Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ pay rose 8% to $31.4 million for 2013.
Roberts' salary was unchanged at $2.8 million, but his stock awards and option awards increased, according to a filing with the SEC Friday.
Stephen Burke, an executive VP of Comcast and CEO of its NBCUniversal unit, saw his total compensation rise to $31.1 million from $26.3 million in 2012.
Neil Smit, who is CEO of Comcast Cable received $17.4 million in total compensation, down from $18.2 million in 2012. CFO Michael Angelakis’ pay also declined to $19.2 million from $23.2 million.
David Cohen, executive VP at Comcast who will head the effort in Washington to get approval for Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable, also had lower compensation in 2013, earning $14 million, compared to nearly $16 million in 2012.
“All of our NEOs [named executive officers] provided critical strategic vision and leadership to our company as we continue to shape the future of technology and media,” the company’s compensation committee said in its filing. “The NEOs were instrumental in fostering team building and collaboration among the senior leadership teams of both Comcast and NBCUniversal to further reinforce our ‘one Company’ culture, with each NEO continuing to exert additional efforts on strategic issues, cultural integration and transition execution related to the NBCUniversal transaction. Our Project Symphony continues to be a strong driver of business results at both Comcast and NBCUniversal, which is supported by cross-company cooperation on technology initiatives such as TV Everywhere, advanced and interactive advertising and electronic sell through, which was launched in 2013.”
The compensation committee said that “Roberts continued to demonstrate strong leadership among our NEOs and senior leadership team in fostering our diversity initiatives, in leading the visioning of the future of the Company, including in the technology space, in creating a culture of integrity and compliance and in reinforcing our 'one Company' culture and Project Symphony initiatives. He also continued to play a leading role in transaction planning and execution, including the decision to accelerate the purchase of GE’s remaining 49% common equity interest in NBCUniversal in 2013.”
Burke "successfully managed NBCUniversal, which had revenue growth of 5.7%, when excluding the impact from our broadcasts of the Super Bowl and London Olympics in 2012, or a decrease of 0.7%, when including $1.4 billion of revenue in 2012 related to these events, and operating cash flow growth of 15.2% in 2013," the committee said. He also has successfully reorganized his senior leadership team and restructured the operations of certain business units, including news, cable networks, advertising and Telemundo.
The committee said Smit “successfully managed Comcast Cable, which had revenue growth of 5.6% and operating cash flow growth of 5.8% in 2013. He also oversaw a seamless transition to a new CFO of Cable Communications and the reorganization of our video, high-speed Internet and voice services. Mr. Smit has strengthened our leadership team in the field and has been the driver behind improved customer operating metrics, even with increased activity levels created by the acceleration of new products, such as our X-1 video platform and wireless gateways.”
