Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $36.4 million in total compensation in 2019, a nearly 4% increase over the prior year, according to its annual proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Roberts’ annual base salary rose slightly to $3.3 million from $3.2 million in the prior year, and his stock and option awards remained steady at about $5.3 million each.

Roberts, along with chief financial officer Mike Cavanagh, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell and Sky plc chief Jeremy Darroch pledged their 2020 salaries to various charitable organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In addition, Comcast has devoted about $500 million to support its employees through continued pay and benefits where operations have been paused or impacted by COVID-19, and has committed significant resources to support its customers.

According to the proxy statement, Cavanagh received the biggest increase among top executives at the company, with total compensation of $26.8 million, up 23% from the $21.7 million he received in 2018. That gain was mainly fueled by a 71% rise in stock awards to $6.7 million from $3.9 million in the prior year.

NBCUniversal chairman Steve Burke, who stepped down as CEO in January and said he would retire in August, received $42.6 million in total compensation in 2019, up 7% from the $39.9 he received in the prior year.

Watson’s total compensation rose 14% to $16.9 million from $14.8 in the prior year, while senior executive vice president Dave Cohen got a 5% raise, with total compensation of $20 million in 2019, compared to $19.1 million in the prior year. 

A week after letting analysts kick the tires on its upcoming streaming video service Peacock, Comcast got down to business Jan. 23, showing Wall Street that the engine of its past and future growth — broadband — is still humming along.

Peacock has been dominating headlines since Comcast held its Jan. 16 Investor Day, revealing details for the ad-supported service to generally favorable reviews. And though Peacock is thought by many to be the future of Comcast’s content distribution business, the cable operator showed that broadband, the platform over which streaming services travel, is still winning the day.

Comcast, the biggest U.S. cable company, added 442,000 broadband customers in the fourth quarter and 1.4 million for the full year, its largest yearly growth in 12 years. Broadband revenue was up 8.8% for the quarter and 9.4% for the year and shows no signs of slowing. In contrast, video subscribers fell by 149,000 in the quarter (compared to a loss of 29,000 in 2018) and video revenue declined 1.2% in the quarter and 0.8% for the year. For the full year, video subscriber declines nearly doubled to 733,000 from 370,000 in the prior year.

The industry seems to have come to terms with the decline of video customers, and the numbers seem to prove that out. With the fourth-quarter results, Comcast’s video base is declining at an annual rate of 3.3%, higher than the Q3 pace of 2.8% but still well behind the 6% clip for the rest of the industry.

In a research report, Sanford Bernstein media analyst Peter Supino called the Comcast results “rock solid.” He noted that the cable company’s performance underscores his “ ‘losing to win’ theme for cable,” meaning that as internet customers rise and video customers fall, margins and returns on invested capital (ROIC) will improve.

But for NBCUniversal, where revenue dipped 2.6% in the quarter (and 5% for the year), the picture seems to be getting worse. Earlier, LightShed partner Rich Greenfield wrote in a note to clients that Peacock is a sure sign that Comcast sees the handwriting on the wall.

“We walked out of the Peacock Investor Day with the clear sense that Comcast truly understands that consumer interest in linear TV and the bloated video bundle is fading and that it needs a replacement for both subscription and advertising revenue that leverages its robust broadband pipes,” Greenfield wrote.

In his research note, Supino was also encouraged by Comcast’s broadband-only service Flex. Comcast can’t keep up with the demand for free Flex boxes, Supino said, adding that the product has the potential to be a meaningful contributor to stemming internet churn, as well as a new profit stream from retailing streaming services. In an earlier note, he estimated that Flex could account for 1.2 million internet customers by 2023.

Comcast has said it will spend about $2 billion over two years on content for Peacock, and there have been questions as to how NBC’s broadcast affiliates will react to the free service.

On a Jan. 23 conference call with analysts to discuss Q4 results, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said the Peacock service will complement all of NBCU’s content offerings.

Feathering the Nest

“We’re going to make more money from the television ecosystem and that will allow us to continue to invest in the linear platform,” Roberts said on the call. “So if I were talking to an affiliate, if I were talking to a cable company, I would say Peacock is a way to make us a better, stronger competitor in a way that’s good for all of our businesses, not just streaming.”

Peacock will be the third recent entrant in an increasingly crowded direct-to-consumer field: Disney+ and Apple TV+ arrived in November, and AT&T’s HBO Max is slated for launch in May. Still, NBCU chairman Steve Burke said he believes Peacock is poised to come out on top.

“I think our company is better positioned as the world moves to streaming than any other company in the world,” Burke said on the call. “And I think you could argue in the next 10 or 20 years, if you look at all those three businesses combined, we could make more money in streaming than anyone else by a lot.”

Comcast expects to be able to make more money from streaming than any other company in the world, according to Steve Burke, chairman of Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit.

On Comcast’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday, Burke said that looking at Comcast’s broadband business and its Flex and soon-to-launch Peacock streaming businesses, will be big money makers.

“I think our company is better positioned as the world moves to streaming than any other company in the world,” Burke said. “I think you could argue that in the next 10 to 20 years, if you look at all those three businesses combined, we could make more money in streaming than anyone else, by a lot."

Burke added that he expects most cable and satellite companies to make a deal with NBCU to provide Peacock to their customers. NBCU already has a deal with Cox.

There will be a version of Peacock that’s available to all consumers for free that offers about 7,500 hours of content. A premium version of Peacock has 15,000 hours of content and will cost $5 a month, but will be free to Comcast subscribers. Other MVPDs can make a deal with NBCU to give Peacock Premium for free to their subscribers.

For more stories like this, visit our sister publication Next TV.

“That universe is still about 80%, so 80% of the people in America I think eventually are going to be able to get that $5 product for free,” Burke said.

“It’s such a great value to be able to give all of your customers a product that’s $5 a month in value, or $60 a year, for free, that I think eventually we will get the vast majority if not all of cable and satellite.

He said some of the negotiations won’t happen until NBCU’s current deals with MVPDs are up.

“We have a lot of big deals up this year,” Burke said, “but I think by the end of this year you’re going to see the $5 Peacock product be offered for free to a lot of cable and satellite customers.”

Comcast said Monday that NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke will step down from that role on Jan. 1, replaced by NBC Film and Entertainment head Jeff Shell, and becoming chairman of NBCU until his retirement in August.

Burke, who has been at Comcast for more than 20 years, will officially step down on August 14, after the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. After that date, Shell will report directly to Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.

Variety first reported that Burke would retire and be replaced by Shell. 

“I cannot thank Steve enough for the incredible impact he has had on this entire company,” Roberts said in a press release. “I will miss Steve’s trusted partnership, and I know I speak for both myself and my late father Ralph when I say that we will be forever grateful to him for shaping first Comcast and then NBCUniversal into the great companies they are today. ”

Shell, who joined Comcast in 2005 from News Corp. (Now Fox Corp.), to lead the company’s Programming Group, has served in several roles at the company, most recently overseeing the company’s film and network television businesses including NBC Entertainment, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG), Telemundo and NBCUniversal International. Prior to that, he served as Chairman of UFEG and led the film division to record profit crossing the $5 billion mark in global box office in both 2015 and 2017.

Since 2005, Shell has led several different Comcast units, serving as chairman of NBCUniversal International, where he managed International TV Distribution, Global Television Networks and International Television Production, as well as CNBC International, International Theatrical Marketing and Distribution, International Home Entertainment and International Theme Parks Operations.

“Jeff Shell is the ideal executive to take the helm at NBCUniversal,” Robert continued. “He has a stellar track record across both the film and TV side of the business, as well as a wealth of international experience. I have worked closely with Jeff for many years and he is an extraordinary leader who inspires loyalty, delivers strong results and cares deeply about our company, its employees and partners. I could not be more confident in his ability to lead NBCUniversal into the future.”

Burke’s departure come as NBCU readies the launch of its streaming video service Peacock in April. Burke took the helm of NBCU after Comcast purchased a majority interest in the programmer in 2011, leading it through an unprecedented period of growth. 

