There are stunning views of Sydney Harbour from Tim Worner's ferry to work each day, but the Seven West Media boss takes heart from the fact that no one on the boat is looking.
"They're looking at their phone, their tablet or their laptop," Mr Worner told Seven's annual general meeting on Thursday.
Mr Worner says free-to-air TV still commands big audiences, those audiences are just scattered across time and space, including his morning ferry, and Seven West Media's strategy is to go where the people are.
"Our objective in this changing world is simple: wherever our viewers go, we'll be waiting for them," he said.
Mr Worner, who in June added managing director to his CEO title, says the TV network is "facing and embracing" the challenge of digital and has sought to position the broadcaster's scale as an edge in reaching new online audiences.
Just over a week after Seven's Melbourne Cup Day launch of live streaming of all its free-to-air programming, he warned the Sydney AGM that the network would suffer falling earnings in a depressed advertising market.
"Market conditions in the current financial year to date have been somewhat subdued with TV market growth relatively flat and advertising trends in publishing facing ongoing pressure," he said.
In August Seven West said underlying group earnings would be five to 10 percent below FY15 and Mr Worner said on Thursday the figure would be "at the lower end of that guidance".
Mr Worner said Seven was pursuing a "three pillars" strategy of increasing its content library with original productions, increasing audiences in online, data and video, and diversifying earnings.
He said Seven's position as a free-to-air broadcaster gave it leverage into online viewing, demonstrated by an Australian record of 400,000 concurrent live-stream viewers for the Melbourne Cup, in addition to 2.9 million free-to-air viewers.
"There is only one way such a sudden change could be achieved, through the reach and therefore the power of free-to-air television," he said.
Mr Worner challenged claims no one watches free-to-air any more, saying millions watched Seven this week while streaming live and video-on-demand opened up new audiences on different platforms.
"That will become more valuable in a fragmenting market," he said.
The introduction of new OzTAM ratings to accurately measure streaming later this year would help Seven sell advertising for online audiences, Mr Worner said.
Seven remains the top-rating network and will benefit from broadcasting and live-streaming the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.
Thursday was the first AGM for three new board appointees: former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, iinet founder Michael Malone and commercial lawyer Sheila McGregor.
Mr Kennett said he accepted chairman Kerry Stokes' invitation to the board because he believed he had could bring "a lifetime of experiences" different to his more academically qualified fellow directors, and he didn't mind hard work.
"I consider myself at mid-point in my life and I'm running fast to keep away from the Grim Reaper," he said.
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