There’s no business like show business, and few bank on that fact yearly quite like Hollywood’s top executives.
Scroll through our gallery for to see top TV, film and digital executives ranked by their 2017 executive compensation (updating as more companies release their top execs’ packages).
Charlie Ergen
Dish Chairman
2016: $1.7 million
2017: $2.4 million
Change: +41 percent
Look, Dish Network is making no one rich — but a 41 percent annual bump in pay ain’t bad.
Tim Cook
Apple CEO
2016: $8.5
2017: $12.8
Change: +51 percent
Despite the iPhone X receiving a collective “meh,” Apple is still cruising under Cook’s stewardship; Apple hauled in a record-setting $88.3 billion in revenue during Q4 of 2017.
Bob Bakish
Viacom CEO
2016: N/A (Predecessor Philippe Dauman made $93 million, thanks to golden parachute)
2017: $20.3 Million
Change: N/A
The man at the opposite end of Moonves’ very long (we imagine) negotiating table. Bakish is tight with National Amusements controller Shari Redstone, and both of them want the Viacom chief to be Moonves’ No. 2 should the re-merger happen.
Ted Sarandos
Netflix Chief Content Officer
2016: $18.9 million
2017: $22.4 million
Change: +19%
Netflix added 20 million streamers and unleashed a slew of new content in 2017, including “Icarus,” the drugs-in-cycling documentary that went on to win an Oscar. At the same time, its share price jumped 50 percent (before rocketing in 2018). Sarandos should take a bow — and buy a very nice villa in the Mediterranean with his raise.
Reed Hastings
Netflix President, Chairman and CEO
2016: $23.2 million
2017: $24.4 million
Change: +5%
The Netflix head honcho joined the billionaire’s club for the first time in 2017, thanks in large part to the company’s gamble on original content paying off in spades. He’s not taking a victory lap yet, though, with the streaming giant still firmly set on taking over Hollywood. At CodeCon 2017, he said he’s always telling his content team to “get more aggressive,” rather than “drive toward conformity.”
Josh Sapan
AMC Networks Chairman and CEO
2016: $30.5 million
2017: $29.6 million
Change: -3%
It’s still good to have “The Walking Dead” — even this lower-rated version.
Brian Roberts
Comcast Chairman and CEO
2016: $32.96 million
2017: $32.52 million
Change: -1.3%
Roberts and Comcast recently added an interesting wrinkle to Disney’s plans to buy Fox, by bidding to buy all of U.K. broadcaster Sky.
Bob Iger
Disney Chairman and CEO
2016: $43.9 million
2017: $36.3 million
Change: -17%
Hey man, that $50 billion-plus Fox deal isn’t gonna pay for itself…
David Zaslav
Discovery President and CEO
2016: $37.2 million
2017: $42.2 million
Change: +13%
Discovery just bought Scripps for almost $15 billion, so what’s $42 million? Oh, right, still a ton of money for one man. But TLC’s doing very well…
Steve Burke
NBCUniversal CEO
2016: $46.07 million
2017: $46.5 million
Change: +0.9%
Burke’s overall take for 2017 was roughly flat compared with 2016, but the NBCUniveral CEO managed to again bring in more than his boss at parent company Comcast.
Jeff Bewkes
Time Warner CEO
2016: $32.6 million
2017: $49 million
Change: +50%
Bewkes damn near matched his entire 2016 pay in 2017 stock options. Sometimes it’s not so terrible for your company to be bought out. (You know, if the DOJ allows it.) Half of the Bewkes stock haul covers 2018, too — an incentive to stick around through this merger.
Leslie Moonves
CBS Chairman, President and CEO
2016: $69.6 million
2017: $69.3 million
Change: No material change
CBS has been “America’s Most-Watched Network” for more than a decade under Moonves, but is any amount of money worth that headache that this possible realignment with Viacom comes with? OK, still yes.