Who Made Bank, Who Sank in 2018?

The U.S. economic system had a fairly good 2018, and so did lots of Hollywood’s high TV, movie and media executives.

Making essentially the most coin — by far — was Discovery chief David Zaslav, who noticed his government compensation soar to $129.Four million. That dwarfed the opposite guys (and we do imply guys) on this record, particularly with disgraced CBS boss Leslie Moonves leaving the sector in September.

As a part of Moonves’ separation settlement from his former employer, the person accused by quite a few girls of sexual misconduct needed to forfeit $34.5 million. For what it’s price, Moonves nonetheless made more cash in his abbreviated 2018 than Dish chairman Charlie Ergen did throughout 12 months — almost 4 instances extra.

Also Read: Hollywood’s Highest Paid Executives: Who Made Bank, Who Sank in 2017 (Updating)

Below is TheWrap‘s record of government compensation particulars from 2017 company SEC filings. To evaluate it to previous years, click on by way of our earlier annual stories:

2017 |2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

We will probably be updating this story as extra main media firms report the take-home pay of their high executives.

Also Read: Former Fox Boss Peter Liguori Scored Secret Sweetheart FX Deal Before Testifying in ‘Bones’ Case

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content material officer, noticed his pay rise 32% to $29.6 million in 2018.

Sarandos’ compensation was fairly evenly unfold out, with $12 million in wage and $17.6 million in inventory choices.

With a number of new rivals set to debut later this 12 months, Netflix continued to tighten its stranglehold on the streaming world, with the corporate reporting it added a report 9.6 million subscribers through the first quarter of 2019.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings noticed his pay soar 48% in 2018 to $36.1 million in 2018.

Hastings’ wage, largely within the type of inventory choices, was up from the $24.Four million in 2017. His wage really decreased to $700,000 in 2018, however he obtained a whopping $35.Four million in inventory choices.

Netflix is on the verge of hitting 150 million paid subscribers, which it’s going to in all probability do sooner or later in 2019. That’s good as a result of the corporate’s turf is about to get invaded by the likes of Disney, Apple and WarnerMedia this 12 months, with Comcast proper behind them in 2020.

Also Read: Hollywood’s Highest Paid Executives: Who Made Bank, Who Sank in 2016

Randall Stephenson noticed his general compensation enhance barely final 12 months. The AT&T chairman and CEO earned $29.1 million in 2018, after pocketing $28.7 million the 12 months earlier than.

Stephenson thrust AT&T into the leisure business final 12 months after finishing one of many largest media acquisitions lately. He and AT&T finalized the corporate’s $85.Four billion deal for Turner, HBO and Warner Bros. mum or dad firm Time Warner.

In the three quarters since AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, the telecom has fallen in need of Wall Street expectations for each revenue and income, as administration continues to deleverage the corporate, put together to launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service and stabilize companies following a number of government departures on the leisure facet.

AT&T’s buy of Time Warner helped to carry John Stankey’s compensation by a whopping 64% in 2018.

Stankey, who was named CEO of the newly fashioned WarnerMedia in 2018, pulled in $16.56 million, up from the $10 million he earned in 2017. Stankey’s largest will increase got here in his wage, which jumped from just below $1 million in 2017, to greater than $2 million in 2018. He additionally noticed his non-equity incentive plan compensation skyrocket to $4.Four million, up from $1.eight million in 2017.

It hasn’t been all clean crusing for Stankey, nonetheless. First, he brought about a good quantity of agita throughout his first firm city corridor final summer season, when he mentioned HBO wanted to be “broader” and enhance its content material output. That was adopted by a large government shakeup — which noticed the departures of longtime HBO chief Richard…