WARNER Bros. Discovery is splitting into two companies, and the higher-ups are seeing a major slash in pay because of it.
Company executives David Zaslav and Gunnar Wiedenfels are having their compensation drastically reworked due to shareholder feedback.
David Zaslav is taking a massive paycut during WBD’s split into two companies[/caption]
Zaslav made over $50 million last year[/caption]
WBD is set to “significantly reduce” annual compensation for Zaslav, the company’s CEO, in 2025.
He received a total of $51.9 million in compensation last year, which shareholders found absurd.
Zaslav’s new agreement will keep his base salary at $3 million, but his $23.9 million 2024 cash bonus will fall towards $6 million in 2025.
The bonus will be capped at a maximum of $12 million.
On top of that, Zaslav had stock awards of $23.1 million last year.
That will fall to $15.1 million in 2025 and then further to $7.5 million annually.
Wiedenfels, the company CFO, also signed a new agreement that will drastically cut his pay.
He is receiving a base salary of $2.5 million and an annual cash bonus that tops out at $17.5 million.
His equity compensation is targeted around $16 million per year.
Any sort of bonus or stock award for Wiedenfels is tied to performance goals.
A filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission from WBD said that the compensation agreements will “address stockholder feedback and preferences with respect to CEO compensation structure and foster a stronger pay-for-performance alignment.”
WBD also cited other factors such as “peer group practices and benchmarks” in their decision.
The compensation agreements coincide with WBD’s decision to split into two independent, publicly traded companies in 2026.
Zaslav will lead a streaming operation that includes WBD’s film and TV productions.
New rights deal
The NBA signed an 11-year deal with three networks for the league’s rights from the 2025-26 season.
And there will be no games on TNT for the first time since the network launched in 1988.
The Walt Disney Company will continue to show the league with 80 regular-season games across ESPN and ABC.
They will also show around 18 playoff games from the first and second round, a Conference Finals series for 10 of the 11 years, and remain the home of the NBA Finals.
NBC will return as an NBA broadcaster for the first time since 2002.
The network will show up to 100 games per season across it’s channels and Peacock streaming service.
It will also be the home of NBA All-Star and show approximately 28 playoff games from the first and second round.
NBC will show one Conference Finals Series for six of the 11 years, rotating with new broadcaster Amazon Prime.
Amazon will show 66 NBA regular-season games including one on Black Friday.
The streaming service is also the home of the latter stages of the NBA Cup and the entire Play-In Tournament.
Prime will also broadcast around one third of the playoff games in the first and second round.
A separate business will be led by Wiedenfels that includes TNT Sports, Bleacher Report, CNN, Discovery, and other European channels.
Plans are still being hashed out, with Wiedenfels admitting a streaming plan will be figured out “over time.
That plan has certainly been complicated by the loss of NBA rights on TNT Sports.
Zaslav has gone as far as to say that sports “hasn’t been a real driver” for streaming.
