LONDON -- Carlton founder and chairman Michael Green, the former chairman-elect of commercial broadcaster ITV, received a £15 million ($27 million) "golden farewell" payoff after being ousted before Carlton's merger with shareholder Granada to create the unified ITV, it emerged Wednesday in Carlton's annual report.
The mix of shares and cash is considerably higher than the $3.24 million he was due in severance and pension bonuses and was boosted by a $23.7 million bonus despite the outfit's difficulties, the result of the failure of ITV Digital and the downturn in advertising.
The payoff, believed to be the biggest in U.K. media history, is bound to spark further resentment among stockholders.
It came as Granada CEO-turned-ITV CEO Charles Allen unveiled the outfit's financial performance for the last 12 months.
"The pace of change has been incredible," claimed Allen. "We have put ITV in a stronger position and created a united and more efficient company."
For the past year, joint sales of Granada and Carlton, the two combos that merged in February to create ITV, were $3.7 billion. Pre-tax profits were $400 million, in line with forecasts.
Overall ITV advertising revenues were down 2% year on year due to lower audiences, a result of multichannel competition.
However, Allen was optimistic about future revenue, suggesting that the market looks more stable.
He predicted that advertising from flagship web ITV1 would show a slight increase in the first quarter of 2004. Joint revenues for ITV1 and 2, the digital sister net that has shown big growth, should be up by around $7.2 million.
Allen intends to bolster the web's multichannel offerings this year, launching the more upscale ITV3 based on the Granada and Carlton archive.
A children's channel may also be rolled out following talks with Disney and Nickelodeon, but Allen is cautious about entering the competitive market.
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