“This is a very special company and I am proud of the people I have worked with and the things we have accomplished together,” Burke said in a press release. “While this has been a dream job, it has always been my plan to hand off the baton at the right moment and move on to the next chapter of my life where I can pursue a different set of interests. It is great to know I am leaving the company in terrific hands with Jeff, who is the right leader to usher in the next phase of growth and success for NBCUniversal.”

NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke is looking to differentiate his company’s upcoming ad-supported streaming platform, Peacock, amid a crush of big OTT launches in the coming months.

“We’re not doing the same strategy that Netflix and the people chasing Netflix have adopted,” Burke said during parent company Comcast’s third-quarter earnings call this morning. (The event was covered by Deadline Hollywood and numerous other publications.)

Because the platform, set to launch in April, will be freely distributed to the user bases of Comcast and Sky, Burke believes it will enjoy the economics of much higher customer volume early on, relative to subscription streamers.

Related: Broadband Drives Comcast Q3

“I think we’re going to get to cruising altitude much more quickly than a subscription service,” Burke said. “We’re also playing to our strengths. We happen to be part of a company that has 55 million video customers and is the biggest provider of television advertising in the United States.”

Peacock, Burke said, will be “front and center” on Comcast’s Flex platform, a streaming service the company provides to its broadband-only customers.

Meanwhile, Burke also said that Comcast will keep licensing its shows to other companies, and it will not fixate on exclusive content as much as, say, Disney+ or HBO Max.

“Our approach is different,” he said. “It fits the strengths and characteristics of our company well. It’s a very, very interesting time as everybody tries to figure out what their strategy is and we’re very optimistic.”

Related: Comcast Brands New NBCU Streaming Service ‘Peacock,’ Announces Launch Slate

While broadly sketching out NBCU’s strategy for its new streaming service, Burke said that because of competitive reasons, the company will remain quiet about the service “until a month or two before launch.”

NBCU will use its heavy, cross-platform coverage of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo as a promotional “after burner” as it launches the new service, he added.

Peacock will launch as subscription services Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+ simultaneously enter the market, all aiming to break pieces of Netflix’s dominant market share.

“It’s a moment in time and a lot of people are being very very aggressive about it,” Burke said. “I would anticipate that happening until there will inevitably be a slowing down and a shakeout and the market will get a little bit more rational. It’s a moment in time and consumers are making their choices with apps and you want to be aggressive and get in there and make sure your service is one of the consumer’s handful of favorite services.”

NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke is looking to differentiate his company’s upcoming ad-supported streaming platform, Peacock, amid a crush of big OTT launches in the coming months.

“We’re not doing the same strategy that Netflix and the people chasing Netflix have adopted,” Burke said during parent company Comcast’s third-quarter earnings call this morning. (The event was covered by Deadline Hollywood and numerous other publications.)

Because the platform, set to launch in April, will be freely distributed to the user bases of Comcast and Sky, Burke believes it will enjoy the economics of much higher customer volume early on, relative to subscription streamers.

Related: Broadband Drives Comcast Q3

“I think we’re going to get to cruising altitude much more quickly than a subscription service,” Burke said. “We’re also playing to our strengths. We happen to be part of a company that has 55 million video customers and is the biggest provider of television advertising in the United States.”

Peacock, Burke said, will be “front and center” on Comcast’s Flex platform, a streaming service the company provides to its broadband-only customers.

Meanwhile, Burke also said that Comcast will keep licensing its shows to other companies, and it will not fixate on exclusive content as much as, say, Disney+ or HBO Max.

“Our approach is different,” he said. “It fits the strengths and characteristics of our company well. It’s a very, very interesting time as everybody tries to figure out what their strategy is and we’re very optimistic.”

Related: Comcast Brands New NBCU Streaming Service ‘Peacock,’ Announces Launch Slate

While broadly sketching out NBCU’s strategy for its new streaming service, Burke said that because of competitive reasons, the company will remain quiet about the service “until a month or two before launch.”

NBCU will use its heavy, cross-platform coverage of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo as a promotional “after burner” as it launches the new service, he added.

Peacock will launch as subscription services Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+ simultaneously enter the market, all aiming to break pieces of Netflix’s dominant market share.

“It’s a moment in time and a lot of people are being very very aggressive about it,” Burke said. “I would anticipate that happening until there will inevitably be a slowing down and a shakeout and the market will get a little bit more rational. It’s a moment in time and consumers are making their choices with apps and you want to be aggressive and get in there and make sure your service is one of the consumer’s handful of favorite services.”

Comcast’s new streaming service will roll out in April 2020 with a free-to-consumer, ad-supported business model underpinned largely by the same advertisers who are, in a number of cases, working to undermine the conglomerate’s current linear TV model.

“Ironically, these are the companies putting pressure on our linear ratings,” said Steve Burke, CEO of the cable giant’s NBCUniversal division, speaking today during Comcast’s second-quarter earnings call. “But interestingly, those companies find television advertising effective.”

Related: Comcast’s Q2 Video Sub Losses Increase, As Wireless, Broadband Take Up Slack

Burke said the collection of companies includes the so-called “FAANG” technology giants—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. Combined, he said, they spent $1 billion on TV last year, up from virtually nothing just five years earlier.

Burke said it has devoted 500 employees to the streaming project, which will initially launch into the footprints of Comcast and Sky telecom services, reaching around 52 minion homes combined. The programming mix, he added, will be heavy on acquired movies and shows vs. originals.

“Our service is very different from Netflix,” he said.

Burke also commented on NBCU’s decision to re-up half-hour comedy The Office with Netflix.

“The Office was important to us because according to Nielsen, The Office is the number one show on Netflix,” Burke said. “It’s about 5% of all of Netflix’s volume. It’s obviously a show that was on NBC and is tied to the DNA of NBC and we see The Office as being one of the tentpole programs on our platform.”

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received a 7.8% increase in total compensation in 2018, raking in $35.03 million for the year, according to the company’s annual proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday.

Roberts’ base salary stayed about the same at $3.2 million, but he received a $1.6 million increase in non-equity incentive plan compensation to $10.7 million from $9.1 million in the prior year. The increase was a change from 2017, when Roberts’ total compensation stayed flat at $32.5 million.

NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke saw his pay dip by 14% to $39.96 million in 2018, mainly because he received fewer option awards for the year. Burke received about $5.4 million in option awards in 2018, down from the $15.4 million he received in the prior year.

Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson got the biggest increase -- a 30.5% raise to $14.75 million -- mainly tied to an increase in non-equity incentives. Watson, who was named Cable CEO in April 2017, after former Cable CEO Neil Smit retired, received $4.2 million in non-equity compensation in 2018, up from $2.4 million in the previous year.

Other executives got similar raises -- chief financial officer Michael Cavanagh received $21.7 million in total compensation, up 7.7%, and senior executive vice president David Cohen received $19.1 million, up 7.9% from the prior year.

A year ago, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke interjected a seed of doubt in the fast growing virtual pay TV market, noting that his company had seen slowdowns in the sector from the perspective of program licensing.

Four earnings calls later, with what had been the fastest growing virtual MVPD (vMVPD), DirecTV Now, in a tailspin, and all the major services significantly upping their prices, Burke engaged investment analysts in a proverbial “toldja.”

“For maybe three or four calls in a row, we [have said that we] thought that virtual MVPD growth was probably unsustainable, and that's proven to be the case,” Burke said during Comcast’s Q1 earnings call Thursday. “They had promotional pricing and they would gain a fair amount of subs. And actually at one point the gain on the virtual MVPD side pretty much offset the loss on the traditional MVPD side. That trend, I think, is over.”

Related: Philo Becomes Latest vMVPD to Raise Rates

Like all cable companies confined to regional footprints, however large, Comcast sat on the sideline as satellite TV operators Dish Network and AT&T, as well as technology companies including Sony and Google, launched skinny programming bundles over the top. Fueled by low prices and steep promotional discounts, these services grew quickly from 2016 through the middle of last year.

