Karl Stefanovic's pay negotations have changed the playing field, writes Annette Sharp
REPORTS this week of Karl Stefanovic being poised to sign a lucrative $1.5 million a year contract with Channel 9 sent shock waves through an industry in which executives have been slashing stars' salaries with conviction.
Stefanovic's new contract bucks the trend. 
The contract, which is still awaiting his signature but is expected to be signed off on by the Today Show host as early as today, makes the Queensland journalist the highest-paid personality signed to an Australian television network.
He leads a field dominated by men presenting news and international music artists who have been signed up to Australian reality shows.
Karl Stefanovic $1.5 million After 10 years fronting Nine's breakfast show, Stefanovic has made it clear he doesn't want to host breakfast television any more - though he will if the price is right. Nine bosses (who have taken over contract negotiations from outgoing CEO David Gyngell, whose love for Stefanovic faded over the past year) have managed to find what some have described as a "token amount" to swell Stefanovic's already large pay packet and resettle him into the Today chair for 2016 and beyond. Helping push Stefanovic's salary above the seven -figure mark is his role as a contributor to 60 Minutes, for which he receives a six-figure sum.
Sources say Stefanovic has made some pointed demands of Nine bosses in agreeing to renew his contract with the network - among them a shift to prime-time sooner rather than later. This despite the failure of his evening talk show experiment The Verdict.
Eddie McGuire $1.3 million Once the alpha male of the Nine boys' club, Collingwood president and former sports journalist McGuire has fallen behind his Sydney boys' club brother Stefanovic on the Nine Network payroll, although not by much. The host of Nine's weeknight news lead-in, Million Dollar Hot Seat, remains vital to Nine's evening news domination - a fact not lost on the Seven Network, which attempted to poach McGuire earlier this year.
McGuire's total earnings - when his media contracts with Triple M Melbourne (for which his company McGuire Media co-produces the Grill Team show) and Fox Footy AFL are included - would outstrip Stefanovic's total earnings.
David Koch $1 million Seven 's highest-paid personalty is Stefanovic's breakfast show rival, longtime finance journo David Koch.
Koch is widely known to be friends with Seven proprietor Kerry Stokes, a man who likes the affable "Kochie" due to their mutual fascination with business spreadsheets and an understanding of the ASX. While Seven bosses have long toyed with the idea of relacing Koch, "the chairman" keeps insisting the consistent Koch be left alone - a decision well in tune with the Sunrise audience.
Joel Madden $1 million If he wasn't a household name before he joined The Voice, Madden certainly is now. He is the only member of the celebrity coaching panel to have been signed for every season since the premiere of the Shine Australia/Nine Network co-production in 2012. The Good Charlotte singer spends part of each year here recording the program and expanded his role in 2014 after being signed to The Voice Kids.
Ricky Martin $900,000 As with Madden, The Voice has helped Ricky Martin find a new audience and, while his own musical career has been largely in limbo for years, Martin has become a beloved coach on The Voice.
Martin has starred in three of the four seasons of the program.
Larry Emdur $800,000 The Morning Show host Larry Emdur landed a sweet deal at the Seven Network in 2011 with the network signing the former game show host to a fat contract designed to stop Nine poaching Emdur to play understudy to Stefanovic on Today.
Four years on, Emdur is still valued at Seven though no longer in the running to replace Stefanovic at Nine with Emdur's morning television rival David Campbell delivering buoyant figures while filling in for Stefanovic at Nine this year.
Peter Overton $800,000 National Nine News anchor Overton looked like an economical choice for Nine following the retirement of the highest-paid news reader in Australian history, Brian Henderson, and a succession of replacements, but after six years in the chair Overton is now the highest-paid newsreader on Australian television.
Lisa Wilkinson $700,000 Like Today co-host Stefanovic, Wilkinson's contract is due for renewal. Unlike Stefanovic, she remains committed to the early starts and Today - a fact which may work in her favour if Nine bosses phase the unhappy Stefanovic off the show. Despite having more journalistic years under her belt than Stefanovic, Wilkinson and the rest of her gender are on a different pay scale to men on television.
Tracy Grimshaw $650,000 One of the longest serving on-air stars at Channel 9, Grimshaw has succeeded where most have failed - in holding an audience at Nine's weeknight current affairs program, A Current Affair.
Grimshaw came to ACA after hosting the Today show for nine years, a role which saw her stocks rise at Nine.
Scott Cam $600,000 The Block host "Scotty" Cam is regarded as one of Nine's most bankable stars and as such is well paid and rounds out this list of 10 personalities - eight of whom, it should be noted, are Nine Network personalities, evidence that Nine's long legacy of offering the most lucrative contracts still stands.The Gold Logie winner has made his name moving from renovation show to renovation show through 15 rich years.