Comcast CEO's pay is disclosed: $27.8 million

Comcast Corp. chief executive officer Brian L. Roberts received about $27.8 million in compensation last year, according to a proxy statement the company filed with federal regulators yesterday.

As head of the country's largest cable television company, Roberts received a salary of $2.5 million, a bonus of $3 million, incentive awards worth $8.4 million and other perks valued at $2.9 million. Contributions of $2.1 million to a deferred-compensation plan accounted for the bulk of the perks, which also included personal use of the company plane and payments of life insurance premiums.

Roberts also received stock options and restricted stock awards valued by the company at $10.6 million on the day they were granted, the proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

He also received above-market returns on deferred compensation of $407,624.

Comcast has about 24 million subscribers, so Roberts' pay equals about 88 cents per subscriber, although it is important to keep in mind that a large portion of his compensation comes from stock and option grants, not revenue.

Last year, Roberts also exercised 1.2 million stock options for $19.9 million. In addition, the value of stock awards that vested came to $1.1 million on 61,875 shares. Those numbers are not included in yearly compensation because the options and stock awards may have occurred in earlier years.

Roberts' father, Ralph J. Roberts, who is also the company's founder and chairman of the executive and finance committees of Comcast's board of directors, received compensation worth $24.1 million in 2006, the proxy said.

This year's proxy includes several shareholder proposals, including one to allow shareholders to vote on the appropriateness of Comcast executive pay.

The company's shares closed yesterday at $25.86, up 10 cents.