AT&T’s DirecTV Now had been the fastest grower, expanding to nearly 2 million subscribers by the end of the second quarter of last year. It was around that time that AT&T realized it had around half a million users paying virtually nothing for the virtual service, and that the $45-a-month product was unsustainable.

After quitting promotions cold turkey and upping the price, AT&T executives declared DirecTV Now “sustainable” during their own earnings call this week. But the platform has lost 350,000 users over the last six months.

Within the Philadelphia office towers of Comcast, you will find no credit given to AT&T for trying to innovate its way out of the cord cutting problem.

“I think we all believe that [linear pay TV is] a quite challenged business model, and there was a bit of excitement as everybody rushed into the [vMVPD] business over the last year or so,” Burke said. “And that excitement now is going away.”

A day after AT&T reported steep deceleration for DirecTV Now, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke confirmed that growth for upstart virtual pay TV services is indeed “flattening.”

Burke made his remarks during the third quarter earnings call for parent company Comcast, when pressed by analysts to talk about subscriber growth for NBCU cable channels.

With DirecTV Now adding 342,000 users in the second quarter, subscriber growth for programmers had been largely driven of late by vMVPDs, a category of live streaming services that also includes Dish Network’s Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV, Sony PlayStation Vue and fuboTV.

In fact, DirecTV Now had been the category’s fastest growing service. But with AT&T ending most of the aggressive promotions it used to sell the platform, subscriber additions fell to 49,000 in the third quarter.

AT&T said it is now in the process of reviewing the service’s skinny bundle offering. 

Comcast’s $65 Billion bid for certain 21st Century Fox assets wasn’t the “shock and awe” offer that many were expecting, but it solidified what everyone in the industry already kind of knew: Brian Roberts is dead serious about adding content scale.

Comcast’s chairman and CEO had in the past expressed interest in the Fox assets — cable channels FX, FXX and National Geographic; TV and movie production studio 20th Century Fox; 21 regional sports channels; and Fox’s 39% interest in U.K. satellite company Sky and 30% interest in online video pioneer Hulu.

In December, Comcast offered Fox about $34 per share in stock, a bid that was higher than the ultimate winner, The Walt Disney Co., but was rejected because of regulatory concerns and the lack of a breakup fee. In its new $35-per-share deal offered up June 14, Comcast has matched Disney’s $2.5 billion breakup fee and has offered to pay Fox’s $1.5 billion termination obligation, should it scuttle the Disney deal.

Comcast telegraphed in May that it was in the “advanced stages” of making a formal all-cash offer. The bid is expected to touch off a potentially bloody bidding war with Disney, which in December announced a deal valued at about $55 billion (not including assumed debt) for the same assets.

Disney has so far been silent on the Comcast offer, and Fox said last Wednesday (June 13) that its board of directors has received the proposal and will review it. The company has not decided whether it will need to cancel the July 10 special shareholders meeting to vote on the Disney proposal. That could perhaps be decided at a previously scheduled meeting of the Fox board of directors on June 20.

Related: Disney, Fox Set July 10 Special Meeting

While the Comcast bid is about 20% more than the Disney offer — but still short of the 25% or higher premium many analysts expected — Pivotal Research Group CEO and senior media and communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak said a knockout offer would have probably driven Comcast stock into the cellar, and besides, Roberts may believe that Disney won’t be as aggressive as everyone thinks. Comcast shares were already down about 20% this year, mainly because investors feared Comcast and Roberts would do just what they did on Wednesday.

“Sentiment in cable is god awful and massively overdone in my view, which sets the table for significant short squeezes in both Comcast and Charter and Disney,” Wlodarczak  said. “Investors are pricing these names as if the world is falling apart, and Comcast is doing something incredibly stupid, which is simply not the case. Even if Comcast were to pay materially more — say $15 billion — the stock is still dirt cheap and there is logic to a deal.”

Comcast stock actually rose 4.6% ($1.50 each) to $33.82 per share on June 14, signaling that perhaps that sentiment is easing a bit.

Both sides are expected to fight hard for the assets. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger has said the Fox deal is a critical piece of his company’s overall direct-to-consumer strategy, giving the content giant more compelling programming and reuniting film properties in the vastly popular and profitable Star Wars franchise (Fox owns Episode IV: A New Hope, the initial 1977 film) and the Marvel Comics universe (Fox holds the film and TV rights to the X-Men and other characters). Iger is not one to back down from a fight, and both sides have the resources to sweeten their offers.

“Release the hounds. The Fox chase is on,” wrote MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett in a blog post.

In a conference call with analysts to announce the deal, Comcast focused a lot on its international aspects— it would boost international revenue from 9% of total sales to 27% — but that also could have been for regulators. While the business is truly becoming global, Roberts’s brief explanation of the state of the pay TV industry probably showed his own mindset the best. “We firmly believe that the truly great media companies of the next century will be large integrated entities with multiple growth engines across a wide swath of the global entertainment industry,” Roberts said.

NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke, under whose purview the Fox assets, if acquired, would fall, said the deal reflects the changing landscape and Comcast’s willingness and ability to adjust to it.

“One thing we know for certain is that more video is being consumed across more platforms than ever before,” Burke said. “We think that will continue for years to come.”

Burke believes not only will the best companies create and broadly distribute their own content, they will sell it to a global audience. “The Fox assets will make us stronger,” he said.

On the conference call after the deal was announced, Roberts praised Fox’s ruling Murdoch family for its excellent stewardship of the assets, comparing Rupert Murdoch’s vision to that of his own father, the late Ralph Roberts, with both building media empires essentially from scratch. “We are, in our minds, the right buyer,” he said on last Wednesday night’s call.

Related: Murdoch Calls Disney Deal a ‘Momentous Occasion’

Both Comcast and Fox have grown their businesses by acquisition, but have taken slightly different tacks. Murdoch is famous for bidding way too much for content assets — like his offer for National Football League rights in the 1990s, which was $100 million higher than the next bidder but put the Fox broadcast network on the map, and more recently buying The Wall Street Journal at a 67% premium. Roberts has taken a more careful approach, seeking out troubled companies that could be snapped up for bargains and turned around quickly like AT&T Broadband and NBC Universal.

Roberts touted those past deals as proof that Comcast knows how to integrate large purchases. But AT&T Broadband was in trouble and managed poorly — the telco had concentrated on phone service while its video operation dwindled. And NBCU had a disinterested owner (GE), a fourth place broadcast network in a four-player field, and a slew of cable networks that were basically neglected. There was a lot of upside for an owner that knew had to run a pay TV business, and Comcast took full advantage.

That philosophy has served Comcast well. Since its IPO in 1972, the average return for Comcast shareholders has been 17.1% per year, Roberts said, far outpacing the S&P 500 Index. To put it more bluntly, $7,000 invested in Comcast stock in 1972 would be worth about $10 million.

“This is our formula, and I’m proud of our 45-year track record,” Roberts said.

But the Fox assets are not in trouble. There aren’t as many clear, major improvements that Comcast can make to boost returns as it did in its other mega-deals.

Related: Roberts Says Comcast Is the ‘Right Buyer’ for Fox

On the conference call, Burke acknowledged the Fox assets were different, but said there is ample room to grow. “[I]t’s more about complementarity; it’s about the fact that we’re very strong in distribution and content in the United States and not as strong in places like India and Europe,” he said.

But to service its new debt, Comcast will need big returns. If its current bid is accepted, the combined company’s overall leverage would balloon to about $170 billion, or about 4.25 times forward-looking cash flow, per Moody’s Investor’s Service. That is about twice its current leverage of 2.75 times, and could jeopardize its investment-grade rating — i.e., its ability to borrow cash cheaply.

The combined entities are expected to have enough free cash flow to repay debt maturities as they come due, which Moody’s said was “very important given the amount of outstanding debt, secular pressures on linear pay TV and slowing cable industry growth.” But the credit rating agency added Comcast’s willingness to increase leverage so much is “a major shift in financial policy.”

