Burnette’s 2.6 million performance rights – which were worth $572,916 last December – are now valued at $1.6 million. And McWilliam’s 2.3 million rights are now valued at $1.4 million – a difference of about $900,000.

It is very common for listed companies to issue executives with shares that vest if the business hits certain performance hurdles. The shares issued by Seven under the long-term incentive plans are contingent on a compound annual growth rate over a three-year vesting period.

But they aren’t the only rights that were awarded over the past two years. For Burnette, Howard, McWilliam and McGrath, there could also be huge gains from performance rights that were granted in January 2020, which were valued at 4.5 cents each. McWilliam’s performance rights, for example, were worth $25,084 back then. Now, they are valued at $334,459. All this means Seven’s executive team could end up being the highest paid in Australian media over the next couple of years.

The promising news for Seven investors is Warburton expects the share price to grow as his programming ratings and revenue improve. Seven announced this weekend it was the number one broadcaster in terms of total audience. Earlier this month it announced an earnings upgrade and flagged the return of its dividend for the first time since 2017.

"Revenue always lags ratings," Mr Warburton told this masthead late week. "You’ve got to get the ratings good, get the mojo back.

"We’ve put forward a three-pillar strategy... and we’ve executed on the plan. We’ve got some reward for that now, people are starting to see the momentum. We’re still one of the most undervalued media companies. Consolidating Prime is another opportunity for us and we’ll just continue doing our job and the rest will look after itself."

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