Media CEOs dominate ranks of top-paid execs
Published 9:59 am Tuesday, May 26, 2015
NEW YORK — They’re not Hollywood stars, they’re not TV personalities and they don’t play in a rock band, but their pay packages are in the same league.
Six of the 10 highest-paid CEOs last year worked in the media industry, according to a study carried out by executive compensation data firm Equilar and The Associated Press.
The best-paid chief executive of a large American company was David Zaslav, head of Discovery Communications, the pay-TV channel operator that is home to “Shark Week.” His total compensation more than quadrupled to $156.1 million in 2014 after he extended his contract.
Les Moonves, of CBS, held on to second place in the rankings, despite a drop in pay from a year earlier. His pay package totaled $54.4 million.
The remaining four CEOs, from entertainment giants Viacom, Walt Disney, Comcast and Time Warner, have ranked among the nation’s highest-paid executives for at least four years, according to the Equilar/AP pay study.
One reason for the high level of pay in the industry is that its CEOs are dealing with well-paid individuals.
“The talent, the actors and directors and writers, they’re being paid a lot of money,” said Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “In industries where the talent makes a lot of money, the CEO makes a lot of money as well.”
Pay packages for CEOs overall grew for the fifth straight year in 2014, driven by a rising stock market that pushed up the value of executive stock awards. Median compensation for the heads of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies rose to a record $10.6 million, up from $10.5 million the year before, according to the Equilar/AP pay study.
Peer pressure is another factor driving up executive compensation. The board members responsible for setting CEO pay typically consider what the heads of similar companies are making. If pay for one goes up, it will likely go up for others.
For the chieftains of media, there are also other factors boosting pay.
Several work at companies where a few major shareholders control the vote.
The media magnate Sumner Redstone controls almost 80 percent of the voting stock at CBS and Viacom. Because of his large holdings, Redstone can easily override the concerns of other investors about the level of CEO pay. Discovery’s voting stock is heavily influenced by the brothers Si and Donald Newhouse and John Malone, another influential investor in the media industry.
At Comcast, which owns NBC and Universal Studios, CEO and Chairman Brian Roberts controls a third of his company’s voting stock. That means he has substantial influence on the pay that he is awarded.
Top 10 highest-paid CEOs
Here are the 10 highest-paid CEOs for 2014, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive pay data firm:
1. David Zaslav, Discovery Communications, $156.1 million, up 368 percent
2. Leslie Moonves, CBS, $54.4 million, down 17 percent
3. Philippe Dauman, Viacom, $44.3 million, up 19 percent
4. Robert Iger, Walt Disney, $43.7 million, up 27 percent
5. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo, $42.1 million, up 69 percent
6. Leonard Schleifer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, $42 million, up 16 percent
7. Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com $39.9 million, up 27 percent
8. Jeffrey Leiden, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, $36.6 million, up 179 percent
9. Brian Roberts, Comcast, $33 million, up 5 percent
10. Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner, $32.7 million, unchanged