CTHRA Report Benchmarks Cable Compensation Practices

Naperville, Ill. – The Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association (CTHRA) announced the release of its Annual Compensation Report on October 19, touting record number participation. CTHRA commissioned The Croner Company, a compensation consulting and research firm, to conduct the comprehensive study.

Purpose
CTHRA’s annual study provides valuable insight into current compensation levels and practices within the cable telecommunications industry.

"CTHRA's Compensation Report identifies meaningful benchmarks, emerging trends and best practices. It a valuable tool that companies can use to enhance their compensation programs to ensure they are relevant and competitive in today's world," shared Julie Cookson, CTHRA board member, co-chair of CTHRA’s compensation survey committee and vice president of human resources for Scripps Networks.

Scope
The information contained in CTHRA’s Annual Compensation Report is both broad and deep. The data is organized into two separate reports, one for operators and one for programmers and broadcast networks. The findings include executive, professional, hourly and sales positions. Statistics reported include base salaries, merit increase projections, targets and actual size of bonus awards, equity grants, bonus plan design, advertising and affiliate sales compensation structures and equity plan guidelines. The report also notes pay differentials based on geographic location and area of specialty. Each year, survey participants help to design the survey content to respond to changing compensation information needs and the competitive landscape.

Participants
With 61 survey respondents, CTHRA’s 2004 compensation survey had more participants than ever. Seventeen companies provided data for the MSO survey, including eight of the top 10 largest MSOs, four additional MSOs, two satellite companies and two telephone companies. The compiled data represents statistics for 64,300 industry employees. The programmer and broadcast network survey had 44 respondents, including 19 of top 20 national cable networks and all six national broadcast networks. The compiled data for the programmer/broadcast networks report represents statistics for 13,900 employees.

Highlights
Merit increases have varied little over the last three years for both operators and programmers. For MSOs, merit increase budgets averaged 3.5%, while the average was 4.0% for programmers and broadcasters. Over the last year, base salaries increased an average of 4.5% for operators, and 3.3% for programmers and broadcasters. The MSO survey found above standard salary increases for selected technical operations and call center operations, while the programmers and broadcasters survey illustrated greater than standard salary increases for select non-management technical and broadcast operation positions.

Reported bonus awards reflect economic recovery within the industry. For MSOs, actual bonus awards were 95% of target compared to 91% in 2003 and 80% in 2002. Bonus awards for programmers and broadcasters were 106% of target in 2003 and 2004, up from 80% of target in 2002.

Long-term incentives have become a common practice with 80% of responding MSOs and 84% of responding programmers/broadcast networks offering them. Stock options and restricted stock are the most common long-term incentive plans among all respondents.

CTHRA’s study identified that most programmers use incentive plans rather than commissions for advertising sales compensation. The advertising sales compensation plans range from one and a half percent to five percent of advertising revenues.

There is more variety among the structure of affiliate sales compensation plans. Most programmers and broadcast networks consider overall affiliate sales performance with discretionary elements for individual performance. Based on responses to CTHRA’s survey, 35% of affiliate sales employees earned awards at or above target. Last year, 55% earned awards above target.

To purchase CTHRA’s 2004 Compensation Report, or to participate in CTHRA’s 2005 compensation survey, contact Nina Croner 415.485.5543.

In addition to its compensation study, CTHRA provides a variety of human resources best practices, educational programs and networking opportunities for the cable industry. For more information, contact CTHRA at www.cthra.com or call 630.416.1166 ext. 23.