Seven West Media chief executive Tim Worner has wrapped up a controversy-laden year with a pay cut as the company suffered a $744 million loss, courtesy of persistent weak ad revenues and a massive writedown on its broadcast licences.
Seven West Media chief executive Tim Worner has wrapped up a controversy-laden year with a pay cut as the company suffered a $744 million loss, courtesy of persistent weak ad revenues and a massive writedown on its broadcast licences.
Seven West posted its second full-year loss in just three years, after accumulating almost $1 billion in write-downs and one-off costs, led by a $436 million reduction in the carrying value of its television licences.
It also recorded a $61.1 million impairment charge against The West Australian Newspaper, which reported an 11.9 per cent fall in advertising revenue to $127.8 million, and an overall EBIT result of $26 million, down 33.7 per cent.
The West's overall revenue result was 4.8 per cent lower to $217.5 million.
Seven West also confirmed today it had paid $14.9 million to acquire The Sunday Times last year.
Mr Worner opted not to receive any short-term incentive payments for the year, cutting his total pay to $2.74 million from $3.2 million in the previous year.
"I feel as though it hasn't been a stellar year for the company and as such I didn't ask for a bonus," Mr Worner said during a briefing for Wednesday's results.
Mr Worner and other senior executives also missed long-term incentive payments as the board reassessed "alignment" of awards.
Seven slumped from a $184.3 million profit in 2015/16 to a $744.3 loss for the year to June 30, 2017.
"None of us are getting an LTI this year - some of us are getting an STI - but those amounts are comparatively very small, in keeping with our performance," Mr Worner said.
"The size of an executive's bonus is dependent on performance as against profit and in my own case I didn't ask to be considered for a bonus."
Away from its financial performance, Seven also endured unwanted publicity during the year after an affair Mr Worner had with former network executive assistant Amber Harrison was made public in December.
The matter culminated in a highly publicised court battle which the broadcaster won, with costs, after arguing Ms Harrison had breached a confidentiality agreement and seeking orders to prevent publication of sensitive company information that she possessed.
In the last 12 months Mr Worner has watched as $988.8 million of pre-tax significant items dragged the transitioning media company back into the red amid a toughening in conditions for the free-to-air media industry.
The major hit was the writedown in the value television licences, after softer free-to-air business conditions led to a further rationalisation on growth assumptions for the market outlook.
The company, hanging on the passage of new media laws that Mr Worner says will rebalance the current tax inequity in the sector, also impaired the value of investments across its diverse media assets by $276.4 million.
Revenue for the 12 months to June 24 fell 2.7 per cent to $1.68 billion.
Seven West shares were down 1.9 per cent to 77.5 cents at midday.