Roberts called the extra leverage as a result of the deal “temporary,” adding that his best answer to the debt service question is the performance of the overall business.

“We have a business plan and a momentum,” Roberts said. “With a changing world, we make adjustments.”

Analysts are split as to who may emerge victorious in this modern-day Fox hunt. Greenfield believes Comcast, smarting after backing off its bid for Disney in 2004 and abandoning its pursuit of Time Warner Cable in 2015, doesn’t want to lose a third time and will be very aggressive. Moffett believes if Disney can put together an attractive package of cash and stock, it could end up the victor. Wlodarczak believes Comcast needs Fox more than Disney, and therefore would do whatever it takes to obtain the assets.

But Moffett added that no matter which suitor comes up with the highest bid, there is only one true winner in the deal. “It’s good to be Fox,” he wrote.

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts didn’t get a raise in 2017, netting $32.5 million in salary, incentives and stock awards for the year, about 1% less than the $32.9 million he received in 2016.

Roberts’ base salary increased slightly from $3.0 million in 2016 to $3.1 million last year. His stock and option awards stayed basically the same at $5.3 million and $5.4 million, respectively, while his non-equity incentive base compensation fell from $10.7 million in 2016 to $9.1 million last year.

Chief financial officer Michael Cavanagh took the biggest hit -- his total compensation fell 22% to $20.1 million from $25.7 million in the prior year.

NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke was once again the highest paid Comcast executive – receiving $46.5 million in total compensation, up 1% from the $46.1 million he received in 2016.

Senior executive vice president David Cohen received $17.7 million in total compensation in 2017, down from the $17.9 million he received in the prior year. Non-executive vice chairman Neil Smit, who stepped down as CEO of Comcast Cable in April 2017, received $25.9 million in total compensation, a 2% increase from the $25.4 million he received in 2016.  

Virtual MVPDs are spreading like wildfire these days, but a top programming exec isn’t convinced that they’ll scorch the market.

“It’s a very tough business,” Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal, said Thursday on  Comcast’s Q2 earnings call. “As we’ve said before, we’re skeptical it’s going to be a very large business or profitable business…they’re off to a slow start.”

Those new entrants are adding subs, but not enough of them to overcome the losses in the traditional pay TV business.

Earlier this week, for example, AT&T said DirecTV Now, its virtual MVPD service, added 152,000 subs in Q2, but lost 351,000 “traditional” video subs (DirecTV satellite and U-verse IPTV).  DirecTV Now is competing in the sector against other OTT players that include Sling TV, YouTube TV,  PlayStation Vue, and fuboTV.  Notably, the latter two recently cut deals with the National Cable Television Cooperative, a group that represents tier 2/3 cable ops. Those deals could help those operators counter the pay TV cord-cutting trend by offering a video product option that appeals to broadband-only subs.  

“The over-the-top services that have been launched so far are doing about as we expected they would do, and that is they're not all that material to our business,” Burke said.

But NBCU has “very favorable” deals with all of those new OTT entrants, according to Burke.

“From an NBCU point of view, if someone goes to an over to the top provider, it's actually slightly better,” he said.

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $32.96 million in total compensation in 2016, a 9% pay cut from the previous year, despite the company showing its strongest video results in a decade.

Comcast ended 2016 with 161,000 more basic video customers than it started with, the first time that happened since 2006. The cable operator also started its wireless plans in motion, activating a Mobile Virtual Network Operator agreement with Verizon in October, the precursor for its April unveiling of its Xfinity Mobile product.

Roberts saw his base salary increase slightly to $3 million from $2.9 million and he received about $3.5 million in stock awards and $3.5 million in option awards, the same as in the prior year. The biggest difference was in the value of his pension and non-qualified deferred compensation-- $4.3 million in 2016, down from $8.7 million in 2015.

Other executives saw steeper reductions in their take-home haul. Chief financial officer Michael Cavanagh received $27.7million in total compensation, down 32% from $40.6 million in 2015. Cavanagh received $9.5 million in stock awards and $2.5 million in pension value and non-qualified deferred comp in 2016, down from $16.5 million and $11.9 million in 2015. Cable unit CEO Neil Smit, who became vice chairman of the company on April 1 – long-time executive Dave Watson is his replacement – received $25.4 million in total compensation (down 9% from $27.95 million in 2015) and senior executive vice president David Cohen received $17.9 million, about in line with the previous year.

NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke saw the biggest increase (36.8%), receiving $46.1 million in total compensation, mainly due to a near tripling of his option awards in the period from $5.35 million in 2015 to $15.4 million in 2016.

Washington — There will be a lot of new wrinkles surrounding the Cable Hall of Fame’s 2017 induction ceremony, set for Washington, D.C.’s Grand Hyatt on April 26.

For one thing, the 20th annual ceremony will no longer coincide with INTX, the annual convention of NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, which had also been set for the nation’s capital before the trade group opted to “sunset” the event last year. For another, The Cable Center for the first time this year will honor a television series — HBO’s groundbreaking 1999-2007 mob-and-family drama The Sopranos — as a member of its class of enshrinees. Accepting will be the show’s creator, David Chase.

Other inductees are: Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal; Jill Campbell, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cox Communications; Michael T. Fries, CEO of Liberty Global; Ken Lowe, chairman, president and CEO, Scripps Networks Interactive; and David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery Communications. Honorees were chosen for their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation in media.

Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign correspondent for NBC News and host of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, will serve as master of ceremonies.

“This year’s Cable Hall of Fame honorees are truly the best of the best,” Michael Willner, president and CEO of Penthera Partners and chairman of The Cable Center’s board of directors, said in a statement. “They are leaders of some of the most influential companies in the world, and have shaped the industry’s operations, programming and our society. We are thrilled to induct our first series into the Cable Hall of Fame as well. The Sopranos was the seminal series that proved television was more than the broadcasting networks alone, and we are excited to pay tribute to the impact it had on the growth and success of our industry.”

Also to be honored in Washington is CommScope founder Frank Drendel, the 2017 recipient of the Bresnan Ethics in Business Award.

Since 1998, 121 men and women have been inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame, the Denver-based Cable Center said.

“It is an honor to welcome these individuals into the Cable Hall of Fame, and to recognize our first television program,” Cable Center CEO Jana Henthorn said in a statement. “The passion, drive and thought leadership displayed by all of the honorees has steered our industry into the international powerhouse it is today, and we look forward to celebrating their achievements at the Cable Hall of Fame celebration.”

Profiles provided courtesy of The Cable Center.

Steve Burke
CEO, NBCUniversal

As the son of broadcasting mogul Dan Burke, and brother to Bill Burke, co-founder of Argos Pictures, you could say that Steve Burke has the media business in his DNA. In fact, Burke has credited his father as one of his greatest influences

“He taught me, by example, you can have a successful career without sacrificing your family life,” Burke said.

Burke knows about success. A career trajectory beginning with 12 years at The Walt Disney Co., where he advanced to president and chief operating officer of Euro Disney; and culminating with chief operating officer of Comcast, gave him the necessary skills to take the helm as CEO of NBCUniversal when Comcast acquired it in 2011. He has innumerable accomplishments overseeing the film, television and theme park companies that comprise NBCUniversal. The NBCU portfolio carries some of the most popular programs on television today. On the theme park side, Burke has fans of the Harry Potter franchise under his spell with attractions in Orlando, Fla.; Los Angeles; and Japan.

Burke credits this success in part to NBCUniversal’s culture, which he fostered. “We have some of the best people in the industry working at NBC, our cable channels, Universal film, our theme parks and more. We also have a culture where people genuinely feel like they are part of a team.”

Burke’s management philosophy? Think like an owner, not a renter.

“When you have a company as big as ours, you need to have talented executives who treat their part of the company as if it was their own,” he said. “We allow them to confront problems and make decisions that are at times unpopular, but are for the long term good of the business.”

He learned this from his other mentor, Comcast founder Ralph Roberts. “He was someone who built for the long-term. He was a wonderful man who made every room he was in more productive because of his presence.”

