CTHRA Releases 2007 Compensation Survey Results: Benchmarks Allow Companies to Assess Strengths and Opportunities

NAPERVILLE, IL., November 7, 2007 – The Cable Telecommunications Human Resources Association (CTHRA) released 2007 highlights from the Annual CTHRA Compensation Surveys. The research resulted in industry-specific benchmarks and a trend report based on data collected from 63 companies. While the number of participating companies was equal to last year, the breadth of the data collected increased to encompass 125,950 executive, professional, administrative, sales and hourly incumbents (ie. personnel) across a multitude of disciplines compared to 93,100 incumbents last year.

“As the war for talent intensifies, companies can leverage CTHRA’s benchmarks to assess practices and policies that impact their ability to recruit and retain employees,” shared Lynne Ramsey, senior vice president of human resources for Charter Communications, CTHRA board member, and co-chair of CTHRA’s compensation research initiative.

Research Scope and Objectives
CTHRA’s compensation research included one survey for cable and satellite operators and another for cable programmers and broadcast networks. Sixteen companies participated in the operator survey, including seven of the 10 largest multiple system operators (MSOs) and two satellite delivery providers. Forty-six programmers participated, including 18 of the top 20 national cable networks and four national broadcast networks. 

A unique attribute of CTHRA’s research is respondents’ active involvement in developing the survey questions. This hands-on approach ensures the surveys capture data on emerging job categories.

“CTHRA is dedicated to providing the utmost value to our survey participants. By involving employers in the survey development process, we can ensure that the research yields information relevant to their needs,” stated Pam Williams, CTHRA’s executive director.

The research, conducted by The Croner Company, focused on total direct compensation, base salaries, total cash compensation (base plus bonus), total direct compensation (base plus bonus plus value of equity), regional pay differentials, specialty pay differentials, pay policies, plan designs and practices.

Key Highlights
While comprehensive results were provided exclusively to survey participants, CTHRA released the following highlights to the pubic:

• Average Annual Change in Base Salaries Across All Positions

• Field personnel experienced the greatest base salary movement in the past year.
    
• Companies require an enhanced skills set and new compensation plans, particularly for sales positions, for roles related to the business services market.

• Convergence continues to impact employers. Three emerging trends identified in last year’s results have become more mainstream: the integration of technical operations and information technology (IT) roles, the expansion of digital media divisions, and the popularity of the multi-media or “blended” advertising sales executive who oversees television, online and other channels.
  
  
• Bonus awards reflected strong performance. On average, actual bonus awards were 103 percent of target among operators, 93 percent of target for non-sales programmer positions and 119 percent of target for programmer sales positions. 

Companies interested in participating in CTHRA’s 2008 compensation surveys should contact The Croner Company at 415.485.5543.

About CTHRA
The Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association (CTHRA) is the premier human capital resource for the industry and a growing nonprofit organization with 1,100 members spanning 100 companies. CTHRA provides industry-specific benchmarks, information and resources, as well as networking and educational opportunities. Its groundbreaking initiatives include annual compensation and human capital metrics surveys and its symposium series. For more information, visit www.cthra.com

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