CBS Chief Les Moonves Took Home $62 Million In Pay Last Year

GettyLes MoonvesCBS CEO Les Moonves received $62 million in compensation last year, putting him in the ranks of "media executives [who] earned almost double the pay of Wall Street chiefs whose income drew scrutiny from Congress and activists," as Bloomberg put it.

His compensation included a $20 million cash bonus for his "successes" as CEO, plus a $7.5 million cash bonus for the creation of "premium content" for CBS. The company did not describe in detail what those successes entailed, in its filing with the SEC:

With respect to Mr. Moonves' 2012 bonus, the Compensation Committee awarded to Mr. Moonves a total cash bonus amount which reflects a $20,000,000 payment for the successes in his role as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and a special cash payment of $7,500,000 for his leadership in connection with the creation of premium content across the Company's portfolio of businesses, particularly with respect to the CBS Television Network, which outperformed its media peers in 2012.

During 2012, CBS's revenues improved only modestly, adding $452 million in revenues for a total of $14 billion, a 3% gain. The stock, however, rose 40% to ~$38 during the year.

Moonves' base salary is just $3.5 million a year. The rest of his compensation comes in the form of cash and stock bonuses. He also received $660,247 in benefits for personal use of CBS's private jet, the SEC disclosure says.

Moonves actually got poorer in 2012. In 2011, he received $70 million in total compensation.

Here's the chart:

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