NEW Network Ten boss Hamish McLennan says there will be no more reality TV flops like The Shire and Being Lara Bingle, ratings disasters which do not reflect what the company is all about.

Announcing a $243.3 million half-year loss this morning, Mr McLennan said past decisions to commission the two reality programming stinkers explained the network's current woes.

Asked what had gone wrong at Ten, Mr McLennan replied: "It just highlights what The Shire and Lara Bingle did to us - I think we dislocated a lot of the audience and I think it was the type of program that didn't really reflect who we wanted to be."

Both shows progressively lost viewers after their debut last year and have been dumped by the network.

Mr McLennan said the broadcaster would move away from targeting an "extreme" youth demographic that was "promiscuous" in its viewing habits to zone in on the upper end of its revised 18 to 49-year old target audience.

"We have had a strong extreme youth focus in the past and I think it would be fair to say those viewers are the most promiscuous viewers in the marketplace," he said.

"The extreme youth focus that led to shows like The Shire and Being Lara Bingle being commissioned is not quite right for us.

"We will always be fun and irreverent, we will always have a younger skew relative to the competition but we might just bump it up a little bit."

Ten dumped former chief executive James Warburton in February following a year of low ratings and failed shows.

The network was hit by $304 million in one-off costs in the six months to February. It made a $14.8 million profit in the same period a year earlier.

Its one-off costs included a non-cash television licence impairment charge of $292.1 million and one-off restructuring charges of $11.9 million.

Total revenue fell 14 per cent to $307.6 million and not interim dividend will be paid.

The broadcaster's underlying profit for the half-year was $6.8 million after non-recurring items.

Shares in the company were up 5 per cent in early trade.

Originally published as Ten vows no more reality flops