Speculation is rife in the media landscape that the TEN Network is preparing to launch a new branding campaign for its 5pm news services under the slogan ‘TEN News First’.

Twitter user Adrian Cutts tipped off DeciderTV to the fact TEN has filed a trademark and secured the website domain for ‘TEN News First’.

TV producer Robert McKnight and host of the TV Blackbox podcast today described the potential change as “a silly brand positioning statement”. During his time at Nine, McKnight was the producer who introduced the “See it First on Nine” slogan, a move which was copied by Seven.

“It’s not a point of difference, it’s not believable with the resources that TEN have. What stories are they breaking first?” said McKnight on the podcast.

TEN is most commonly known by viewers as ‘Eyewitness News’ a slogan which was introduced in 1973 and ran through to 1994 until the name was changed to ‘TEN News at Five’, that branding lasted until 2013 when the network opted to return to the ‘Eyewitness News’ brand.

A spokesperson for TEN declined to confirm or deny that a change to its news service was imminent.