In the 24 months to June this year, Mr Ellis spent $140,768.19 on his TVNZ-issued credit card, the Sunday Star Times reported.
Obtained under the Official Information Act, the bill included $32,000 in entertainment charges and was disclosed just days after State Service Commissioner Iain Rennie warned top public servants they were spending too much taxpayers' money on fine dining and alcohol for staff.
However, the information provided by TVNZ did not give the same level of detail of how the money was spent as provided by Mr Rennie's release of the credit card records of 36 state sector chief executives.
Total spending across 36 departments was $856,623.
TVNZ said the disclosure of comparable level was not made as it was commercially sensitive.
Other expenditure details released at the weekend showed Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder, whose total expenses in the past two years were $209,395, was the biggest spender.
Mr Ellis was No 2.
Other top spenders were Unitec boss Rick Ede ($79,611), Deer Industry New Zealand's Mark O'Connor ($74,726), Mental Health Commission chairman Peter McGeorge ($72,243) and GNS Sciences' Alex Malahoff ($64,078).
Yesterday, Mr Coleman told the Herald the amount of Mr Ellis's spending "sounds high compared to other entities".
However, "without knowing what the make-up of that is, you can't really tell".
"The point I'd make is what we've found with the departmental chief executives is that they use their credit cards in different ways.
"It's very hard to tell what those absolute amounts mean at this stage ... I don't have any indication of what his bill was made up of."
Mr Ellis racked up the spending on his credit card as profits at the state-owned broadcaster fell sharply and it cut jobs in response.
In that environment, Mr Coleman said he expected all public servants to show "a degree of reasonable restraint".
"We'll be having a chat when I get to the office tomorrow and seeing how things go from there."
- NZ Herald/NZPA
