Tim Worner did not want to directly acknowledge the elephant in the room when he handed down Seven West Media's full-year results on Wednesday.
But Amber Harrison's presence continued to haunt the television network after Worner was asked to explain why he had agreed to forfeit his short-term bonus this year.
The bonus cut, outlined in the company's annual report without explanation, means Worner now joins Ian Narev and other Commonwealth Bank of Australia executives who are copping a salary cut due to reputational issues dogging their companies.
The messy fallout from Worner's affair with the former Seven secretary is a totally different kettle of fish to the money laundering allegations at Commonwealth Bank.
But both situations are evidence that bad behaviour as well as bad financial results are being taken seriously by boards when looking at executive remuneration.
This is a good thing for corporate culture and society at large although there is still a long way to go in fixing the overly-complex remuneration system and the perception that many chief executives, particularly in banking are overpaid.
"It hasn't been a stellar year for the company and as such I didn't ask to be considered for a bonus," Worner said when asked why he had forfeited his short-term bonus. Worner recieved a $500,000 bonus the previous year but it would not have been that high this year given all the executives took short-term incentive cuts.
When pressed about whether the decision was related to the public and legal storm surrounding the Harrison case, he said it was a fair enough question given that the other measures of paying him a short-term bonus, such as delivering strong ratings were intact.
Media write-downs are a message
Seven, like most media companies, has not had a stellar year. While the results call was a sharp contrast to the first-half briefing in February when Kerry Stokes took a barrage of questions about the Harrison case, Seven has followed in the footsteps of its rivals in writing down the value of its assets as online competitors gobble up advertising revenues.
Seven posted an underlying loss of $745 million on Wednesday following almost $1 billion in one-off items whcih included a $432 million writedown on the value of its television broadcasting licence.
The three television networks combined have now written down $900 million in the value of their TV licences which should be clear message to the Senate that changes to outdated media ownership laws are long overdue.
Seven was being cautious about the likelihood of the Senate passing the government's media reforms this week given crossbencher Nick Xenophon a potential obstacle.
"We are more confident than we have been but nothing is ever certain," Worner says. "What looks like a certainty can turn into a long shot very quickly.
"The message we want to deliver is that we are competing against rivals who are on our playing field but they are playing with different rules.
"They are not paying anywhere near the amount of tax we are paying. The wirte-down in themselves are a message but it shouldn't take that sort of action to make it clear."