Throughout Burke’s long career, his family has anchored him. “The most important thing in my life by far is my wife and five children. They have given me the greatest joy and they are good at putting me in my place when I deserve it.”

Jill Campbell
Executive VP and chief operating officer, Cox Communications

Early in Jill Campbell’s career at Cox, she took some advice from Curt Hockemeier, her boss at the time, to get an MBA and move into an operations role. Although there were a growing number of women in marketing, communications and finance, there weren’t many women in operations.

Campbell earned her MBA in 15 months while simultaneously working full-time and raising her family. Gradually, she started taking on more operations work. When Hockemeier left to get his MBA, he appointed her as acting general manager, a path she continued on that led to her becoming the highest-ranking woman in cable operations today.

Campbell has been at Cox for 35 years and acknowledges that staying with one company for an entire career is unusual these days. “But it’s not unusual at Cox,” Campbell said. “I know many Cox employees who’ve spent 20, 30, 40 years at Cox.” She credits this phenomenon to the company’s culture.

“It started with founder Gov. James Cox, whose philosophy was to treat employees well and with respect. At Cox we believe that focusing on employee engagement creates happy and productive employees, who then go on to serve our customers well. This approach is in our DNA.”

Campbell’s career ascent was comprised of a series of moves — six in 10 years. “At the time, it was considered a requirement to have field GM experience in order to advance, she said. “Looking back, I’m not sure all the moves were necessary, but I learned a lot from each one, so I have no regrets.”

Campbell also credits her success to a network of supportive mentors including Pat Esser, John Dyer and Claus Kroeger, who gave advice and provided opportunities. As a result, Campbell is passionate about promoting the careers of others, especially women, minorities and those in the LGBTQ community. “As you get up higher in the ranks, I feel it’s important to reach down that ladder and pull people up with you.”

Campbell’s leadership philosophy is all about surrounding herself with really smart people and giving them the opportunity to do the things they love. “For me, the best solutions come from brainstorming with my team. If we’re talking legacy, I’d like to think that cultivating exceptional talent at Cox would be mine.”

‘The Sopranos’
Television drama series,
HBO David Chase, creator

For 20 years, The Cable Hall of Fame has celebrated the contributions of more than 120 cable-industry innovators, but before this year, it has never recognized a television series. This year, HBO’s The Sopranos and its creator, David Chase, are honored as a show that more than revolutionized the cable scripted drama, but changed the way which such series are both created and watched.

Many people have written about the series, but none more prolifically than TV critic Alan Sepinwall, whose books The Revolution Was Televised and TV (The Book), co-written with Matt Zoller Seitz, dedicate considerable ink to The Sopranos. In an interview with The Cable Center, Sepinwall said, “The Sopranos was the Big Bang of the cable drama explosion that led to TV’s golden age.

“Before The Sopranos, cable television didn’t get any respect. Along comes The Sopranos, which inspires other cable networks — FX, Showtime, AMC — to introduce exceptional original programming, and flips the paradigm on its head so that cable is no longer a sideshow but the main attraction.”

The Sopranos , which centered around New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and his family and associates, flaunted television convention in previously unthinkable ways. There was no hero, and in fact, few truly likable characters. Nevertheless, the characters’ depth, nuance and preoccupation with everyday problems — often with grim humor — made them relatable, and had viewers rooting for a sociopathic antihero.

“Chase worked on some of the best shows ever made [his prior credits included The Rockford Files and Northern Exposure], but those were never enough for him. He really wanted to make movies,” Sepinwall said. “He assumed the pilot would be turned down and he would turn it into a movie. When it was picked up, he was insistent on pushing the limits and creating the show on his own terms.”

Many in the industry believe the post-Sopranos wave of antihero-driven series such as Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Walking Dead, The Americans and more, would not have been possible before Chase changed the rules.

Moreover, Chase kept changing the rules up to the series’s last second — with a finale that refused to tie everything into a neat bow. Ten years later, fans are still talking about the mid-scene, mid-song cut to black.

Sepinwall, who secured the sole post-finale interview, got few answers from Chase. “When it cut to black, I laughed out loud. The ending was so David — defiantly anti-climactic. The one thing he said to me was ‘It’s all there.’ You can make of that what you will.”

What we make of it is that since The Sopranos, television has never been the same.

Michael T. Fries
CEO, Liberty Global

As Michael (Mike) Fries tells it, “We started this company with $20 million and a good idea. People outside of the U.S. wanted CNN and MTV and nobody was bringing it to them.”

Nearly three decades later, Liberty Global has become the largest international TV and broadband company in the world, with operations in 30 countries, 40,000 employees and 75 million video, broadband, voice and mobile subscribers.

Fries was employee number five at what became UnitedGlobalCom and ran business development, then Asia-Pacific operations, through most of the ’90s. He returned to Denver as president and chief operating officer just before the dotcom bubble burst, leading the company through several transactions with longtime investor Liberty Media, resulting in the formation of Liberty Global in 2005 with Fries as CEO.

Liberty Global has played an integral role in globalizing the cable industry, something Fries said “is important now more than ever, when you look at our competitors.” By bringing content to international markets, launching DOCSIS around the world and collaborating with the Reference Design Kit (RDK) consortium on advanced video, the U.S. cable industry finally has a chance at global scale, thanks to Fries and Liberty Global.

It was Fries and Liberty Global that coined the term “triple play” in an annual report nearly 20 years ago. Since then, they’ve led the industry on broadband speeds and adding mobile to that product bundle.

Fries has only worked for two people, UGC founder Gene Schneider and Liberty Media founder John Malone, and he has high praise for both. “Gene Schneider was one of the original cable pioneers — tough as nails but a true gentleman. I learned a lot from him.” As for Malone, Fries said: “No one sees all the moving pieces like John Malone. He’s really a scientist masquerading as a media mogul.”

Giving back is important to Fries. As lead vocalist of a rock cover band comprised of CEOs, he has found an enjoyable way to help raise millions for charitable organizations in the Denver area. “It’s all about having a good time, for a good cause.” Fries also chairs Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art and was an early investor in the city’s charter school programs.

Fries is extremely proud to be part of the cable industry and he makes sure his international team understands their role in this legacy. “I remind them that we may have been pioneers outside the U.S., but we stand on the shoulders of giants’ right here in America.”

Ken Lowe
Chairman, President and CEO, Scripps Networks Interactive

Ken Lowe grew up in rural North Carolina where he was hooked on radio at a young age. Building a radio station in a shed on his family farm at age 10, he practiced not just the art of radio broadcasting, but also started his first entrepreneurial enterprise, bringing in a DJ (the kid who had the records) and a sales person.

Radio continued to open many doors for Lowe. He worked at a radio station through college, Harte-Hanks Broadcasting through the 1970s and eventually joined E. W. Scripps in 1980 as general manager of its radio properties. Additionally, Lowe was fascinated by architecture. “I worked for my uncle who was a contractor and almost changed my major to architecture.”

Lowe also made documentary films in college. “While I could tell stories on the radio, I loved the visual storytelling aspect,” he said. It was this confluence of interests that eventually led Lowe to connect the dots and create HGTV.

In 1994, Lowe pitched E.W. Scripps on the idea he’d been ruminating on for years — a network focused on the home, targeted toward women, whom he believed were underserved in media. Lowe secured the necessary funding after a dramatic presentation to Scripps’ newspaper-based board by correlating sections of the newspaper with corresponding networks (front page as CNN; sports page as ESPN), illustrating the lack of an analogous network for the home and garden section. Right away, HGTV attracted a loyal audience that extended beyond women, creating a robust lifestyle category which expanded to brands including Food Network, Travel Channel and DIY Network.

“Though initially focusing on women, one of the ironies is we’ve gotten more men into the kitchen and more women into home remodeling,” Lowe said. “This was not the case 20 years ago.”

