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 more price hikes.

Jeremy Darroch’s package rocketed by 254 per cent, the satellite giants’ annual report revealed.

Jeremy Darroch The windfall was fuelled by nearly £14million worth of bonuses.

It means Darroch has earned nearly £80million 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, they upped the prices of 10 of their most popular TV packages.

Darroch’s basic salary rose by 2.5 per cent to more than £1million. His package also included £157,000 towards his pension and a near £2million annual bonus. But the biggest boost came from a “long-term incentive plan” that was worth £11.8million.

Darroch’s £16.3million package was equivalent to 334 times what Sky’s average employee was paid.

Sales jumped 10 per cent to £12.9billion last year. However, PEPPA Pig owners Entertainment One have been slammed for handing their boss a 65 per cent pay rise as part of an “excessive” package.

Investor advisory group PIRC (Pensions & Investment Research Consultants) are recommending shareholders oppose the deal for chief executive Darren Throop at the profits dropped by nearly £100million.

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 2.5million customers added and revenue increase by 16 per cent”.

The company also pointed to surveys by regulators Ofcom, who regularly rated them highly for customer service. firm’s forthcoming annual general meeting. His salary leapt from £500,000 to £823,000. The group also attacked arrangements that mean Throop gets two years’ pay if he leaves. PIRC are also recommending investors vote against a package for Ivan Menezes, boss of Guinness makers Diageo, that could see him pocket a £9.1million bonus.