Seven West Media has posted a $744m loss for the 2017 financial year and cut the pay of its chief executive, Tim Worner, by $450,000.
The loss comes just one month after the end of a damaging legal stoush with Worner’s former lover and Seven executive assistant, Amber Harrison.
An almost $1bn write-down on the value of its television assets accounts for the loss, which comes after a $184.3m profit in 2016.
“Our results reflect a tough market, one that continues to change at pace, but a pace that we must match in our transformation,” Worner told analysts.
“Despite these tougher conditions, we continue to lead in the core markets in which we compete, while at the same time making the necessary and sometimes difficult decisions in the transformation of our business.”
Seven West Media is the leading free-to-air network, with a 40% share of the advertising revenue, and also publishes the West Australian, Perth Now, the Sunday Times and Pacific Magazines’ suite of magazines including Marie Claire and Better Homes and Gardens.
Worner, a married father of three who survived in the top job despite embarrassing revelations, has had his take-home pay reduced from $3,195,015 in 2016 to $2,740,835 in 2017 after his bonus was dropped, according to the annual report released on Wednesday.
Last month a judge said Harrison had acted unreasonably in her court battle with Seven and ordered her to pay all of the organisation’s legal costs. The single mother of a foster child has said she will be bankrupted by the order.
“[Harrison] decided to contest a claim and run a cross-claim mounted on allegations she could not substantiate,” Justice John Sackar said in his New South Wales supreme court judgment.
Seven West’s chairman, Kerry Stokes, drew a line under the Harrison dispute, saying the company had acted “professionally and appropriately” in its handling of the matter, which was “now closed”.
“While we are very proud that our group is delivering record revenue share of above 40% in the free-to-air market, we acknowledge the sector is diminishing in size and we need to adapt with new strategies,” Stokes said.
“We support the federal government’s media reforms, including licence fees being addressed, to enable local media groups to remain strong in the face of increasing competition from various new players.”
But Harrison is not going quietly, launching a $200,000 crowdfunding campaign this week to cover her legal costs.
Worner said Seven was in its 22nd half-year of leading in ratings and revenue across the metropolitan broadcast television market. “We also expanded our leadership in content creation and distribution across new delivery platforms, with over 45% share in live streaming and [video on demand] catch-up revenue.
“We have continued to invest in creating our own content and we are growing our productions business globally, delivering a further 11% revenue growth in the year.
“The West has successfully integrated the Sunday Times and Perth Now into the business and has rapidly improved the digital offering of the business.
“Pacific, which has faced material revenue pressure, is accelerating its transformation. We are also investing in new businesses where we’re leveraging the power of our assets to help growth, with very pleasing results.”
When the affair between Worner and Harrison began she was 35 and the executive assistant to Nick Chan, then chief executive of Seven West’s magazine division Pacific Magazines.
