The pay-TV industry is rife with fears that over-the-top and mobile viewing will continue to displace traditional liner TV. Yet for all of the fears, the top executives in the pay-TV industry aren't doing too bad for themselves. Our sister publication FierceCable has a roundup of the highest-paid executives in the cable and pay-TV industry.
Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) Chairman and CEO Rob Marcus would have walked away with around $80 million had Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) proposed $45 billion takeover of his company been approved by regulators. As it was, even with the deal's collapse, a huge tenfold increase in stock compensation brought Marcus' overall earnings to $34.6 million, making him the highest paid pay-TV executive of 2014.
Finishing second was Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, whose $32.96 million paycheck in 2014 wasn't even the highest in the Comcast empire. Roberts was actually edged out by NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke, who gave his personal accountant the champagne conundrum of what to do with $33.91 million. But since Burke doesn't work on the cable side of the business, he wasn't on the list. FierceWireless will have a similar list for the highest-paid executives in wireless next week, so be on the lookout for that. In the meantime, check out this list from FierceCable.