The heiress’ move comes two decades after her father, Roy E. Disney, led a proxy fight that ousted then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
Jeff Shell, CEO of Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, saw his total compensation climb to $21.6 million last year, up 30% over the year prior — the biggest pay bump among Comcast’s top execs in 2021. Comcast Chairman-CEO Brian Roberts’ pay package rose 3.7% in 2021, to $34 million. The disclosures came in the cable and entertainment giant’s proxy statement filing with the SEC Friday.
The company also disclosed that it extended the contracts of government relations chief DeDe Lea and chief people officer Nancy Phillips, keeping them with Paramount well into 2025.
Nielsen CEO David Kenny’s total compensation for 2021 was $13.8 million, up 29% from the previous year, according to Nielsen’s proxy statement, released Tuesday. Kenny took a pay cut in 2020, a year in which the COVID-19 pandemic affected most businesses. Kenny received $12.9 million in compensation during 2019.
Top officers at Gray Television received sizable stock awards in connection with the acquisitions of Quincy Media and Meredith Corp.’s local media group, boosting their total compensation. CEO Hilton Howell Jr., received $11.5 million in total compensation in 2021, up 77% from 2020’s $6.5 million, according to the company’s proxy statement, released Friday.
AT&T chief executive John Stankey’s compensation totaled $24.8 million last year, up from $21 million the year earlier. According to a proxy statement filed with the SEC, retired CEO Randall Stephenson made $16.3 million in 2021 (down from $29 million).
Exclusives
The company disclosed latest annual compensation details for its top executives, with the calculation for Zaslav getting a huge boost from stock options he received as part of a contract extension.
Bob Chapek earned $32.5 million in compensation for Disney’s fiscal 2021 year, more than double the $14 million he pulled in during 2020, which was heavily depreciated due to the first year of the pandemic. The pay results were disclosed in an SEC filing on Wednesday.
Netflix co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos is set to receive $40 million in compensation next year, while Chairman and Co-CEO Reed Hastings stands to make north of $34 million. Netflix disclosed the annual salaries and stock option allocation for 2022 for its executive officers in an SEC filing Tuesday.
Discovery gave Chief Executive David Zaslav 14.8 million stock options on Sunday, the day before the company and AT&T announced a plan to merge Discovery with AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit, according to a securities filing. The company valued the option grants at roughly $190 million on Wednesday evening, taking into account the company’s share-price volatility and potential stock appreciation over their eight-year term.
Discovery announced Tuesday it’s extended the employment contract of president and CEO David Zaslav employment contract through Dec. 31, 2027. His previous contract ran through 2023. The extension was made in connection with the definitive agreement between AT&T and Discovery Inc. to combine WarnerMedia’s entertainment, sports and news assets with Discovery to create a new standalone entertainment company. Zaslav will lead the proposed new company. Above, AT&T CEO John Stankey (l) and Zaslav at Monday’s press conference announcing the deal.
Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s total compensation for 2020 was $37.7 million, down 18% from $45.8 million in 2019, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The big change in Zaslav’s pay was that he received no option award for 2020. Last year, he received nearly $7 million in options.
Comcast also disclosed $32.7 million in 2020 compensation for its chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.
ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish saw his pay increase slightly in 2020 to $38.9 million in 2020, according to an SEC filing on Friday. Bakish pulled in $36.6 million in compensation for 2019, which was split between his duties as CEO of Viacom before the merger with CBS toward the end of 2019.
Gray Television said CEO Hilton H. Howell Jr.’s total compensation fell 27% to $8.89 million in 2020, the company reported. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gray reported that Howell’s salary rose slightly to $1.23 million, but he received small stock awards and non-equity incentive plan compensation. President and co-CEO Pat LaPlatney’s compensation rose 8% to $4.13 million.
Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, long one of the lowest paid CEOs in the media industry, broke that mold Friday after the satellite giant revealed the executive received his biggest payday yet, $94.8 million, fueled mainly by one-time stock options, according to its annual proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Charter Communications Chairman and CEO Thomas Rutledge’s compensation at the U.S. cable and Internet giant rose sharply from $8.74 million in 2019 due to option awards figuring in his overall pay package.
Jason Kilar, who has served as CEO of WarnerMedia since May 2020, has a compensation package worth about $17 million per year in cash and stock, according to a regulatory filing. Kilar’s base annual salary is $2.5 million, plus $2.5 million in short-term target bonus and $12 million in vested stock grants per year, according to AT&T’s proxy filing Thursday. The exec’s total realized compensation in 2020 was $2.92 million.
Disney disclosed the total compensation for its top executives in a year that saw the company hit hard by the pandemic right after Bob Chapek took over as CEO.
Netflix said that Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, the streaming company’s co-CEOs, will each earn $34.65 million for 2021, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount is unchanged from the compensation they were scheduled to get in 2020.
Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, the overseers of the Fox Corp. media conglomerate their family controls, saw their annual compensation fall for the most recent fiscal year in large part due to executives’ decision to give up salary between May and September as the company grappled with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The pay cuts spurred on by the novel coronavirus pandemic are beginning to wind down. Fox Corp. told employees in April that everyone at the VP level or above would see their pay cut by 15% through the end of July. In an email to staff last month, Fox chief legal and policy officer Viet Dinh wrote to staff confirming that pay would be returned to normal effective Aug. 1.
Quibi is implanting pay cuts for senior executives as its two-month-old entertainment app struggles to catch on with viewers amid the coronavirus pandemic. Senior executives, including CEO Meg Whitman and Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, will take a 10% pay cut in an effort “to tighten our belt,” they wrote in a memo to staff on Wednesday morning.
The company, which underwent layoffs this week, has not yet docked executive pay, which has “upset” some network staffers. However, CBS News President Susan Zirinsky was asked by an employee during a staff Zoom call whether pay cuts were considered and said that cuts were discussed at the corporate level, though they have not been enacted.
Media chieftains don’t suffer from low self-esteem. Industry titans including Bob Iger, Reed Hastings and Rupert Murdoch probably need big egos to believe they’re entitled to make far more than most CEOs at similarly sized companies — and much more for 12 months of work than an average employee could make in several lifetimes.
Just a day after Comcast’s NBCUniversal announced a reorganization of its executive ranks, the conglomerate said that senior leaders who comprise the executive committee, reporting directly to CEO Jeff Shell, will be reducing their salaries by 20% amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s 2019 compensation took a bit fall from his sky-high take in 2018, dropping 65% to $48.5 million for the still-handsomely paid executive. The $48.5 million was more in line with his 2017 compensation, which was $42.2 million.
NBCUniversal’s Steve Burke got 2019 compensation worth $42.6 million in 2019, his final year as CEO, compared with nearly $40.0 million in 2018 and $46.5 million in 2017, according to a regulatory filing from pay TV, media and technology giant Comcast. That marked a gain of 6.5%.
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch will forgo his salary amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and 700 employees at the company will see salary reductions, the executive said in an internal memo on Wednesday.
Reed Hastings, the streaming giant’s founder, CEO, president and chairman of the board, tallied $38.6 million in 2019, according to an SEC filing — a $2.5 million increase from the previous year. Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos saw a $5.1 million bump to $34.7 million.
The company said it will donate an amount equal to those cuts to a fund to support its employees affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
The Walt Disney Co. said on Monday that executive chairman Robert Iger will forgo his entire salary and recently named CEO Bob Chapek will take a 50% pay cut amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to an email from Chapek sent to employees obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
Charlie Ergen, the billionaire chairman and former CEO of Dish Network, took home $2.35 million in total pay for 2019, according to an SEC proxy filing issued on Friday. Ergen made $3.1 million for running the satellite TV service in 2018.
John Stankey, head of WarnerMedia and AT&T’s president and chief operating officer, saw his 2019 compensation rise 36%, to a total of $22.47 million, according to a regulatory filing.
A large minority of Walt Disney Co. shareholders who cast votes at the company’s annual meeting on Wednesday opposed the company’s executive pay plan, Disney said. Disney said 46% of votes were cast against the plan and 53% in favor of the plan, with 1% abstaining. The vote is advisory and non-binding.
Netflix’s two top execs, CEO Reed Hastings and chief content officer Ted Sarandos, will each see their pay rise to more than $34 million in 2020, according to the company’s filing with the SEC on Monday. Both are set to make $34.7 million next year, which would represent a 10% pay increase from the $31.5 million each earned this year.
Acting CBS Chief Executive Joe Ianniello, who will become chairman and CEO of CBS once Viacom merges with CBS, will bank a hefty payout of $100 million when the deal closes, sources say. That’s up from the $70 million he was already set to pocket in severance for not being named head of the newly combined company — despite staying on in his current job.
The conversation today between Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Radhika Jones and Walt Disney Chairman-CEO Bob Iger and filmmaker Jon Favreau was largely about the upcoming Disney+ streaming series Star Wars: The Mandalorian, but toward the end of their chat, Jones put the Mouse boss in the hot seat over his $66 million compensation last year, as well as his thoughts on a wealth tax that’s being pitched by Democratic presidential candidates.
The new Fox Corp. is much smaller than its predecessor by almost any measure. But one thing hasn’t changed: Lachlan Murdoch’s paycheck. The Fox CEO and heir to billionaire Rupert Murdoch has annual target compensation of $20 million — equal to what he received as executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, regulatory filings show. Of that, $3 million is salary and the rest is composed of cash and equity bonuses tied to performance.
