The 23 Highest-Paid Media Executives In The World

Base Salary: $1 million

Bonus: $405,096

All other awards and compensation: $4 million

2011 salary: $3.1 million

Under Eccleshare's guidance as CEO, the largest radio station group owner in the U.S. invested in Ryan Seacrest's television and film production company to create new content last year.

Previously, Eccleshare served as Chairman and CEO of BBDO EMEA from 2005 to 2009.

Notable properties owned: 850 radio stations including Z100, K102, and 107.5 WGCI, iHeartRadio, Clear Channel Outdoor advertising, Clear Channel Entertainment, Premiere Networks, Katz Media Group, Total Traffic Network

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1.2 million

Bonus: $5 million

All other awards and compensation: $215,669

2011 salary: $7.9 million

Feltheimer has been CEO since 2000 and worked for Sony Pictures Entertainment from 1991 to 1999.

Last year, Lionsgate acquired Summit Entertainment giving them the rights to the lucrative "The Hunger Games" franchise.

This year, Lionsgate sold half of TV Guide to CBS and its studio changed branding, ditching iconic gates for a space theme reflecting Universal's. 

Notable properties owned: Lionsgate Films, Madate Pictures, Roadside Attractions, Summit Entertainment, TV Guide Network, Epix, Celestial Tiger Entertainment

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $882,692

Bonus: $1.6 million

All other awards and compensation: $6 million

2011 salary: $4.7 million

Martore is the only female on the list and has been CEO of the largest American newspaper chain since 2011.

Martore's total 2012 salary saw a huge increase this year because of pension increases and the timing change of equity grants. More astounding then her paycheck is her severance package if she were terminated. If fired, Martore could receive $46.4 million. If she retires or quits, she's obligated to receive $21 million. 

Notable properties owned: USA Today, many regional newspapers including The Arizona Republic and The Indianapolis Star, local broadcast affiliates for ABC, CBS, and NBC, and digital assets including Cars.com and employment website CareerBuilder. 

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1.28 million

Bonus: $5.47 million

All other awards and compensation: $2.15

2011 salary: $11.5 million

The president and CEO's salary dropped 23% from last year. Sapan became president of AMC and Bravo networks in 1987 and helped create IFC Films.

AMC Networks went public in July 2011.

Notable properties owned: AMC, IFC Films, WE tv, Sundance Channel

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1.5 million

Bonus: $9.5 million

All other awards and compensation: $7,500

2011 salary: $10.7 million

Karmazin left his position of CEO in December 2012 after eight years at Sirius XM. He was originally set to leave in February this year.

His leave occurred before Liberty Media became majority shareholder of the company in January.

Notable properties owned: XM radio merger, number of music, traffic and weather, sports talk, comedy radio stations and more.

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1 million

Bonus: $850,000

All other awards and compensation: $11.8 million

2011 salary: $5.6 million

Starz' CEO saw a massive 130% jump in salary last year due to a large bump in option awards. 

Last year, Starz split from its parent Liberty Media.

Notable properties owned: Encore, MoviePlex, Starz, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Film Roman, Manga Entertainment, Starz Digital Media

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1.6 million

Bonus: $5.7 million

All other awards and compensation: $6.6

2011 salary: $14.5 million

Calhoun has been CEO of Nielsen since August 2006. His salary dropped 4% from last year.

Last year, the research company acquired TV metrics company SocialGuide before also gaining Arbitron.

Notable properties owned: Arbitron, SocialGuide, Vizu

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1.3 million

Bonus: $1.7 million

All other awards and compensation: $11.2 million

2011 salary: $9.7 million

The CEO's stock awards saw a huge bump of $4.6 million in the past year, giving him a 68% salary increase over last year. He joined the company in 1980 as general manager of Scripp's radio properties.

Last year, Scripps Networks bought Travel Channel International.

