Media CEO Pay Mostly Up For 2023 Amid Strikes, Industry Contraction
deadline.comIt 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.
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