Latest news with #BobBakish
The Verge
24-06-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Paramount Plus with Showtime is getting a rebrand
'Paramount Plus with Showtime' has always been one of the more awkward bits of branding to come out of the streaming era, but soon subscribers will know the tier by another name. This week Paramount informed Paramount Plus subscribers that Paramount Plus with Showtime — the platform's most expensive tier that features Showtime programming and minimal ads — will now be referred to as 'Paramount Plus Premium.' The renamed tier will still cost $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year. Paramount Plus Premium will also still offer Showtime's series and catalog of films, but it won't feature the TV network's name. 'Since we recently introduced a sampling of Showtime programming to the Essential plan, the Premium plan name reflects the broad and diverse offerings across both plan tiers,' Paramount said in a support post about the new tier name. 'Showtime programming remains an important part of Paramount+, and is still prominently represented on the service!' The clunkiness of the 'Paramount Plus with Showtime' branding felt like a reflection of the rockiness that marked Showtime's integration into Paramount Plus and the subsequent shutdown of Showtime's standalone streaming service. Paramount executives warned employees about potential layoffs after CEO Bob Bakish first announced plans for a merger with Showtime back in 2023. Several Showtime series were cancelled or halted as a result of the deal, and by the following year, the new service had already gone through two price hikes. As strong as the Showtime brand is, 'Paramount Plus Premium' is definitely a better name. That said, coming so soon after Warner Bros. Discovery's recent decision to pivot back to HBO Max, Paramount's latest move feels very much like a response to the competition. None of us ever called it 'Max, the one to watch,' and WBD was right to stop trying to make that happen. But it's a little wild to see Paramount downplaying its connection to one of the networks that really helped bring cable TV into its own.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Media CEO Pay Defied Gravity In 2024: Would They Ever Work For Less? David Zaslav Package 'Triple-A' As WBD Debt Downgraded To Junk
Sarah Anderson has a strong point of view on U.S. CEO pay. They could take a cut. 'I think you can still motivate people to get out of bed in the morning and go to work and do a good job,' says the director of the Global Economy Projects at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive Washington D.C. think tank. 'They need to be fairly rewarded. But they would work for less.' More from Deadline S&P Downgrades Warner Bros. Discovery To Junk Status On 'Weak Credit Metrics' That Would Get Worse If Company Splits Paramount Global Ex-CEO Bob Bakish Walks Away With Almost $87M; George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy And Brian Robbins Each Net Between $19.5M And $22.2M In 2024 'And Just Like That' Companion Series Features Genesis Tie-In As WBD Ad Sales Hits The Gas On IP Strategy Would they? Media CEOs benchmark against each other, company boards look at peer groups and the feedback loop of high pay, which rose again in 2024, continues. It's been called the Lake Wobegon effect after Garrison Keillor's fictional Minnesota town in A Prairie Home Companion where 'all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.' Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters saw payouts of about $60 million each last year, up, respectively, 24% and 50%. Bob Iger's package was worth $41 million, up 30%. Warner Bros Discovery unveiled David Zaslav's $52 million payday the month before the company was cut to junk bond status (more on that below). Check out the 2024 Top 10 CEO pay list and read on for more. CEO's 'lead a pretty hectic life … They want fair pay, however that is defined,' says James Reda of Gallagher's Compensation Consulting practice. Boards reward executives they're comfortable with. 'They ask themselves, 'Have I got the right person … and if the answer is yes then I have to make them happy.'' It can be the same if the answer is no. Ex-Paramount Global chief executive Bob Bakish pulled in $87 million, golden parachute included, after losing a standoff with controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. The three co-CEOs who replaced him — George Cheeks, Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy — continue to oversee their respective operating divisions with an additional $6 million bump each for the new roles with packages worth, respectively, $22.2 million, $19.6 million and $19.5 million. It's an unusual setup meant to be transitional until the company closes its sale to Skydance. According to preliminary data from 320 S&P 500 companies compiled by leading proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services, median CEO pay grew 7.5%% to $16.8 million. For