Notable properties owned: HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, Cooking Channel, DIY Network, Great American Country

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1.8 million

Bonus: none

All other awards and compensation: $15.1 million

2011 salary: $11.4 million

Dolan took over the reigns as CEO of Cablevision in 1995. He is also executive chairman of MSG and manages its sports teams, the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, and the Connecticut Whale.

Cablevision recently picked up Glenn Beck's Internet channel, The Blaze.

Notable properties owned: Optimum TV, Optimum Online, Optimum Voice, Newsday, News 12, amNewYork, and CableMSG Varsity

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1.2 million

Bonus: $6.6 million

All other awards and compensation: $9.5 million

2011 salary: $16.4 million

Britt has been CEO since 2001 and Chairman since 2009.

He earned slightly more than last year, as the price of Time Warner Cable shares have risen from a 52-week low of $74 to over $96.

Recently, Britt said the cable company may start delivering television content to customers over an Internet connection similar to controversial distributor Aereo.

Notable properties owned: Road Runner High Speed Online, Local news channels including NY1 and YNN, regional sports networks including SNY and Metro Sports, NaviSite, Insight Communications, and Adelphia.

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $1.6 million

Bonus: $4 million

All other awards and compensation: $12.4 million

2011 salary: $6 million

The CEO's pay rose three-fold over the past year. In 2010, his salary was much higher at $32.9 million.

Over the years, DirecTV has had carriage disputes with networks including YES Network, News Corp, G4, and Viacom.

Notable properties owned: A number of regional sports networks under DirecTV Sports Networks, NFL Sunday Ticket, and minority stakes of Game Show Network and MLB Network

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $872,597

Bonus: $1.3 million

All other awards and compensation: $17.6 million

2011 salary: n/a

Charter Communications is the fourth-largest operator in the U.S. This was Bickham's first year at the company, and as COO, he earned more than CEO Thomas Rutledge ($5.3 million). 

Recently, two of the company's subsidiaries, CCO Holdings LLC and CCO Holdings Capital Corp. closed on a public sale of $1 billion in debt. 

Notable properties owned: Avalon Cable TV, Charter Media, Fanch Communications Inc., Helicon Cable Communications, Renaissance Media Group 

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $2 million

Bonus: $13.6 million

All other awards and compensation: $10.3 million

2011 salary: $25.9 million

Bewkes's pay remained unchanged from last year despite Time Warner's stock price rising from $34 in May 2012 to more than $60 today. This has led some to believe the CEO is underpaid.

Bewkes has been CEO since 2008. Prior to that, he climbed the ranks within HBO.

Notable properties owned: HBO, Time Inc., IPC Media, Turner Broadcasting System, Warner Bros. Entertainment

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $2.2 million

Bonus: $4.6 million

All other awards and compensation: $21.7 million

2011 salary: $11.9 million

President, CEO, and Director of the concert and ticket giant saw a 138% raise in salary this past year. Most of his raise comes from a surge in option awards.

Live Nation made a $152 million deal with Jay-Z in 2008 for shows, tours, and recordings for the next 10 years.

Right now, Live Nation is setting its eyes on acquiring dance music festival organizer, Insomniac Events.

Notable properties owned: House of Blues, produces Great New York State Fair, deals with U2, Madonna, Jay-Z, and Nickelback.

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $2.8 million

Bonus: $9 million

All other awards and compensation: $17.3 million

2011 salary: $26.9 million

Roberts saw a $3.6 million increase in annual performance-based bonuses this year. He has been the President of Comcast since 1990 and CEO since 2002. 

In December, the company changed its logo to incorporate the NBC peacock. In 2011, Comcast agreed to pay $4.4 billion to acquire the rights for the Olympics through 2020.

Notable properties owned: NBC Universal, E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, Golf Channel, and NBC Sports Network

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $8.1 million

Bonus: $10.4 million

All other awards and compensation: $11.5 million

2011 salary: $33.3 million

The CEO's salary dropped 9% from last year due to a decreased bonus and stock awards.

