CEO Pay 2024: Salaries of Disney's Iger, WBD's Zaslav, Netflix Chiefs

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The entertainment business has seen better days.
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Film and TV production in the U.S. rose 18% last year but lagged 2022 levels, according to ProPro, which tracks studio productions. Theatrical ticket sales fell 3.3% in 2024 and remain nearly 25% down from pre-pandemic levels. Media conglomerates are spinning off cable channels at a dizzying rate, an acknowledgment of the damage that streaming has done to that cash cow. And tech giants like Amazon and Apple, which elbowed into the content business a few years ago, have found that it's much harder to make a show that people care about than it is to sell them paper towels and iPhones.
Cutbacks and layoffs are the order of the day. Yet for some reason the spirit of economizing didn't extend to the executive suites. Seven of the 10 CEOs and media barons whose pay packages we examine as part of our annual survey of compensation got raises. And in most cases, the bumps were double-digit ones even though their results were often lackluster at best.
'When the stock is up, CEOs always take credit, but when it plunges, they rarely take responsibility,' says Charles Elson of the University of Delaware's John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. 'There should be more alignment between pay packages and performance so when there's a bad year, the CEOs take more of a hit.'
To be fair, some of these executives will end up banking far less than what's reported. That's because the stock awards and options represent fair value as of the grant date and do not reflect actual dollar amounts received by executives. If the company's value shrinks, so does their compensation. Of course, if it increases, their windfall could be even greater than it initially appeared in public filings.
The pay packages may be largely undiminished, but our list of top executives shrank. Paramount Global hoped to have finalized its sale to Skydance Media by now, but the Trump administration and the president's lawsuit against '60 Minutes' appears to be holding up regulatory approval. Still, Bob Bakish, who left Paramount amid the company's deal talks with Skydance, has already profited handsomely, earning $87 million last year, which includes $69.3 million in severance. Then there's Endeavor, which went private again after four years as a publicly traded company. Ari Emanuel, the brash agent who led the company's whipsaw transformation, got a $173.8 million cash payout from the equity he converted to cash as part of the go-private deal (while also rolling his ownership interests with a total value of $290.3 million into the newly private company, Endeavor Group Holdings).
Paramount Global will likely soon have company, as most industry observers expect that other media companies are looking for buyers (speculation often centers on Warner Bros. Discovery, which has endured two traumatic mergers over the past seven years and formally separated its TV business from its studio and streaming operations). Experts like Elson say companies often have good reasons for selling themselves or acquiring each other. But he also notes that there's often a strong financial incentive for the people at the top to make these kinds of deals.
'The synergies that come with a merger can be quite helpful, but you have to make sure the cost savings are really there,' he says. 'Sometimes these deals are more ego driven and turn out to be disasters.'
Historically, media chieftains are far better compensated than leaders in other industries. Much of that has to do with the ownership structure of entertainment conglomerates such as Comcast and Fox, which have dual-class stock. That gives the families behind them much tighter control, enabling them to reward themselves without risking much interference from average shareholders. This, in turn, skews the pay packages of media companies like Disney and Netflix, which aren't run by families but justify rewarding their executives with big bonuses and options because they are part of the same peer group. It helps that the boards of these companies are often loaded with sympathetic allies.
'Board members themselves are well paid,' says Rosanna Landis Weaver of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. 'It's a very cushy gig. And no board member ever got asked to leave for saying, 'Let's pay the CEO more.''
Running a media company requires a very particular set of skills. A successful CEO must be the public face of a corporation — telegenic, amiable, able to work a room — and also serve as an ambassador to Wall Street at a time when investors have grown more skeptical about the long-term health of the entertainment business.
Just look how difficult it was for Bob Chapek, the short-lived CEO of Disney, whose tenure was so rocky that the company reenlisted Bob Iger, the man he succeeded, as his replacement. But if media conglomerates rationalize giving their leaders extravagant pay packages because they're worried that another company is going to poach them or that they will leave of their own volition, they should probably think again.
