Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav will have his compensation “substantially” reduced after shepherding the company’s split, but he will also reap a substantial reward for his efforts.
In an SEC filing Monday, the company said it had revised the pay packages of Zaslav and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, who is poised to become CEO of the TV networks entity that will result from the split. Zaslav is set to run the studios and streamers unit, with HBO and Warner Bros., after the uncoupling. The split, announced last week, is slated to become official in mid-2026.
Zaslav’s new agreement will “significantly reduce his target annual compensation, including lowering his annual cash compensation opportunity and reorienting the total pay mix toward long-term incentives,” the filing said. The change will “foster a stronger alignment with stockholders and incentivize sustained, long-term value creation.”
The compensation committee of the WBD board initiated the new employment agreements. In adjusting Zaslav’s pay, the committee considered “a range of inputs,” the filing noted, “including stockholder feedback obtained over the last few years, peer group practices and benchmarks, strategic priorities of WBD and the value creation opportunities” inherent in the split.
After the separation, Zaslav will have a contract through December 31, 2030, and a base salary of $3 million a year. His target annual cash bonus opportunity will be reduced to $6 million, with the actual payout based on the achievement of performance goals established by Streaming & Studios’ compensation committee.
The annual bonus payout is subject to a cap of 200% of the target amount. Zaslav will also qualify for annual equity awards following the separation under the Streaming & Studios company’s equity incentive plan. The target value of the awards will be $15.5 million in the first year that Zaslav receives an equity grant from Streaming & Studios and will decline to an annual target value of $7.5 million per year thereafter.
Among the other perks in the package, Zaslav will get a car allowance of $1,400 per month and will be allowed to use company aircraft (or other private planes) for up to 125 hours of personal use per year.
While the writing has been on the wall for several months about WBD splitting into two companies, the swiftness of the announcement of the planned transaction has stunned Wall Street and industry observers. Zaslav, who has reaped hundreds of millions in compensation over the course of his media career, often ranking near the top of all U.S. corporate execs, recently received a rebuke from WBD shareholders. At the company’s annual meeting, they voted against his 2024 pay of $51.9 million, though under company rules the vote was non-binding and did not result in any changes to last year’s package.
