Not a single media company ranks among the 10 largest US companies in terms of revenues. Nonetheless, four media companies placed their top executives among the 10 highest paid CEOs in 2011.
CNBC crunched the numbers for all public companies and determined which CEOs had the biggest paychecks for 2011. And while the CEO at the top of the list isn’t yet a media mogul, Apple Inc. certainly shows signs of trying to become a big player in television as it already is in the music business. Apple’s new CEO, Timothy Cook, who took over after the death of founder Steve Jobs, got most of his total $378 million in compensation from stock options he got when he was named to the top post in August – and those won’t vest for a decade.
Ranking 5th as calculated by CNBC was Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav at $52.4 million, including over $44 million in stock options. Despite troubles with its OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) joint venture, Discovery has been growing revenues double-digits.
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman ranked 7th with $43.1 million of total compensation. Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger checked in at #9 with $33.4 million. And News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch landed in 10th place with $33.2 million.
Click here to see all 10 of the highest paid CEOs on the CNBC website.
