Seven Network

Owned by Seven West Media Limited (SWM), of which billionaire chairman Kerry Stokes holds a controlling stake of about 41 percent. Stokes also has a major interest in Australia’s controversial mining sector. His son Ryan became CEO of Seven West Media’s majority owner Seven Group Holdings Limited (SGH) in July 2015. Ryan Stokes has also been a Director of Seven West Media Limited since 2012.

In September 2015, Seven West Media embarked on AU$75 million (US$54 million) share buyback program.” It came after Seven West reported a net loss after tax of AU$1.89 billion for the year ended June 27, due to a major write-down of its TV assets. That was down from last year’s profit of AU$149.2 million.

Commercial free-to-air Seven Network, commonly referred to as Channel Seven, includes three major free-to-air digital TV channels: 7, 7TWO, and 7mate. Apart from the TV network, Seven West Media also comprises magazine publishers Pacific Magazines, 50 percent of the Yahoo7 digital platform, Western Australia’s leading newspaper the West Australian and associated WA regional newspapers and radio stations. It also has a 33 percent stake in Sky News Australia.

Seven is Australia’s most-watched television network. 2014 was its eighth consecutive year of market leadership in primetime.

The CEO of Seven West Media since 2013, Worner previously served as CEO of Seven Network Television and continues to oversee the television business. He began his journalism career at Channel Seven Perth, joining the Seven Network in 1995. Worner made headlines in September 2015 after announcing that Seven West Media would be taking part in a AU$75 million (US$54 million) share buyback. Seven West shares hit a record low of 66.5 cents on September 10, down 18 per cent since the company reported $1.9 billion loss in the 2014/15 financial year on August 19. Several days before the full-year results were unveiled Worner’s contract was extended until 2018.

Popularly known as ‘Kochie,’ Koch presents Seven Network’s ‘Sunrise’ breakfast program. Trained as an accountant, he began journalistic career as a cadet for the Australian before joining BRW magazine. He also created Personal Investment magazine, one of the publishing success stories of the 1980s, which made him the youngest editor in the Fairfax Media group. He later launched Personal Investment magazines in New Zealand and the UK. In 1988, he launched the trade publishing group Australian Financial Press (AFP) as part of a joint venture with Fairfax. Business magazine, New Accountant, and Money Management newspaper were launched from AFP. Koch remains one of Australia’s foremost business and finance commentators.

Koch was nominated for a Silver ‘Logie’, Australia’s answer to the ‘Emmys’ for Most Popular Presenter award in 2004 and 2005. In 2004, he landed in hot water after telling a crass joke about then-Prime Minister John Howard’s wife and then-opposition leader Kim Beazley. Former Sunrise producer Adam Boland revealed in a 2010 memoir that Howard had still not forgiven Koch, and that he refuses to appear on Sunrise because of the incident. Seven majority owner Kerry Stokes ordered Koch to write a letter of apology to Howard. Koch said he had not meant to "intentionally offend anyone."

Koch also faced criticism in 2013 after stating that it was "fair enough" that a public pool had asked a breastfeeding mother to be more discreet. He later tweeted that such discretion is a "common courtesy to others." About 100 breastfeeding mothers staged a protest outside the Sunrise studio following Koch’s comments, and the woman at the center of the story was given a chance to address Koch on the program, saying his comments had done "more damage than you could realize." Koch — who in 2007 got the Australian Father of the Year award — apologized to anyone who interpreted his comments as implying there was any shame associated with public breastfeeding, but stood by the statement that women should be modest and discreet.

Co-host of Sunrise alongside Koch, Armytage began presenting the show in 2013. Prior to this, she served as co-host of Weekend Sunrise from June 2007. Armytage began her career at Seven Network in 2003, after being noticed for her coverage of the Canberra bushfires.

Though much loved by the audience, in April 2015, Armytage was criticized for a comment which many deemed racist. While introducing a set of British twins who come from a mixed race family and look nothing alike, Armytage said: "Maria has taken after her half-Jamaican Mum with dark skin and brown eyes and curly dark hair, but Lucy got her dad’s fair skin — good on her — along with straight red hair and blue eyes." A petition was launched on Change.org demanding an apology. The twins defended Armytage, saying they believed her comments were misinterpreted by viewers. Nevertheless, Armytage apologized to anyone who she might have offended, saying she would be "mortified if anyone thought I would say or think anything racist."

Armytage has frequently been criticized for her weight, to which she has replied "take me as I am." She also lashed out at a 2014 Daily Telegraph article which showed a series of unflattering photos of her and shamed the writer on Twitter, who did not hesitate to hit back.

We've finally discovered the author of today's 'charming' piece.. It's @inSharpRelief. Let her know your thoughts pic.twitter.com/bnDXZnn7Mb

— Samantha Armytage (@sam_armytage) September 18, 2014

Hands up if u think @sam_armytage is being a bit hysterical today? The issues here are a) a dud TV show & 2) STYLE

— Annette Sharp (@InSharpRelief) September 18, 2014

In 2014, Seven was reportedly ready to pay as much as AU$2 million (US$ 1.4 million) for a first interview with convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby after her release from a Bali prison. The alleged move was criticized by Seven’s own Sunrise co-host David Koch, who said the network should have "nothing to do with [Corby]." However Indonesian authorities banned Corby from a TV interview. As a result Corby’s sister Mercedes was interviewed instead of her. Seven denied it had paid anything to Corby or her relatives.



In 2008, Seven reached a settlement with the lawyers of Mercedes Corby to pay her an undisclosed sum over a series of interviews with one-time family friend Jodie Power, broadcast in February 2007. A New South Wales Supreme Court jury found that three ‘Today Tonight’ programs and one news bulletin broadcast have conveyed defamatory implications, including that Corby was a drug smuggler, a drug dealer, and posed a threat to the safety of Jodie Power.

In 2011, Seven aired a controversial documentary on the Suruwaha tribe in the Amazon. Survival International, a human rights organization which campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples, branded the program "freakshow TV," claiming it portrayed the tribe as "primitive, backward savages." The group wrote to Seven, pointing out the errors and distortions in the report but the network rejected the accusations. Australia’s broadcasting regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) opened a formal investigation into the matter, in which it found the documentary was "provoking severe ridicule" of the tribe. Seven challenged that decision, seeking a judicial review in the Federal Court. That turned into a three-year legal battle which Seven eventually lost. The network was also ordered to pay ACMA’s legal costs. The official report of ACMA’s investigation was published in January 2015 and states that an official who accompanied Seven’s crew told the ACMA that the network wanted to show only the "strongest and best-looking" Suruwaha "without industrialized clothes, like caps or T-shirts." Any possible action against Seven was still pending as of January, ACMA said at the time.

In 2006 Seven’s news director Stephen Carey, former current affairs show ‘Today Tonight’ executive producer Craig McPherson and the Sunday Herald Sun (published by the Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia) and its former editor-in-chief Alan Howe were found guilty over charges relating to revealing the identity of a minor involved in legal proceedings in 2004. The judge said the stories were clearly a report of proceedings in the Children’s Court, which is against the law.

Seven, alongside the Herald and Weekly Times, was ordered to pay AU$ 50,000 (US$ 36,200) each to charity after losing appeals against the conviction. Alan Howe, Stephen Carey and Craig McPherson were also individually fined.