Warner Bros. CEO Earned $49.7 Million in Strike-Impacted Year

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav was awarded compensation of $49.7 million in 2023, a year when actors and writers went on strike for higher pay and the media giant initiated steep job cuts.

The figure, disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday, is about $10 million greater than Zaslav’s pay in 2022. His compensation, and that of other senior Warner Bros. executives, was tied in part to the company’s generation of free cash flow, an incentive for executives to produce income that could be used to reduce debt.