By Jess Jones
Sky’s head honcho Dana Strong has pocketed more than $30m (£23.6m) in just two years making her one of the UK’s highest paid executives, despite the broadcaster’s finances taking a nosedive last year.
Sky owner Comcast delivered a pay check of $15.2m to Strong in 2022, even as revenues plummeted 11.5 per cent. In 2021, during her first year leading Sky, the former head of consumer services raked in $16m.
Last October, the US telecoms giant Comcast wrote $8.6bn off Sky’s value, although it still remains the largest paid-for television broadcaster in the UK. Sky News is the UK’s most-watched commercial channel with 23m customers and 30,000 employees.
Sky delisted from the London Stock Exchange in 2018 when it was acquired by New York-listed Comcast for $40bn.
Meanwhile, Pascal Soriot of Astrazeneca was the only FTSE 100 boss who outstripped Strong last year, hauling in £15.3m, while mining magnate Sebastien De Montessus took home £16.85m in 2021.
Outside of London’s public market, Denise Coates of Bet365 scored a £260m jackpot, making her the UK’s highest paid boss in 2022.
Mark Freebairn, partner at headhunter Odgers Berndtson, said it is “nuts” that UK-based executives generally “get paid significantly less than people doing an identical job in the US”.
“Most of our pension funds are tied up in equity, and you want the best people running our businesses. And if we’re going to start losing people internationally because we’re not paying them as much, that’s illogical,” he told The Times.
The High Pay Centre, a think tank, is set to release its annual CEO pay report on Tuesday.
