ITV pays Crozier £1.6m for his first eight months

ITV is paying its newly installed chief executive Adam Crozier more than £1.6m for his first eight months in the job after the beleaguered broadcaster saw its profits treble.

According to the broadcaster's annual report, the former head of the Royal Mail was paid a basic salary of £532,000, plus another £334,000 "golden hello" on joining the company. He also received a £252,000 short-term cash bonus and another £505,000 deferred in shares until 2013.

Mr Crozier was also issued more than four million nil-cost share options on joining the company last April. Although they cannot vest until April 2013, the value of the portfolio has shot up by nearly 30 per cent as the group's share price has steadily risen.

ITV's first annual results with Mr Crozier at the helm were published last week, sending the stock up by more than 9 per cent in a single day as the group reported profits up from £108m to £321m, thanks to a whopping 16 per cent boost in advertising revenues.

But despite the boost from successful series such as Downton Abbey and The X Factor, ITV1's viewing share dropped over the year, leaving the group cautious in its outlook for the year ahead.

With an estimated £14m in pay and awards on the table over the next five years, Mr Crozier has a major incentive to turn ITV around.

"The incentive arrangements emphasise the delivery of strategic change, co-operative endeavour and three- to five-year outcomes aligned to shareholder value," Andy Haste, the chairman of the Remuneration Committee, said in this year's annual report.