Eddie McGuire scores a million - five times over

Eddie McGuire, who hosted the Australian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire before being promoted to run the nation's biggest television network, earned about A$4.7 million ($5.3 million) last year.

McGuire took charge of the Nine Network in February as its third chief executive officer in less than a year. He received A$4.54 million in salary and fees and A$159,163 in other benefits for the 12 months ended June 30, according to the annual report of the network's owner Publishing & Broadcasting, published yesterday.

Executive chairman James Packer installed McGuire to arrest a loss in viewers to rival Seven Network, which threatened to end Nine's five-year reign as Australia's most-watched network. Since taking the job, McGuire has fired almost 100 journalists to save costs.

Nine's audience has shrunk 2 per cent this year as Seven lured viewers with dramas such as Lost and celebrity show Dancing with the Stars.

The rival also took the lead in the 6pm news and current affairs slot, which feeds into primetime.

Seven is running neck and neck with Nine in this year's viewer ratings, leading by just 0.1 percentage points excluding Nine's coverage of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, figures by market researcher Oztam show.

McGuire received A$250,000 for moving to Sydney from Melbourne to run the network. He's also entitled to two cars from the company, according to his contract, which runs for five years.

Only 2 per cent of his pay is performance-linked.

- BLOOMBERG