Last year, News Corp was under scrutiny for allegedly hacking phone numbers. More recently, its New York Post was under heat for its Boston Marathon bombings coverage.

In 2012, NewsCorp announced that this June, it will split into two publicly traded companies. The new company, 21st Century Fox, will include most of the entertainment and media assets, such as Fox Entertainment Group and Fox News. 

Notable properties owned: 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky Studios, Fox Searchlight, Fox News Channel, FX, YES Network, New York Post, HarperCollins, Dow Jones & Company, and The Wall Street Journal

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $3.5 million

Bonus: $11.5 million

All other awards and compensation: $18.5

2011 salary: $43.1 million

The president and CEO of Viacom saw a 22% dip in salary this year. He has been in that position since Sept. 2006.

In 2012, Viacom and DirecTV got into a tussle over a contract where Viacom stopped broadcasting its networks to DirecTV subscribers. Eventually a new deal was reached and Viacom's programs were broadcasted to DirecTV subscribers again.

Notable properties owned: Paramount Pictures, CBS Corporation, MTV Networks, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET Networks, Showtime, Spike TV, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, TV Land

(Source: SEC)

Base salary: $2.5 million

Bonus: $16.5 million

All other awards and compensation: $23.2 million

2011 salary: $33.4 million

The Disney CEO's salary jumped 20% over last year after purchasing the lucrative Lucasfilm property from George Lucas last year for $4 billion. The company also released the highest-grossing film of last year (and third of all time) with "The Avengers."

Despite Iger's huge paycheck, the company has been laying off workers both from Lucasfilm and Disney's theatrical units.

Notable properties owned: ABC, A&E, Disney Interactive, ESPN, Lifetime Television, Lucsafilm, Marvel, Pixar, Theme parks, Walt Disney Pictures

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $3 million

Bonus: $5.3 million

All other awards and compensation: $41.6 million

2011 salary: $52.4 million

The president and CEO's compensation fell 4.7% in 2012 because of a drop in stock option awards, even though Discovery's stock price is up more than 50% in the past year.

Last year, Discovery purchased Web video start-up Revision3.

Notable properties owned: Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, OWN, Military Channel, Investigation Discovery, Destination America, Petfinder.com, Revision3

(Source: SEC)

Salary:  $1.8 million / $1.8 million

Bonus: $10 million / $5.8 million

CBS Total: $31.3 million

Viacom Total: $20.4 million 

Combined, the Executive Chairman and Founder of both CBS and Viacom earned a combined $51.7 million from both companies last year.

Notable properties owned: BET, MTV, Paramount Pictures, Showtime

Base Salary: $875,109

Bonus: $2.2 million

All other awards and compensation: $54.1 million

2011 salary: $3.2 million

The Liberty Media CEO saw a huge increase in salary this year due to a huge option award of $53.9 million. Maffei has been CEO since February 2006.

He was recently named the new chairman of Live Nation in March, giving Liberty Media a large amount of control over the company. Liberty also just bought a stake in Charter Communications for $2.6 billion. 

Notable properties owned: Atlanta Braves, Overture Films, QVC, Expedia, Lockerz, Spun-off Starz in January, stakes in Barnes and Noble, Live Nation, Sirius XM Radio

(Source: SEC)

Base Salary: $3.5 million

Bonus: $27.5 million

All other awards and compensation: $31.2 million

2011 salary: $70 million

The 11.1% drop in compensation from 2011 is largely due to a reduction in Moonves's option awards from $27.3 million to $16.3 million.

The compensation committee awarded him with a $20 million cash bonus for his "successes" as CEO, and an additional $7.5 million cash bonus for the "premium content" produced for CBS.

Notable properties owned: CBS, CBS Radio, CBSSports.com, CBS Studios, the CW, Showtime Networks, Simon & Schuster, Charles Scribner's Sons, 50% of TV Guide Network (w/ Lionsgate)

(Source: SEC)

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