AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan’s Pay Dips to $20.2 Million in 2019

Sapan made $20.6 million in 2018

Josh Sapan AMC Networks
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AMC Networks president and CEO Josh Sapan’s pay dipped to $20.2 million in 2019, which is down just under 2% from what he made in 2018, the company revealed via a regulatory filing Wednesday.

The overseer of AMC, Sundance TV, IFC, BBC America, WE TV and all the rest made $20.6 million in 2018, which was -31% from the prior year’s $29.6 million haul.

Sapan’s salary remained the same as previous years’ at $2 million. His stock awards declined slightly from $13.87 million to $13.81 million and his Non-Equity Incentive Plan Compensation category decreased from $4.6 million to $4.4 million. The majority of Sapan’s year-to-year difference was seen in the “All Other Compensation” column, where he fell from $120,786 to $20,786.

The much larger hit Sapan took in his compensation change from 2017 to 2018 was the result of the company moving away from processes that caused a “bunching” effect in executive pay, as was explained in AMC’s year-ago filing, which reported exec pay for 2018:

In 2016, the company changed its long-term incentive compensation from a long term cash performance award (‘CPA’), which the company awarded prior to 2016, to a long-term equity-based award in the form of [Performance Stock Units]. SEC reporting rules require that the company report CPAs when paid at the end of their three-year performance cycle. At the same time, SEC rules require that PSU awards, which also vest after a three-year performance cycle, be reported in the year granted. This results in a ‘bunching’ effect for the calendar years ended December 31, 2016 and December 31, 2017 because 2016 includes both the value of the CPAs that were granted in 2014 and the value of the PSUs granted in 2016, and 2017 includes both the value of the CPAs that were granted in 2015 and the value of the PSUs granted in 2017.

Because no CPAs were outstanding after December 31, 2017, there is no ‘bunching’ effect for the NEOs’ 2018 compensation.

AMC Networks is set to report its first-quarter 2020 earnings next week.

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