James Warburton, Seven’s $7 million man 

Chris Pash
By Chris Pash | 17 August 2021
 

James Warburton has done well in terms of pay in the two years he has been CEO of Seven West Media.

His base pay of $1,274,798 a year is now in the shadow of his incentive payments, short and long term. 

The latest annual report shows his total pay, using statutory disclosures, at $4,571,574 for the year to June.

However, the company also provided what it calls a summary of Warburton’s “actual remuneration” -- the value of what he received in total. 

That is shown in the annual reports as $7,623,157, including $4,275,000 of short term incentives via share price growth (this was zero last year when his total pay was $1,178,774). 

The share price was $0.475 at yesterday's close, up from a 12 month low of $0.105. 

Using the same "actual" method, Seven’s chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette received $3,199,438in value.

The period covered by gthe annual report included the depths of the economic fallout from the pandemic but since then revenue from free-to-air television has been booming. 

In full year results announced yesterday, Warburton said metropolitan free-to-air TV advertising market rebounded strongly, up 25.8% in the six months to June and up 11.5% over the year. 

The media group reported revenue of $1.27 billion, up 3.5% driven by a recovery in the metropolitan TV advertising market and the growth of 7plus. 

Warburton has also slashed costs. Operating costs are down 7.5% to $1.022 billion.

That led to a 240% increase to $125.5 million in underlying net profit after tax for the year to June. 

Statutory net profit after income tax was $318 million on group revenue of $1.276 billion, up 3.5% on the previous year.

The improved TV advertising market is so good the company decided to reverse a TV license impairment of $208.5 million. And the better than forecast performance of the Olympic Games Tokyo resulted in a $20.6 million reversal in the Olympics onerous provision.  

 

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