Media CEO Pay Mostly Up For 2023 Amid Strikes, Industry Contraction
02.05.2024 - 15:39
/ deadline.com
It was a year of pain for the entertainment industry and shareholders of (many) media companies with brutal months-long Hollywood strikes, and layoffs. Linear television continued to decline and a nascent theatrical recovery went sideways. Most CEOs saw pay packages rise in 2023, some by big multiples.
“The pay is egregious, but it is something we have learned to accept,” says one longtime entertainment analyst.
Irritants cited: CEOs rewarded for deals before its clear how they pan out; CEOs who should looking for growth but keep cutting; CEO pay packages that feel disproportionate to the size of the company. Paramount Global’s (now ex) CEO Bob Bakish saw compensation of $31 million, a hair lower than Disney’s Bob Iger, in his first year back as chief executive. (See CEO pay chart at right.)
Bakish may also be entitled to severance in the neighborhood of $48.5 million after being ejected earlier this week, according to a “termination scenario” in the company’s proxy. The actual amount isn’t yet public. Par put the new severance plans for top executives in place last November.
Proxy statements are annual company reports filed with the SEC that list, among other things, pay for top five highest-paid executive.
Topping 2023 is Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey, who was named CEO in December of 2022 with a package worth $89 million, the bulk from option awards valued at $75M.
The SEC requires equity awards be valued at the time they are granted.
Companies note that options vest over years and can remain “under water” depending on the stock price. However, pay consultants say, grants reflect the amount companies would like to pay their CEOs. “My experience is that for companies of this size of these sizes,