CBS CEO Moonves’ Pay Unchanged at $69M in 2017

By Jon Lafayette
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

CBS CEO Les Moonves received total compensation of $69.3 million in 2017, virtually unchanged from 2016, when he got $69.6 million.

Moonves’ base salary stayed at $3.5 million. His bonus dropped to $20 million from $32 million in 2016, but his stock awards jumped to $3.7 million from $31.9 million.

Total compensation for CBS COO Joe Ianniello fell to $22.1 million from $29.million in 2016. The main reason for the decline was a drop in stock awards from $10.7 million in 2016 to $4.2 million in 2017.

CBS last week made a formal offer to acquired Viacom. Both companies are controlled by the family of Sumner Redstone, but Viacom rejected it in part because CBS wanted to install Moonves as the CEO of the combined company with Ianniello as his number two, rather that Viacom CEO Bob Bakish.

CBS senior executive VP and chief communications officer Gil Schwartz got total compensation of $4.7 million in 2017, down from $5.1 million in 2016.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.