LONDON: The UK's biggest commercial broadcaster ITV has revealed it handed erstwhile ceo Charles Allen a golden parachute worth over £5.4 million ($10.6m; €7.9m) last summer [WARC News: 09-Aug-06] when he resigned in the wake of a major slump in the company's viewer-ratings and ad revenues.
Allen, who presided over the consolidation of Britain's two largest commercial TV franchises (Carlton Communications and Granada) to create a near-unified ITV, was replaced in January by Michael Grade, the former chairman of publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC.
Grade, who recently dismissed much of his new employer's programming as "copycat" and "unoriginal", will receive £6m-worth of shares if he can reach targets and revive ITV's fortunes.
Achievement of those targets would not only boost the value of Grade's shares, it could well trigger a US takeover bid - long sought by a handful of ITV's larger shareholders.
Data sourced from MediaGuardian.co.uk; additional content by WARC staff