'The thing about the media business is that these jobs are fun,' says David L. Yermack, professor of finance at NYU. 'You get to have a lot of influence on society, and shaping culture is interesting work. Running a coal mine or being in the utilities business isn't anywhere near as interesting.'Bob Iger, CEO2024 compensation: $41.4M/+31%Median employee compensation: $55,111Iger pay ratio to median employee: 746
How do you determine a job well done? When it came to Iger's $7.2 million bonus, Disney's board gave him credit for releasing 'Deadpool & Wolverine,' which the family-friendly brand enthused was 'the highest grossing R-rated film ever,' as well as for presiding over the best-attended D23 event in history and leading a company dubbed one of America's most trusted by no less an authority than Newsweek. It's hardly an empirical assessment, but Iger did have a successful 2024, one that saw the studio topping its rivals at the box office and releasing streaming hits like 'Shōgun.' For Iger's efforts, his relatively modest $1 million salary got augmented by more than $30 million in stock options and awards, as well as $523,685 in personal air travel and $1.4 million in security. It pays to rule the Magic Kingdom.Ted Sarandos, Co-CEO2024 compensation: $61.9M/+24.3%
Greg Peters, Co-CEO2024 compensation: $60.3M/+50.2%
Median employee compensation: $215,503Sarandos/Peters pay ratio to median employee: 287/280
Bingeing has been very good to Netflix's co-leaders. Last year, the company targeted $40 million in total compensation apiece. Both got more than 50% of that, thanks to the streamer's stellar performance. The company ended 2024 with 301.6 million subscribers (up 16%) and generated operating income of more than $10 billion. The stock soared 89% for the year, dispelling any doubts about the unusual two-in-a-box leadership structure. For 2024, Sarandos and Peters each received a $12 million cash bonus plus stock valued at $42.7 million, with Netflix's compensation committee citing 'our outstanding relative stock price performance compared to constituents of the S&P 500.' Meanwhile, co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings' pay package dropped to $1.75 million last year (from $11.3 million in 2023). Don't pass the hat for Hastings — he owned 4.23 million Netflix shares as of early April.David Zaslav, CEO and president2024 compensation: $51.9M/+4.4%Median employee compensation: $130,316Zaslav pay ratio to median employee: 398
Few would point to the marriage of Warner Bros. and Discovery and declare it a glittering success. The media conglomerate's market cap hovers at $22 billion, roughly half of where it stood in 2022 when the companies joined forces. Like many entertainment giants, Warner Bros. Discovery has struggled to manage the contraction of the theatrical movie business and the collapse of cable, its primary source of revenue. Yet Zaslav, the main architect of the merger, is still rewarded handsomely. His $51.9 million compensation package includes a $23.9 million bonus (more than 100% of the target amount), as well as a $3 million base salary, another $23 million in stock awards, a $17,446 car allowance and 250 hours of personal flight time each year on the corporate jet.Brian Roberts, CEO and chairman2024 compensation: $33.9M/-4.5%
Michael Cavanagh, President2024 compensation: $28.25M/-4.5%
Median employee compensation: $89,237Roberts pay ratio to median employee: 380
Roberts and chief lieutenant Cavanagh got big bonuses last year — just not as fat as they were in 2023. Comcast grew on the top and bottom lines in 2024, while free cash flow (a component used to determine executive compensation) declined 3.8% to $12.5 billion. The board's compensation committee determined that the company's top execs were entitled to cash bonuses equivalent to 109% of target. But both Roberts and Cavanagh 'requested that they not receive more than 100% of their target bonuses,' according to Comcast's proxy filing, settling for $7.5 million. In discussing their performance, the company cited the plan led by the pair to spin off NBCUniversal's cable TV networks (excluding Bravo) and complementary digital assets. The new public company, Versant, is set to separate from its parent by the end of 2025.Lachlan Murdoch, CEO and executive chair2024 compensation: $23.8M/+9.3%
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman emeritus2024 compensation: $21.2M/-7.7%
Median employee compensation: $89,068Lachlan Murdoch pay ratio to median employee: 267
Rupert Murdoch, 94, officially retired in November 2023. But the TV news, sports and entertainment company he built continued to pay him generously. As chairman emeritus, he had a compensation package totaling $21.2 million for the fiscal year ended June 2024, which included $8.6 million worth of stock and options and a $2.3 million bonus 'following 71 years of service to the company,' per Fox Corp.'s annual proxy filing. Eldest son Lachlan Murdoch, who now runs the media empire, saw his pay climb 9.3% largely thanks to a $6 million cash bonus (versus $4.5 million in fiscal 2023) based on 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' performance factors evaluated by the board. 'Fox once again delivered strong operational and financial results in fiscal 2024,' the company said in its proxy filing, including Fox News ending the period as the No. 1 cable network among total viewers for the eighth straight year.Tim Cook, CEO2024 compensation: $74.6M/+18%Median employee compensation: $114,738Cook pay ratio to median employee: 650
After docking Cook's stock incentives in 2023, Apple determined that it wasn't paying him enough. Based on an analysis of CEO compensation at 'peer companies' including Amazon, Disney and Netflix, the tech giant boosted the target value of Cook's equity award for fiscal 2024 from $40 million to $50 million. Cook's stock grants were calculated to be worth $58 million. To be sure, the tech giant kept minting money: Apple revenue hit a record $391 billion (up 2%) for the fiscal year ended September 2024, while net income declined 3% to (only!) $93.7 billion. Of note: Apple's services biz, which includes the App Store and Apple TV+, generated $96 billion for the year, up nearly 13%. In justifying Cook's enlarged stock grant, the board's compensation committee cited 'the impact his leadership has on the company's short-term and long-term success.'Andy Jassy, CEO2024 compensation: $1.6M/+17.6%Median employee compensation: $37,181Jassy pay ratio to median employee: 43
Don't be fooled: Jassy earns more for running the e-commerce mega-company than the number listed for his 2024 compensation on Amazon's proxy statement. As reported under SEC rules, the CEO was paid $1.6 million last year. But the bulk of Jassy's remuneration is in stock awards that vest over several years (which Amazon reported as compensation for 2021). According to Amazon, Jassy's 2024 'realized compensation' increased by 37%, to $40.1 million, due to the company's stock price gains. That came after his realized comp decreased by 12% in 2023. In his April 10 annual letter to shareholders, Jassy touted the company's growing entertainment lineup, including originals like 'Reacher,' 'Fallout,' 'The Boys' and 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' and live sports like the NFL's 'Thursday Night Football' — with the NBA and Nascar coming later this year.
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