CEO compensation chart

 

Top Salaries: Compensation packages for media and entertainment executives hit a median of $22.3 million in 2022, up 7.7% from 2021. As the bulk of executive pay at these high levels is determined by stock awards, 2022 compensation was largely based on gains made over the past few years, and don't reflect the recent downturn that has led to employee layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Entertainment stocks collectively lost $500 billion in 2022. Outliers: Some of the drastic shifts between 2021 and 2022 are due to larger changes within the companies and their corporate structures. Netflix's Reed Hastings saw his compensation jump by 25% due to a change in role, exiting the co-CEO position to focus on a new role as executive chairman. Comcast's Michael Cavanagh saw a major increase after moving up from the CFO job to the role of president; he now also oversees NBCUniversal following the departure of former CEO Jeff Shell. David Zaslav: But the largest outlier of all is WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who received $246.6 million in compensation in 2021 due to a specific employee agreement, designed to keep him at the company through 2027 at least. Zaslav received a massive $203 million stock option grant in 2021, reflecting the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. (His salary also includes 125 hours of personal use of Discovery's private jets.)