ENTERTAINMENT
August 16, 2013 | By Meg James
Comcast Corp. has increased the salary of NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke and extended his tenure through August 2018. The Philadelphia-based cable TV giant on Friday said it has extended Burke's employment contract for five years and provided him with a nearly 20% bump in base salary to $2.6 million, up from $2.2 million, effective Sept. 1. Comcast cited Burke's efforts to sharpen NBCUniversal's business strategy, including making beneficial acquisitions and dramatically improving the company's financial performance, as reasons to renew his contract.
ENTERTAINMENT
September 13, 2012 | By Joe Flint
Acknowledging that the movie business is "not for the faint of heart," NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke said he'd like to see more animation and more franchise films out of Universal in the years ahead. "We've had our ups and downs for the last 18 months," Burke said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Investor Conference in Beverly Hills on Thursday. Among Universal's disappointments this year were "Battleship" and "The Five-Year Engagement. " But "Ted" was a smash and "The Lorax" and "The Bourne Legacy" delivered solid numbers.
BUSINESS
April 21, 2012 | By Meg James, Los Angeles Times
Comcast Corp.'s highest-paid executives — Chief Executive Brian Roberts and NBCUniversal chief Steve Burke — experienced compensation deflation last year. Roberts' pay package shrank 13.3% in 2011 to $26.9 million. That included a performance-based cash bonus of $5.5 million for the 52-year-old executive. Meanwhile, Burke's compensation dropped a whopping 32% to $23.7 million, which included a performance bonus of $6.7 million. The 53-year-old executive's amount fell dramatically last year, as it was the first time in three years that he did not collect a signing bonus.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 27, 2011 | Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times
Daniel Burke, considered one of the architects of the modern television industry and a former president and chief executive of Capital Cities/ABC, died Wednesday. He was 82. He died at his home in Rye, N.Y., of complications from type 1 diabetes, according to his family. Burke spent more than 30 years at CapCities, rising from manager of its television station in Albany, N.Y., to chief executive. Working closely with Tom Murphy, the chairman of CapCities, the duo transformed the company from a handful of TV stations into a broadcasting and publishing giant.
BUSINESS
June 28, 2011
Cable giant Comcast Corp. isn't changing the channel at Universal Studios. Universal President Ron Meyer has signed a new contract with his bosses at Comcast that will extend his tenure until December, 2015. His previous deal had been set to expire at the end of 2012. The extension is a vote of confidence by Comcast, which acquired the studio's parent company, NBCUniversal, in January. Many people in Hollywood had speculated that the new owner might seek to make a management change at Universal given the poor performance of its movie division over the last two years with a string of costly flops such as "Land of the Lost" and "The Wolfman.
BUSINESS
June 3, 2011 | By Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times
As a teen, Mark Lazarus went to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., where the U.S. hockey team made history with its "Miracle on Ice" upset of the Soviet Union and eventual gold medal win. Now, some 30 years later, Lazarus — as the new head of NBC Sports Group — is flying off to Lausanne, Switzerland, to spearhead the network's negotiations for rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympics next week. Joining him will be top executives from NBC and parent company Comcast Corp., the cable giant that five months ago took control of NBCUniversal from General Electric Co. That Lazarus finds himself in such a key role is no surprise to those who have followed his career or know his family.