Ten offered to pay John Stephens ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ to work for no-one
McLennan
Network Ten offered to pay prized programmer John Stephens hundreds of thousands of dollars to not work for rivals Seven or Nine after he refused their job offer, the network’s CEO Hamish McLennan told the NSW Supreme Court this morning.
On his second day on the witness stand McLennan, whose network is seeking a two-year injunction to stop the 67-year-old from working with current employers Seven Network or former employer Nine, admitted he had offered to pay Stephens his full salary at Ten even if he did nothing for the network.
During cross-examination this morning McLennan also failed to recall the names of programming executives at the ABC and SBS, while the network’s head of human resources admitted they had tried to keep their approach for Stephens a secret from current programming head Beverley McGarvey.
Mr People Skills strikes again
Thank fuck I don’t have money in Ten.
So SBS is “very niche’. Sounds perfect as that is what Ten is rapidly becoming!
Can I sign a contract with Ten? I would love to be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do nothing!
What an absolute farce – seems to me Stevo would be a better choice for CEO at 10
McLennan should at least know the deputy programmer at sbs – they recently departed TEN.
Paying people for doing nothing is a big move forward for TEN… they have been paying people to fuck up. Nice one Hamish