Craig Hutchison's salary surges to $1.3 million amid major AFL media shake-up
Craig Hutchison has quietly bumped his salary to $1.3m — the payday coming as his company emerges as the front runner to elbow out Eddie McGuire in the race to snap up the AFL’s entire video content operation.
Craig Hutchison has given himself a $250,000 pay rise as his company and Eddie McGuire’s Jam TV circle a new deal to produce the AFL’s video content.
Company documents reveal that Hutchison received a $1.3 million salary this year, with almost half of that paid for “talent appearances”.
The $580,000 package for his hosting work on the Agenda Setters, which airs on Seven, the Saturday morning Off the Bench radio show on SEN, and his weekly podcast, put him in the top 20 earners of TV stars in Australia.
He was just shy of Seven News host Peter Mitchell, who is on $650,000 a year, Sunrise host Matt Shirvington, $600,000, and ahead of Nine’s Today Extra Hosts Sylvia Jeffries and David Campbell, who are both on $540,000.
Media analyst Steve Allen said Hutchison could “cut the cloth” any way he likes because he was a shareholder in Sports Entertainment Group.
But he said the salary for his “talent appearances” was “definitely high”.
“It’s a bit of an ask,” he said.
“He can’t demonstrate the numbers that some of those front line personalities deliver, which network bosses argue is the reason people get hooked on a show and come back.”
SEG’s main assets are its sports radio network across the country, as well as its production studio Rainmaker and sports teams including the Melbourne Mavericks netball franchise.
Mr Allen said other radio networks, including Nine, Southern Cross Austereo and ARN had been cutting costs to “batten down the hatches”, with Australia’s radio advertising market slipping 20.7 per cent in the year to October, according to SMI.
“Life is not getting easier” for radio, he added.
Hutchison, a key shareholder at Sports Entertainment Group signed off, along with the 98.76 per cent of shareholders, on his salary package at its annual general meeting last week.
He declined to comment on his wages and the potential AFL content deal.
The deal included share bonuses, and his salary for being chief executive of the radio, production and sports teams company to $722,592.
Hutchison’s total 2025 package of $1,302,592 was an increase on $1,046,270 in 2024.
The salary surge comes as the AFL announced it was sacking some of its back of house media staff, with the league’s Docklands studios to close by the end of the year.
One of Hutchison’s former staffers, Ed Bowman, was appointed as head of the “AFL Digital Network” as part of the change.
The AFL has yet to make a decision on which company will produce its shows next year, with the call likely to be made after Christmas.
Bowman’s boss Bec Haagsma has been charged with arranging the lucrative contact, with Hutchison’s production company Rainmaker and McGuire’s JAM TV likely front runners.
Hutchison has been spruiking the success of Rainmaker, saying it has “tremendous momentum and was making a meaningful contribution” to SEN’s earnings.
Ms Haagsma confirmed that production would be outsourced in an email to staff last week, announcing the job cuts.
“Part of this new strategic change will be to decommission our main studio (Studio A) internally at AFL House,” she wrote.
‘The content we create and distribute will continue to be made, but with the support of external studio providers.”
Hutchison has recently announced he was building a second television studio with room for a live audience.
His company also won a $3.25m bid to buy racing radio network RSN, which insiders claim was essentially free as part of an advertising agreement.
The sports group was on the verge of collapse in 2019 but was rescued by the $40 million sale of the Perth Wildcats to internet entrepreneur Mark Arena.
That deal was a major part of the company’s $10.5 million profit this year.
Hutchison has consistently pointed to his podcast downloads rather than traditional radio rating as his measure of success.
McGuire and the AFL were contacted for comment.
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Originally published as Craig Hutchison's salary surges to $1.3 million amid major AFL media shake-up
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