Viacom’s Troika

Entertainment moguls must envy the “talent” they employ, because they can’t resist paying themselves movie-star bucks. You weren’t supposed to notice -- the company released the details of its executive compensation package on a Friday afternoon -- but Viacom paid its three top executives a combined $160 million during 2004. This no doubt came as a shock to Viacom shareholders, who saw their shares in the company decline 18% in value in a generally strong year for stocks.

Chairman Sumner Redstone and co-presidents Leslie Moonves and Tom Freston each received compensation packages (salary, bonus and stock options) valued at more than $50 million. We’ve got nothing against pay for performance, but this sounds more like paying Jude Law a bundle to film a remake of “Alfie.” Come to think of it, Viacom’s Paramount unit did just that in 2004.

If you added the total compensation for the top three executives at Viacom competitor Walt Disney Co. to the pay of the top three at Time Warner and the top three at News Corp., it still wouldn’t come to the $160 million being paid to Viacom’s trio. What’s more, Moonves and Freston are now doing the job that Mel Karmazin used to do by himself. Then again, all Hollywood productions these days seem to have excess credits, even the bad movies.