Roku CEO Anthony Wood 2023 Pay Slips to $20.2 Million, Media Chief Charlie Collier’s Compensation Drops to $6.8 Million

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney‘s entertainment streaming segment, anchored by Disney+, scored its first profitable quarter, helping offset continued weakness in the media conglomerate’s linear TV business for the first three months of 2024. Overall, Disney revenue for the quarter ended March 30 was in line with Wall Street expectations, while it beat on adjusted earnings per share.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Internet-TV provider Fubo dropped all Warner Bros. Discovery networks from its lineup, alleging that the media company was seeking “above-market rates” and refused to license Turner Sports networks separately. In a statement Tuesday, Fubo said it attempted to renew its Discovery content agreement with WBD for networks including Discovery, HGTV, Food Network and TLC.

EXCLUSIVE: Roku is bringing some laughter to the 1950s drama series Tightrope!

Kenneth Huang was known for his particular taste in wine. Whether in his favorite corner of Cut, the Michelin-starred steakhouse at the Beverly Wilshire, or in the Peninsula Shanghai, Huang would summon a bottle of Opus One to the table. He would tell guests that he had a private reserve of the Napa Valley vineyard’s 2011 vintage, which retails for up to $2,000 a case. Someone who regularly dined with the financier says she drank so much Opus One that she got sick of the bourgeois Bordeaux. 

Roku CEO Anthony Wood collected a total pay package of $20.2 million in 2023, according to the company’s latest proxy filing.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, had a compensation package worth $35.47 million in 2023, as he saw his pay rise 11% from the year prior. Roberts, who oversees the cable giant and NBCUniversal, last year had a salary of $2.5 million, stock awards worth $15 million, stock options worth $9.2 million and a $8.55 million cash incentive bonus. In 2022, his compensation totaled about $32.1 million.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The Onion has a new owner: a company called “Global Tetrahedron,” which is a real thing based on a fake entity invented by the satire site more than two decades ago. G/O Media, a private-equity backed firm that has owned The Onion since 2019, sold the site to a new Chicago-based firm called Global Tetrahedron, which is “made up of four digital media veterans with a profound love for The Onion and comedy-based content,” G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said in a memo to staff Thursday. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

BBC Casualty fans were left utterly gobsmacked this week as they caught a glimpse of Charlie Fairhead, played by Derek Thompson, taking on a fresh role following his emotional exit from the long-running medical drama earlier this year. The veteran actor, who has become synonymous with his character in Casualty, made a surprise appearance in the Belfast-based series Blue Lights, causing quite the buzz among fans during its second episode.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel received a compensation package worth $83.9 million last year — more than four times his compensation in 2022. Emanuel’s 2023 pay at Endeavor included $4.9 million in salary, a $34.65 million bonus and $43.47 million in stock awards, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Imax fans turned up in droves to see “Dune 2” on the really big screen, helping the company top analyst earnings estimates for the first quarter of 2024. Despite the sandworm bump, it was a tough compare with the year-ago period when Imax benefited from the blockbuster success of “Avatar: The Way of Water” in 2023 to deliver its highest-grossing Q1 to date.

Diane Lane, Jeff Daniels, and Lucy Liu are stepping out for the premiere of their new Netflix series!

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ari Emanuel, in his capacity as CEO of TKO Group Holdings — the parent company of UFC and WWE — had a compensation package last year that hit nearly $65 million. TKO granted Emanuel, who also is CEO of Endeavor, a base salary of $911,538, plus a $24 million cash bonus and stock awards worth $40 million in 2023, per a regulatory filing by TKO. All told, the exec’s pay package totaled $64.91 million.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify reeled in fewer new users overall than it expected in the first quarter of 2024, but the audio-streaming giant touted “record strength” in profitability. Total monthly active users (free and paid) grew 19% year over year to 615 million, a gain of 13 million from the previous quarter — which missed its guidance by 3 million. Spotify said “moderated marketing activity” led to “more normalized growth” following 2023’s record performance (when it added 26 million new MAUs in Q1).

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish saw his total compensation dip slightly in 2023, to $31.3 million from $32 million in the prior year.

EXCLUSIVE: Noah Media, producer of Netflix’s 14 Peaks and Sky’s Villeneuve Pironi, has restructured to focus on international docs and laid off a small number of staff.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A media consultant sued Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, alleging he is owed “at least several million dollars” for work he did related to the company’s $370 million acquisition in 2022 of Redbox, the DVD kiosk and streaming company. Keith Knee, described in his legal complaint as an advisory and consulting services professional in the media industry, filed suit against Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment on Friday, April 19, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

EXCLUSIVE: Ethan Coen has rounded out the cast for his comedy Honey Don’t! for Focus Features and Working Title, on which we were first to report. Newcomers include Charlie Day (Fool’s Paradise), Billy Eichner (Bros), Lera Abova (Anna), Jacnier (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory National Tour), Gabby Beans (Presumed Innocent), Talia Ryder (Dumb Money), Kristin Connolly (The Cabin in the Woods), Lena Hall (Your Friends & Neighbors), Don Swayze (All Saints Day), Josh Pafchek (Marvel’s Runaways), Kale Brown (Mike), Alexander Carstoiu (Magnolia Flowers) and Christin Antidormi (Netflix’s Lincoln Lawyer).

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos saw a 2023 compensation package valued at $49.8 million, down a hair from the year before but with one big change — he took more in stock option awards than in cash as the streamer shifts its pay policies.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos earned a bit less in 2023 than the year before — but he still had pay package worth $49.8 million. That was down from $50.3 million for Sarandos in 2022, according to Netflix’s proxy statement filed Thursday.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Bill Maher welcomed Katie Couric onto his “Club Random” podcast and passionately defended Woody Allen while the two discussed canceled artists in Hollywood. Maher said “I don’t think he committed that crime” in reference to Dylan Farrow’s molestation allegation against Allen, adding: “There was two police investigations that exonerated him.” “There’s these actors who won’t work with him anymore and some of them made movies with him are saying, ‘I regret doing that.’ What a bunch of pussies!” Maher said.