Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Chief’s haul is 334 times that of his staff
THE boss of Sky raked in £16.3million in pay and perks last year – as customers faced up to more price hikes.
Jeremy Darroch’s package rocketed by 254%, the satellite giant’s annual report revealed.
The windfall was fuelled by nearly £14m worth of bonuses.
It means Darroch has earned nearly £80m since 2010. Yet it comes after Sky – home of hit show Game of Thrones – unleashed another wave of price rises for phone, broadband and bundle TV customers in March.
In June last year it upped the prices of 10 of its most popular TV packages.
Darroch’s basic salary rose by 2.5% to more than £1m. His package also included £157,000 towards his pension and a near £2m annual bonus. But the biggest boost came from a “long-term incentive plan” that was worth £11.8m.
Darroch’s £16.3m package was equivalent to 334 times what Sky’s average employee was paid.
Sales jumped 10% to £12.9billion last year.
However, profits dropped by
Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One has been slammed for handing its boss a 65% pay rise as part of an “excessive” package.
Investor advisory group PIRC (Pensions & Investment Research Consultants) is recommending shareholders oppose the deal for chief executive Darren Throop at the firm’s forthcoming annual general meeting nearly £100m to just under £1.5bn.
Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said: “Only in the crazy and broken world of CEO pay could a boss receive such a huge ‘performance related’ bonus when profits have fallen.
“This is the sort of excess that needs to be curbed.”
A Sky spokesman said Darroch’s long-term incentive plan was “the result of an outstanding result over three years which has seen 2.5 million customers added and revenue increase by 16%”.
The company also pointed to surveys by regulator Ofcom, which regularly rated it highly for customer service.
which saw his annual salary leap from £500,000 to £823,000. The group also attacked arrangements that mean Throop gets two years’ pay if he leaves.
PIRC is also recommending investors vote against a package for Ivan Menezes, boss of Guinness maker Diageo, that could see him pocket a £9.1million bonus.