The Scripps networks launched the careers of primarily unknown talent. “I was not looking for stars. I wanted people who knew their craft — where it’s their passion and they’d be doing it even if they weren’t on TV. This authenticity is one of the reasons we’ve succeeded.” Scripps Networks Interactive continues to build its brands around the world, with international revenues representing around 20% of the business.

“I felt all along that the categories we were in were not isolated to America,” Lowe said. “People care about their homes, love food and are interested in travel no matter where they’re from.”

David Zaslav
President and CEO, Discovery Communications

David Zaslav’s cable career all started with a blind cover letter. At the time, Zaslav was working as a corporate attorney, where his clients included then-fledgling cable programmer Discovery Communications.

Zaslav was quickly smitten with the business: “Seeing John Hendricks’s vision for Discovery and the future of cable was a huge moment for me,” he recalls. So, when a Multichannel News story with the headline “NBC Wants to Get Into Cable” hit the press, Zaslav didn’t waste time, sending a blind cover letter to legendary NBC boss Bob Wright.

“I told Wright, if you are serious about launching CNBC and your cable business, I’m all in,” Zaslav recalled. “I joined NBC and never looked back.”

As one of the first hires at NBC cable, Zaslav built a suite of networks including CNBC from the ground up, rising in the ranks to lead the business over the course of two decades. Then came another call from Discovery — this time to become its CEO. Joining in 2007, Zaslav quickly moved to boost Discovery’s performance, paving the path for its IPO one year later and expanding globally with new channels and brands.

Under Zaslav’s watch, Discovery launched some of its most successful and fastest-growing networks, including Investigation Discovery, Velocity and OWN, a joint venture with Oprah Winfrey. Zaslav also led Discovery’s acquisition of Eurosport and rights to the Olympics, which will air on Eurosport and its digital properties for the next decade beginning with the 2018 Winter Games.

Today, much of Zaslav’s focus is on reaching Discovery’s more than 3 billion global viewers at a time when technology is changing how they consume content. “Reaching every person on every screen and platform is a top priority for us,” Zaslav said. To do so, Discovery is fast expanding how its fans stay connected to its content, from TV everywhere to virtual reality, shortform video and partnerships with leading streaming and SVOD services.

After three decades in the business, Zaslav is also finding ways to give back, using Discovery’s brands to raise awareness and take action against wildlife extinction and other environmental issues. In 2016, Zaslav spearheaded the launch of “Project C.A.T.: Conserving Acres for Tigers,” a historic partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to restore the wild tiger population through protected sites.

“For more than 30 years, Discovery has documented the natural world and its wonders across our channels,” Zaslav said. This is just one way we can give something back.”

Frank M. Drendel
Bresnan Ethics in Business Award Recipient

Frank M. Drendel is chairman of the board and founder of CommScope. He served as its CEO from its founding in Hickory, N.C., in 1976 until its acquisition by The Carlyle Group in January 2011, which took the company private.

He has served as chairman since 1997, when CommScope was spun off from General Instrument as independent, publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Drendel’s entrepreneurial drive and business vision led to his acquiring a struggling cable product line called Comm/Scope from his then-employer, Superior Continental, and launching a standalone company in 1976. This same drive and vision has guided CommScope for nearly four decades — under Drendel’s leadership, CommScope has grown into a multibillion dollar global leader in infrastructure solutions for communications networks, with a who’s who roster of customers that spans the globe.

Through organic growth and the acquisitions of Avaya Connectivity Solutions in 2004, Andrew Corp. in 2007 and TE Broadband Network Solutions in 2015, CommScope established leadership positions in key markets — wireless, business enterprise, telecom and cable television/ residential broadband — that continue today.

While at CommScope, Drendel also served as a director of GI Delaware, a subsidiary of General Instrument, and its predecessors from 1987 to 1992, a director of General Instrument from 1992 until 1997, and a director of NextLevel Systems from 1997 until January 2000. Prior to his founding of the company, Drendel held various positions within the Comm/Scope division of Superior Continental from 1971 to 1976.

Drendel is a director of the NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, and the SCTE Executive Council. Drendel previously served as a director of Sprint Nextel Corporation from 2005 to 2008 and as a director of Nextel Communications from 1997 to 2005. He also served on the board of directors for Tyco International, The Cable Center and C-SPAN.

An active member of several National Cable & Telecommunications Association committees, Drendel has been a recipient of various NCTA awards, including the Challenger Award, Associates Award and the President’s Award. He has also received several honors for his contributions to the industry, including:
● Induction into the Cable Hall of Fame in 2002.
● An Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development in 1985 for his and M/A-Com’s contribution to anti-pirating satellite TV encryption and scrambling technology.
● The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian award given by the State of North Carolina, in 1999.
● The 2013 North Carolina Technology Association Outstanding Achievement Award.

Though the market is being flooded with new virtual MVPDs that are targeting the 20 million U.S. homes that don’t  subscribe to a pay TV service from a traditional provider, it’s unlikely that these new entrants will drive massive volumes, at least in the near term, NBCUniversal’s top exec said.

RELATED: DirecTV Now to Cost $35 Per Month

“The real promise of some of these new over-the-top entrants is that they would deliver incremental subscribers, which obviously would be good for the content side of the company,” NBCU CEO Steve Burke said Wednesday (Oct. 26) on Comcast’s Q3 earnings call. “I think we all have a healthy degree of skepticism that these new over-the-top entrants are going to create millions and millions and millions of subscribers anytime soon." 

While new entrants are taking a fractional share from existing MVPDs, most consumers, Burke said, still find value in their cable, telco or satellite TV service and aren’t looking to change.  

“I think there could be a modest positive for NBCUniversal,” he said with respect to the new OTT entrants.  

Comcast, meanwhile, has repeatedly argued that the economics of an OTT-TV service don’t add up.

RELATED: Roberts: ‘OTT Economics Are Unproven To Us’

Instead, Comcast has been focused on an in-market strategy with its cloud-powered X1 platform, which is testing an integration of Netflix ahead of a commercial rollout that will kick off later this year.  Notably, Comcast will be “upselling Netflix” as it would with premium networks such as HBO or Showtime, company chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said.

Neil Smit, Comcast Cable’s president and CEO, said the MSO will continue to target and segment how that platform is used, citing examples such as Xfinity On Campus (for college students), X1 double-play bundles, as well as Stream, a mobile-focused, slimmed-down pay TV product targeted to cord-cutters that is being tested in a few markets.

“We will continue to innovate on X1,” Smit said. “I think there's going to be more flavors and more competition, but we'll compete aggressively." 

Comcast secured about 948,000 net adds to X1 (new and existing customers) in Q3, and ended the period with about 45% of its video sub base on the platform, which has been driving higher customer satisfaction, DVR activations, home outlets, and twice the pay-per-view spend of non-X1 subs.

RELATED:Roberts: Comcast Can Make Money on Wireless

Smit also noted that 50% of Comcast video subs are using TV Everywhere, up from 30% last year. Those customers are also averaging 10 hours per month of TVE viewing, he added, noting that the platform now supports about 130 live streaming channels and more than 40,000 VOD selections.

As for in-home video, Comcast is pushing toward an all-IP migration over the next couple of years. “We have the product in the lab and it’s working well.”

And while customers might not care if video is entering the home as IP, the more important piece is the quality of the service and how it can improve the “onboarding” experience, Roberts said.

On that, Roberts pointed to the Xi5, Comcast’s first set-top that supports video-over-WiFi, meaning a traditional wired cable outlet is not required.

“The onboarding of that box is so different than any box we've ever had,” Roberts said, adding that the MSO is pursuing a connection/installation goal of two minutes “with a few simple keystrokes.”

The Xi5 is also the first Comcast box to support High Dynamic Range (HDR). The Xi6, a box that will be wireless and support 4K and HDR, is also in the works.

Comcast still hasn’t revealed a new sub number of Xfinity Home, its smart home/security product. It announced that it pushed past the 500,000 sub mark about a year and a half ago, and “it’s grown significantly from there,” Smit said.

