’s chairman and CEO – said of the new MasterChef deal: “The show continues to beat even its own remarkable ratings records, and its unprecedented impact is felt not only in Australia but around the world. We look forward to building on this success with Network Ten over the upcoming years across a variety of platforms.”