Network Ten is demanding urgent government action to help free-to-air TV networks cope with sagging advertising revenues and increased competition from overseas players.
Chairman David Gordon told shareholders on Wednesday that the networks, which are trying to fight back against the arrival of competitors including Netflix, are still hampered by high costs and outdated regulations.
He again urged Malcolm Turnbull's government to slash licence fees and expressed his hope that the so-called two-out-of-three ownership rule will be scrapped in 2016.
"It was drawn up in a different era and focused on the regulation of industries and technologies that existed 40 years ago," Mr Gordon said.
"We appreciate that the government is consulting on the best way to enact reform but the Australian media industry needs the rules changed urgently and as a priority in early 2016."
The rule covers terrestrial TV, radio and printed newspapers, but Ten now distributes content on 12 media platforms, including mobile apps and home streaming services.
Yet with first quarter gross advertising revenue up 10.7 per cent following Ten's link up with Foxtel advertiser MCN, Mr Gordon said the broadcaster was "now seeing the beginnings of the turnaround that we have all been waiting for".
Bermuda-based billionaire Bruce Gordon sat with his fellow shareholders and stood to thank them for supporting the company through a four-year period in which they have not received a dividend.
"Ten has been in the commercial world the most improved channel in Australia and deserves a lot of credit for that," Mr Gordon said.
Ten's full year loss for 2015 almost doubled to $312.2 million on a huge writedown on the value of its licences.
With Ten obliged to produce Australian content that is expensive to create, its chairman called for the government to slash the cost of licences that account for 4.5 per cent of Ten's revenue.
"Australia's licence fee regime remains by far the most punitive in the world and many times higher than free-to-air broadcasters pay in much larger markets," Mr Gordon said.
"Perversely, we are competing against large and well-funded online competitors that pay no licence fees, and many that pay little or no tax in Australia."
While Foxtel's purchase of a 15 per cent stake in Ten, which gained ACCC consent in October, was approved, Stephen Mayne of the Australian Shareholders' Association expressed concerns over what he characterised as the Murdoch family's growing influence at Ten.
Mr Mayne spoke against the re-election to the board of Siobhan McKenna, suggesting her nomination by Lachlan Murdoch's investment vehicle Illyria meant her impartiality in matters such as the deal with Foxtel, which is 50 per cent-owned by the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp, was open to question.
Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein also joined the board, which has been trimmed to six directors with the exit of Blackmore chief executive Christine Holgate, Jack Cowin and Dean Hawkins.
"When it comes to corporate governance, there doesn't seem to be an envelope the Murdochs won't push," Mr Mayne said.
