To be fair, Christopher Winfrey isn’t coming off Tommy John surgery.
But factoring in stocks and incentives, the Charter Communications CEO made more than $89 million in compensation last year, according to documents filed by his cable company Monday with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Charter's stock price ended 2023 up following a late 2022 crash. The cable operator defied industry gravity by adding 155,000 high-speed internet users last year. And Winfrey led Charter through a tense negotiation with The Walt Disney Co., carving out an innovative deal that will make the cable company part of video’s streaming future.
But considering that Comcast’s CEO, the venerable Brian Roberts, made just over $32 million in total compensation in 2022 (it's the last figure we have for him right now), Winfrey's haul seems like … a lot.
And get this: In December, everyone kind of lost their minds when two-way baseball star Shohei Ohtani signed a new deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers paying him $700 million over 10 years.
Most of Ohtani’s money is deferred, but even his total annual compensation doesn’t exceed Winfrey's 2023 number.
A Charter rep emailed us shortly after this story was originally filed an informed Next TV that the majority of Winfrey’s pay increase over 2022 was due to a five-year performance-based equity program that was awarded last year. The performance of Charter stock still has to hit certain lofty benchmarks over the next five years in order for Winfrey to actually recoup the money.
The program impacted the bottom lines of other Charter executives, as well.
Beyond just Winfrey, it’s good to work in the Stamford, Connecticut, C-suite of Charter, where Richard DiGeronimo, president of product and technology, took home over $53.3 million last year, and chief financial officer Jessica Fischer made more than $28 million.
Tom Rutledge, who retired as CEO in December 2022 but served as executive chairman through 2023, made $19.465 million.
