ITV chief in line for £15m payout if he succeeds

ITV is understood to be finalising an incentive scheme that will tie Mr Crozier to the company for five years, according to a Sunday newspaper.

It is believed that the Royal Mail boss will earn a basic salary of just below the 800,000 paid to his predecessor Michael Grade, but he will have the potential to earn an annual bonus of more than double that.

On top of this, he will be awarded a parcel of shares on his arrival, with the ultimate size of his shareholding depending on his performance during his first three years with the company.

But he will not be able to pick up the shares until after another two years – five years after he first took the helm.

The incentive scheme is expected to measure ITV's performance in absolute terms, as well as against a set of rival media companies and the wider stock market.

It is thought that if he were to succeed in turning around the company, he could have a shares pot worth close to 8m after five years – well up on Mr Crozier's remuneration at Royal Mail, where he has received 6.4m over five years.

He was dubbed Britain's highest paid public servant when he earned a package estimated to be worth more than 3m in 2008, when a long-term incentive scheme paid out.

ITV chairman Archie Norman is understood to believe there is not a quick fix to reinvent ITV in the digital age, and Mr Crozier's five-year incentive scheme is designed to reflect this.

No-one from ITV could be contacted to comment on the report, but Mr Norman has previously said the new chief executive's salary and package would be "in the normal range for a role of this scale and challenge".

ITV had been in talks with former BSkyB chief Tony Ball about taking on the job but discussions collapsed in September due to Mr Ball's pay demands.

The ITV business has suffered from an advertising slump which has been made worse by the recession.

Mr Crozier's main task will be to lead a "change in culture and organisation as well as business direction" at ITV, as it responds to the fast-changing media landscape.