companies that increased pay, the median was 13.2%. In another look, compensation research firm Equilar said the largest CEO pay packages among U.S. companies with revenue of $1 billion or more showed median pay up 9.5% to $25.6 million. Both studies analyzed proxy statements submitted through March 31. The annual SEC filings that list the pay of the top five highest-paid executive officers keep flowing until the end of April for companies on a calendar year, so many more hit since and the increase is likely to be higher. In comparison, private industry wages and salaries rose by 3.6% in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — less when adjusted for inflation. The ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay, which companies are required to include in their proxies, has become increasingly skewed and part of a national debate around income inequality. Big media companies have shed tens of thousands of jobs and the broader production ecosystem that's supported so many has been knocked down by Covid, Hollywood strikes, corporate cost cutting, the end of peak TV, the LA fires and other disruptions. 'I am not sure what will happen in the entertainment industry but it's pretty true of most industries, and definitely true in that one, that you can be pretty sure the [chief] executives will make out okay,' says Rosanna Landis-Weaver, a pay expert and consultant with shareholder consultancy As You Sow. 'They are setting themselves up for success even if everyone else fails.' Zaslav's pay stood out last year, Landis-Weaver noted, as WBD's board massaged the financial metrics it used to boost the CEO's compensation. Specifically, after a complicated year it adjusted his bonus by excluding legal and other costs around shuttered Venu Sports, as well as the costs of acquiring new sports rights for TNT to balance losing the NBA. Those expenses squeezed WBD's revenue and other financial metrics, but the board calculated Zaslav's cash bonus and incentive compensation as if they never existed, calling them 'events over which management has little or no influence and … that were not considered at the time the targets were set,' according to the proxy. 'This is not something that is done everywhere,' says Landis-Weaver about moving the goalposts. 'What is intriguing to me is how many years they [WBD] have done this, including adjusting for the strike impact the year before. Some companies did it with Covid. You could maybe make an argument with Covid. But the rest of us don't go through our lives saying, 'I only want to be evaluated on things that I do well, not things that went poorly because they were out of my control.'' When that happens, 'CEOs get made whole, while workers do not get made whole,' says Anderson. Nor, sometimes, do shareholders, who do have a chance to opine on compensation in non-binding 'say-on-pay' votes at annual meetings. They have voted in large numbers against WBD's executive compensation. The proxy advisory ISS slammed the company's board in a note this week ahead of its annual meeting in June for 'limited responsiveness to shareholder concerns' and advised a 'no' vote on pay. Zaslav's 'pay opportunities remain high, while a significant portion of his annual equity grant appears to vest based on discretionary determinations,' ISS said. Financial goals were set below the prior year's actual performance, it said, and the CEO's equity grants 'vested at maximum despite financial targets underperforming the prior year.' Looking back, Zaslav's package was about $50 million in 2023, $39 million in 2022, and $246 million in 2021, including a massive option award and nearly $30 million in cash salary and bonus. Those nine figures topped the picket signs of actors and writers during Hollywood strikes in 2023. Zaslav sidesteps the rare direct questions on pay, like at a NYC Dealbook Summit in the fall of 2023. 'The writers, the actors, were saying, 'Look at this guy, he's getting paid tens of millions of dollars a year and we're over here.' How do you deal with that personally? And how do you think about that?' he was asked. 'My focus was we need to settle this strike. This is really hurting people. Every day that we were on strike, that people weren't working was a bad day,' he replied. WBD shares are down more than 60% since Discovery and Warner Bros merged in April 2022, taking on enormous debt it is slowly paying down. On Tuesday, S&P downgraded the company's credit rating to BB+, or junk status, saying its leverage was too high. 'CEOs are thriving in a system where risk is someone else's problem and reward is a signed check by a distracted comp committee,' says Frank Glassner, CEO of Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants. For Netflix, ISS advised voting in favor of executive compensation, finding that pay and performance are aligned. 