We use cookies to collect information about how our website is used and to improve the visitor experience. You can change your browser’s cookie settings at any time. Please review our privacy policy for more information. OK
Viacom's former CEO Philippe Dauman topped the ranks of pay-TV executives in salary and other non-equity compensation, according to our analysis of 2016 proxy statements of publicly traded companies in the pay-TV universe. In our analysis, we looked at compensation as two separate silos -- salary and other non-equity items; and stock and stock options. We used dollar value estimates of the equity awards as reported by the companies, and not estimates of future values.
In recent years, companies have been largely "towing the line" with regard to salaries, with raises usually averaging around 3 percent, David Seitz, managing director at executive compensation consultant Pearl Meyer, told us.
Over the past 25 years, growth in executive pay has largely been driven by long-term incentives in the form of stock-based incentives, Seitz said. Long-term incentive bonuses reflected in next year's proxy statements could show a notable jump, he said. Since the November election, stock prices have surged, and most companies make their stock grant awards in Q1, Seitz said. He said long-term incentive awards typically go the same direction as the stock market overall, though not necessarily as steeply.
Whether pay-TV companies will have to start comparing their top executives' compensation packages with the average of all employees is up in the air. The Dodd-Frank Act required CEO pay ratio reporting was to take place starting with reporting of FY 2017. Given Trump administration statements about wanting to undo Dodd-Frank, "It's really hard for anybody to predict," Seitz said. "Most companies are in a wait-and-see mode."