But in a candid and entertaining on-stage interview in Melbourne last week, Mr Worner joked that he isn't prepared to write off free-to-air television just yet – he can't, he has four kids to put through school.

Playing to an audience of television directors and independent production companies, Mr Worner reminisced about simpler times and said the internet is "the most disruptive invention in history".

Mr Worner said the small screen had a knack of reinventing itself. This, he said, should keep free-to-air TV in business for years to come.

But that doesn't mean there will be no pain. Mr Worner told Seven's shareholders this month that he expected the company's half-year profit to slump up to 10 per cent amid a weak television advertising market. "It's … tough when you have got to stand up in front of your shareholders and say 'sadly we are going to miss our forecast in terms of profits for this half'," Mr Worner reflected.

But what is tougher is the cost cutting that will follow to ensure Australia's No1 commercial free-to-air network meets its full-year guidance. Mr Worner said this, and he takes no pleasure in saying it, had become the new normal in the media industry.

"We … had recognised that there might be a problem and we had a number of what I call 'ripcord' initiatives in place, and we decided we were going to pull those ripcords.

"Sometimes it can seem like it's just a way of life now in running these businesses. That's sad. It's not something I particularly enjoy. We're builders at Seven. We enjoy building things, and actually deconstructing them is not pleasant."

But sometimes monumental shows can avoid the wrecking ball. A Place to Call Home was axed by Seven in June. The period drama program will continue to air, albeit on Foxtel, after Seven struck a deal to produce it for the local pay TV monopoly.

"Period drama… I mean you cannot choose a more expensive genre. It just got to the point where it just did not make sense for us," Mr Worner said.

"It was a pretty special show but … the expenditure was quite extraordinary. It's gone down to Jack the doctor, his hand would come into shot to change the station on the radio in the old car and they had to get the fair-dinkum radio because they wanted it not to be the radio that had been put in subsequently.

"So they are hunting all over Australia for a correct radio to put in the FX Holden, so that one shot, it would have been a three-second shot, looked perfect. That was the level of detail that they went to. We just couldn't support that level of expenditure on that show any longer. But we're mighty proud to be doing it at Foxtel."

Although Seven axed a Place to Call Home, the amount of its original program has remained unchanged amid cost cuts.

In fact, Mr Worner says since he became involved in programming at Seven 11 years ago the network has continued to exceed its sub-quotas for drama, children's television and documentary.

"That's one of the balancing acts of running one of these businesses is to try to actually make the same amount of stuff but do it smarter," he said.

"This will be our third wave of cost cutting now and each time we have been able to ringfence our investment in content. I don't know how long we can continue to do that for but certainly it's our aim to never compromise the quality of what we do."