RELATED: Why Comcast Is Buying IControl 

He said 55% of Xfinity Home subs are new to Comcast, and that 60% of Xfinity Home customers get a quad play (video, high-speed Internet, phone and home security/automation). “It’s a very sticky product,” Smit said.

Comcast added 330,000 high-speed Internet subs in Q3, extending that total to 24.32 million.

Smit said there’s about 6 million DSL subs in Comcast’s footprint. “We see plenty of room for growth.”

Adding that the monetization gap is closing rapidly, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said retransmission consent revenue at its NBC broadcast network should reach $800 million this year.

That’s a big leap considering Burke said NBC had $0 in retrans revenue a little more than five years ago.

Speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment conference in Los Angeles Wednesday, Burke said that NBC was still behind the retrans leader CBS, which has said it expects to reap $1 billion in retrans revenue this year.

“I think we're catching up,” Burke said. “I wouldn't anticipate us zooming past anyone else, but I think it's pretty hard to argue that NBC shouldn't get the same kind retransmission consent dollars that the other big broadcasters get when we have football and the Olympics and the number one network in terms of demos.”

NBC completed a number of big retrans deals last year and has a few big ones coming up, Burke said. He declined to identify them.

Burke also commented on the proliferation of over-the-top networks – he said the shift of viewers to digital is “no mystery” – but cautioned content companies about selling themselves and their traditional partners short.

“OTT sounds like a better business than in reality it is,” Burke said, adding that consumers generally find that the costs savings expected with many OTT services don’t measure up to traditional pay TV.

“If you are a consumer that has cable and you get 200 channels, I'm not sure why huge numbers of people are going to run out and get excited about paying $45 for 25 channels,” he said.

But despite that disparity, Burke added that NBCU will continue to sell its programming to OTT providers, and expects to be compensated accordingly.

“Our job at NBCUniversal is to license our products and maximize the cash flow of our individual channels,” Burke said. “If people are interested in putting together OTT businesses, like Sling or the Hulu product or Sony or others, we are going to sell to those suppliers. We want to make sure that we make as much or more selling to an over the top supplier as we do selling to an MVPD.”

NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke told analysts Wednesday that smaller networks at large programming companies could be under pressure as those content providers continue to focus on their bigger brands.

Speaking on a conference call with analysts to discuss parent Comcast’s second quarter results, Burke remembered the cable operator’s initial purchase of NBCU, and how it said that ultimately it would look to reduce the number of overall channels at the company. Today, that is becoming reality at NBCU – it rebranded its Style Network as Esquire Network and shuttered its G4 channel in 2013 – and with other content companies as well.

“We and most other large media companies are concentrating on their big brands,” Burke said on the call. “We had a network called G4 and a network called Style, neither one currently exists. I think you will see more of that with us and others as the discussions with MVPDs get more and more contentious. You want to make sure that your big networks are fully supported and you’re more willing to reallocate. Normally when you do those reallocations they’re not all that negative for the content owner because you can take some of the programming and fees and ad sales and consolidate them on some of your bigger networks”

Burke said the focus on its larger brands like broadcaster NBC and cable channels like USA Network, Syfy, Bravo and others makes the programming bundle more compelling.

“The good news for us is if you have NBC, you really need to be in a bundle, if you have USA it needs to be in a bundle, if you have Syfy or Bravo or E! those are big substantial networks that are in the bundle,” Burke said. “We make most of our money in those big channels. And we’ve trimmed and I think you’ll see us and others continue to trim some of the more marginal channels. There are just too many channels. People are spending too much programming channels that are not fully distributed. You’d much rather put your money and have Mr. Robot on USA and The Voice and Blindspot on NBC and really go with your strong networks.

Burke continued that it is an ongoing process, and NBCU sees more to be done.

“I think there is more to do,” Burke said. “I don’t think it is going to have a material impact on the way our profitability looks in terms of cable channels one way or the other – it might be slightly positive.  I think it will evolve itself over the next number of years. We’ll continue to invest what we need to invest in the big guys and try to trim some of the smaller ones.”

About one year after abandoning its effort to become the uber-dominant distributor in the country when it walked away from its $67 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable, Comcast has turned its attention to programming, with its NBCUniversal unit's $3.8 billion deal to buy DreamWorks Animation, a move that will help boost its content library while potentially seeding its theme park business with new characters to build attractions around.

In DreamWorks Animation, NBCUniversal gets access to a film library that includes Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon, as well as a growing TV production arm that has churned out programming like Dawn of the Croods, Turbo and more for Netflix and other distributors. In NBCU, DreamWorks Animation finally gets the deep-pocketed parent that can help it produce more films and, with its cable and broadcast networks, provide another outlet for content.

Reaction to the deal was mixed. DreamWorks stock soared 24% (up $7.75 each) on April 28 to $39.95 per share, while Comcast shares fell 15 cents each (down 0.24%) to $61.15 per share.

Some analysts criticized the deal as being too pricey – it represents a 50% premium to DreamWorks’s stock price before rumors of a sale began to surface. Others said the benefits included additional theme park revenue from high-profile attractions and potential cost-savings on the animation side. NBCUniversal’s animation arm – Illumination Entertainment, under which DreamWorks would fall after the deal closed – farms out production of most of its animated movies to Japanese companies for a third of the price that DreamWorks pays.

“[T]o us, this deal makes a lot of sense, less because of the added animation heft to Illumination Entertainment (the studio that created The Minions) but more for what it could mean for the Universal Theme Parks,” Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan wrote in a note to clients. “It's easy to imagine a Shrek, Kung Fu Panda or Madagascar ride at the Universal parks."

BTIG Research media analyst Rich Greenfield took another approach, arguing in a blog post that DreamWorks has been on the block for at least three years, hasn’t traded above $40 per share since 2010 (the Comcast deal values the shares at $42 each) and has no other potential bidders besides NBCU.

“While we believe Comcast acquiring DWA is a mistake, [Comcast chairman and CEO] Brian Roberts clearly believes the acquisition is a good use of Comcast’s capital,” Greenfield wrote.

The analyst added that what could be attractive to Comcast is DreamWorks's 51% stake in Awesomeness TV, but said he believes that is overvalued, too – Verizon bought a 24.5% stake in the short-form video company earlier last month for about $159 million. And Verizon plans to develop content with AwesomenessTV for its go90 mobile video service, a potential Comcast competitor.

“DreamWorks will help us grow our film, television, theme parks and consumer products businesses for years to come,” NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said in a statement. “… The prospects for our future together are tremendous.”

DreamWorks will be headed by Illumination Entertainment CEO Christopher Meledandri, wile current CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg will become chairman of a new digital arm – DreamWorks New Media, comprisig the company’s ownership interests in Awesomeness TV and NOVA. Katzenberg will also serve as a consultant to NBCUniversal.

In perhaps one of the worst kept secrets in the media business, Comcast's NBCUniversal said it will purchase content provider DreamWorks Animation in a deal worth $3.8 billion that will bolster the broadcast, cable and film giant's content lineup as well as providing new fodder for its theme parks.

Rumors of a deal had first been reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

“DreamWorks Animation is a great addition to NBCUniversal,” said Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal, in a statement. "Jeffrey Katzenberg and the DreamWorks organization have created a dynamic film brand and a deep library of intellectual property. DreamWorks will help us grow our film, television, theme parks and consumer products businesses for years to come. We have enjoyed extraordinary success over the last six years in animation with the emergence of Illumination Entertainment and its brilliant team at Illumination Mac Guff studio. The prospects for our future together are tremendous. We are fortunate to have Illumination founder Chris Meledandri to help guide the growth of the DreamWorks Animation business in the future.”

Under the terms of the agreement, DreamWorks Animation has an equity value of approximately $3.8 billion. DreamWorks Animation stockholders will receive $41 in cash for each share of DreamWorks Animation common stock. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of DreamWorks Animation and Comcast, and the controlling shareholder of DreamWorks Animation has approved the agreement by written consent.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2016the year, subject to antitrust approvals in the U.S. and abroad, as well as the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

Following the completion of the transaction, DreamWorks Animation CEO and co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg will become chairman of DreamWorks New Media, which will comprised the company’s ownership interests in Awesomeness TV and NOVA. Katzenberg will also serve as a consultant to NBCUniversal.

