Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings' compensation doubled to $5.5 million
Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings will need a few more zeros on his paycheck if he wants to be considered a real Hollywood mogul.
Hastings' 2010 compensation doubled to $5.5 million in 2010, according to the Los Gatos, Calif., company's proxy statement filed late Wednesday. Last year was a banner year for the company. Its stock price increased 219% to $175.70 and Netflix added 8 million subscribers, bringing its total to 20 million. Revenue jumped 29% to $2.16 billion and net income was up 39% to $161 million.
Nearly $5 million of Hastings' compensation package came from stock options, up from $1.75 million in 2009. His salary was actually cut in half to $519,231 from $1 million the previous year.
Although $5.5 million is nothing to sneeze at, it also pales in comparison to other chief executives at big media companies.
For example, Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes, an outspoken critic of Netflix's business model, had a compensation package worth $26.3 million in 2010. Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman had a 2010 package worth $84.5 million. The compensation package of CBS chief Leslie Moonves was valued at nearly $58 million. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav's deal was worth almost $43 million.
The biggest raise among Netflix's senior executives went to the man in charge of acquiring content for its booming online streaming service: Ted Sarandos. The company's chief content officer, who works out of its Beverly Hills office, got a 118% raise, to $2.4 million. His salary of $900,000 was higher than that of any other senior executive, though his stock options were less than those of Hastings, Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Kilgore and former Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy.
-- Ben Fritz
Photo: Reed Hastings at Netflix's Canada launch in September. Credit: Mike Cassese / Reuters.
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We are canceling our subscription to Netflix immediately. When our selections expire which has occurred twice, we have been sent X-rated films with pornographic scenes. We have been sent "Caligula" and an alleged documentary about Rome. Two minutes into the Rome film, the porn scene began so we immediately turned it off.
The content is unbelievably low-brow at best and actually fecal if the truth be known.
As far as I know, sending unsolicited porn through the U.S. Mail is a federal
crime.
Posted by: Elizabeth Arrasougouho | April 20, 2011 at 07:30 PM
Sounds like he's a bargain compared to Les and Jeff.
Posted by: Drake | April 20, 2011 at 08:27 PM
And how much of an increase did the actual rank and file netflixs worker gain? Did everyone in the company get their salary doubled. Why aren't you making those comparisons in your article. That's what workers really want to know. We want to know if we are getting a fair share of succees. Comparisons to other rich CEOs are meaningless because the other companies success or failure is not in the least related to the profits made by netflix. The framing of the article serves to divert the poplace away from the relevant discussion of the just distribution of profits among those who helped create them. Put some meat in your reporting!!!!
Posted by: conniecarpenter | April 21, 2011 at 03:05 AM
I got an idea for Netflix. I don't know, how 'bout since you're a online movie rental house, you actually have an online support department? Seems to make sense.
Posted by: marv | April 21, 2011 at 01:37 PM
I seriously doubt Netflix sent you anything in the mail by accident, and doubt even less the possibility that they sent you "Caligula." If you're not flat-out lying, which I'm sure you are, you were either the victim of a prank (not by Netflix) or you clicked the wrong movie. Or even more likely, you did select the show and you were caught by someone and came up with this lame excuse to not seem like a total pervert. I bet you conveniently mentioned this article to the person that caught you with "Caligula."
Anyways, $500,000 salary for the CEO of Netflix? That seems rather low for a company trading so high and generating such revenue. $5 million in stock options? I'm guessing the CFO at Netflix is quite brilliant.
Posted by: Peter K. | April 21, 2011 at 06:07 PM