'Though base salaries are relatively high … the annual bonus program was based entirely on pre-set financial metrics with clearly disclosed, rigorous targets.' The pure-play giant streamer is blowing away the competition. And yet, that's 'a huge amount of equity,' says Landis-Weaver. At Disney, this is Iger's penultimate year, with his contract ending in 2026 and the board committed to naming a successor early next year. CEO pay has been rolling out amid tariff angst, inflation and recession fears and a close watch on the ad market for signs of weakness. Companies from Walmart to Mattel to Best Buy, Proctor & Gamble and Black+Decker have all said they will be raising prices amid President Trump's global trade wars. Media companies are coaxing out streaming profits and wrestling with linear television declines. Financial markets have been volatile. This is a challenging year. One where 'shareholders are not going to be happy,' with exorbitant pay, says Gallagher's Reda. There' a timing issue. Hefty CEO packages for 2024 were set at the beginning of the year based on how the stock was performing at the end of 2023, when the market was relatively strong, said Equilar's Amit Batish, director of Content and Product Marketing. But share prices swooned this spring and have only just recovered as Trump paused the most extreme import taxes to hash out trade deals like one inked with the UK earlier this month. But an off-the-cuff post by Trump on Truth Social can sent financial markets into a tailspin. It's early yet, but if markets are shaky, 'it will be interesting to see how pay is structured next year,' said Batish. He notes, as have companies, that the grant date value of equity awards, the biggest part of CEO pay, isn't recognized right away but over years and on hitting certain performance goals. But 'it is what the board intends for the CEO to pocket, and, I think, is still revealing,' said Anderson. CEOs often receive new equity grants each year. 'So, sooner or later, they will cash in, even with a few down years.' CEOs should accept down years. 'They sign up to do a job. There may be some tough times.' Best of Deadline Every 'The Voice' Winner Since Season 1, Including 9 Team Blake Champions Everything We Know About 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' So Far 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Paramount Global Ex-CEO Bob Bakish Walks Away With Almost $87M; George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy And Brian Robbins Each Net Between $19.5M And $22.2M In 2024
The three occupants of Paramount Global's Office of the CEO did well for themselves financially in 2024, but the biggest payday went to ex-CEO Bob Bakish. George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins collected $22.2 million, $19.5 million and $19.6 million, respectively, according to an SEC filing by the company on Friday. Bakish took home just shy of $87 million, including about $69 million in severance.) More from Deadline Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, President Mike Cavanagh Annual Pay Dips By 5% FCC, Paramount Start Talks Around Skydance Merger 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 17 Holds Steady In Key Demos, Rakes In Biggest TV Share In Series History The compensation figures come as talks are continuing between Paramount Global and the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing the proposed merger of Paramount and Skydance Media. The FCC has made it plain that it wants Paramount and other media companies to roll back their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Unwinding the DEI programs put in place across corporate America in recent years has been a major priority of President Donald Trump and appointees like FCC Chair Brendan Carr. Trump has also filed a $20 billion lawsuit in Texas against Paramount, citing CBS News and 60 Minutes, but Carr has maintained that the FCC review is separate from that case. Bakish was removed as CEO in April 2024 and the company created the Office of the CEO after clashing with Paramount chair and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. Cheeks, McCarthy and Robbins have continued to oversee divisions of the company in addition to fulfilling their Co-CEO duties. In the Skydance deal announced last summer, Redstone's privately held National Amusements will be acquired by Skydance, which will then merge with all of Paramount. The companies have said the transaction would close by the first half of 2025, but that timetable has come into question in recent weeks. The framework for Bakish's severance payment had been disclosed, but the final number was determined based on a range of performance-based metrics. In 2023, Bakish's total payday was $31.3 million. Christa D'Alimonte, who departed last June as EVP and General Counsel, collected $8.9 million in 2024, including about $4 million in severance. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Netflix's 'The Thursday Murder Club' So Far TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving In 2025 So Far Which Colleen Hoover Books Are Becoming Movies? 'Verity,' 'Reminders Of Him' & 'Regretting You' Will Join 'It Ends With Us'