“Having spent the past two decades working together with our team to build DreamWorks Animation into one of the world’s most beloved brands, I am proud to say that NBCUniversal is the perfect home for our company; a home that will embrace the legacy of our storytelling and grow our businesses to their fullest potential,” said Katzenberg in a statement. “This agreement not only delivers significant value for our shareholders, but also supports NBCUniversal’s growing family entertainment business. As for my role, I am incredibly excited to continue exploring the potential of AwesomenessTV, NOVA and other new media opportunities, and can’t wait to get started.”

Comcast was advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP on legal matters. DreamWorks Animation was advised on financial matters by Centerview Partners and on legal matters by Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. DreamWorks Animation's Board of Directors was advised on legal matters by Munger Tolles & Olson LLP.

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $36.2 million in total compensation in 2015, a 10% increase over the prior year, according to a proxy statement filed Friday.

Roberts, who received $32.9 million in compensation in 2014, stayed relatively level on the annual base salary ($2.9 million), stock awards ($5.4 million) and option awards ($5.4 million) fronts, with the biggest change coming in pension value and deferred compensation earnings.  Roberts received $8.7 million in deferred comp and increased pension value in 2015, compared to $6.5 million in 2014.

But Roberts wasn’t Comcast’s highest paid executive – that honor went to new chief financial officer Michael Cavanagh, who joined Comcast in January, replacing former vice chairman and CFO Michael Angelakis, who resigned last year. Cavanagh took home $40.6 million in total compensation, including $16.5 million in stock awards and $11.9 million in “other” compensation, mainly deferred comp.

Other Comcast execs fared better. Comcast Cable unit CEO Neil Smit received $27.9 million in total compensation in 2015, a 21% increase over the $23.1 million he received in the previous year. And executive vice president David Cohen took home $17.9 million in total comp, a 33% increase over the $13.5 million he received in 2014.

NBC Universal CEO Stephen Burke made $33.7 million in 2015, slightly less than the $33.9 million he took home in 2014.  

Angelakis, who resigned in June but stayed on to help with the transition to a new CFO, received $20.2 million in total compensation in 2015, a 7% increase over the prior year. Angelakis became CEO of Atairos Group, an investment fund backed by Comcast in January. Atairos recently made its first major investment, $250 million for a stake in Internet company Groupon.

NBC Universal should reap about $500 million in retransmission consent revenue in 2015, a figure that while lower than some other broadcasters is expected to grow substantially over time, CEO Steve Burke told an industry audience Wednesday.

NBC has lagged other broadcasters on the retrans front and Burke has lamented in the past that the network had some catching up to do – CBS, for example, is expected to report $1 billion in retrans and reverse compensation in 2015, doubling to $2 billion by 2020. Still, Burke said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., there is still room for the network to grow.

As the no. 1 network among adults aged 18-49, Burke said NBC could "argue that we should get as much as ABC, Fox and CBS if we continue to have good ratings performance. I know you'll see that $500 million go up over time."

He added that NBC has "a number of deals" expiring in the 2016 timeframe.

Burke also commented on the recent downturn in programming stocks, spurred in part by fears that The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, once thought to be nearly invincible to cord-cutting or advertising declines, was reducing forecasts due to a slight falloff in subscribers. That helped send the market into a two-day tailspin in early August.

 Burke said that pressures from cord-cutting and viewers watching on platforms are nothing new, but gained new immediacy after sports network ESPN began to feel the pain.

"Nothing different is happening in the last month that wasn't happening a year ago or two or three years ago," Burke said. "We said that given the trend in ratings, it's unlikely that ratings would grow over the next five years as they did the last five years. The good news is that people are watching more video than ever before, they're just watching in places that many times aren't rated, that aren’t monetized.”

He added that while the distribution business is more difficult today that a decade ago, it’s still a business worth being in. And he noted that this isn’t the first time cable has faced a new, seemingly stronger competitor.

 “The cable industry has survived satellite, the two biggest telephone companies coming into the business, the Internet and everything else, " Burke said.

The market reaction to the ESPN results and other factors was overdone, but Burke conceded that growth is slowing.

“When $50 billion in market cap flies out the window in a week, it’s an overreaction,” Burke said. “I think these businesses are very robust and will be around for a very long time, they will just have lower growth rates than they’ve had.”

The ad market is growing too, after what he called a “not strong” upfront, driven more by advertisers waiting to see how the market would shake out rather than shifting their dollars to digital platforms.

“Advertisers that did jump in [to the upfront] are feeling smart,” he said. “The advertising market now is very good.”

NBCUniversal said it agreed to make a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed, the online content company.

The investment follows last week’s $200 million investment in Vox Media, another digital content company. NBCU, a unit of Comcast, is looking to make sure it can reach younger consumers who are spending more time online — and less time with traditional media, including TV.

"BuzzFeed has built an exceptional global company that harmonizes technology, data and superior editorial abilities to create and share content in innovative ways,” Steve Burke, NBCUniversal CEO, said. “They reach a massive, loyal audience and have proven to be among the most creative, popular and influential new media players. We are pleased to be making this investment and for our companies to partner and work together."

As part of the investment, the companies in the coming months will also explore strategic partnerships across both organizations.

“It's a fascinating time for the media industry; social, mobile, digital and broadcast platforms are converging to create new opportunities to connect with global audiences, and we're excited to partner with NBCUniversal to combine our respective strengths to build the future of news and entertainment,” said Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s founder and CEO.

BuzzFeed reaches more than 200 million unique visitors monthly and registers 1.5 billion monthly video views.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

In a year dominated by its landmark (and pending) $67 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received a 5.1% raise in total 2014 compensation, receiving $32.96 million, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the proxy, Roberts’ base salary was up slightly to $2.857 million (from  $2.8 million a year earlier) and he received $5.25 million and $5.35 million in stock and option awards, respectively, about even with the prior year.  The big difference was in deferred compensation earnings – about $6.5 million in 2014, up from $5.06 million in the prior year.

Comcast announced its purchase of Time Warner Cable in February 2014 and has been going through the federal regulatory approval process ever since. The company has said it hopes to have a decision by the middle of this year.

While Robert’s compensation was up from the prior year (and it was dwarfed by the $156 million Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav received in 2014), he wasn’t the highest paid member of the Comcast management team. That distinction went to NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke, who hauled in $33.9 million in total compensation in 2014, up 9% from the $31.1 million he earned in the prior year.   

Vice chairman and chief financial officer Michael Angelakis – who announced earlier this year that he will step down as CFO to head up a new investment fund backed by the company, received $18.87 million in total compensation in 2014, down 2% from the $19.2 million he received in 2013.

Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit received $23.1 million in total comp in 2014, a 32% raise from the $17.4 million he received in 2013. Smit, who helped steer Comcast’s cable operations to one of its best years ever in 2014, saw his stock awards double to $7.6 million in 2014 from $3.7 million in 2013.

Executive vice president David Cohen, who has spearheaded  Comcast’s efforts in Washington through the FCC approval process, saw his 2014 compensation dip 3% to $13.5 million from $13.96 million in 2013.

Vasant Prabhu, chief financial officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, has joined NBCU as CFO and member of the executive committee. He will report to NBCU CEO Steve Burke.

Prabhu, who joins the company June 1, succeeds Stuart Epstein, who has left the company. He will also oversee operations and technical services, including physical plant, corporate services, and information technology.

"Vasant is an extremely accomplished and well respected executive and having him on board is a major win for NBCUniversal," said Burke in a statement. "Our company is performing very well but there is still a great deal we want to achieve. Having spent a considerable amount of time with Vasant, I am confident that he will play a vital and highly valuable role for NBCUniversal."

Prabhu's resume also includes CFO at Safeway, president, information and media group, for McGraw-Hill, which included its TV stations, PepsiCo and consulting firm Booz, Allen & Hamilton.