Alex Mahon could receive the highest annual income for a chief executive in Channel 4’s history, after the broadcaster avoided being privatised earlier this year.
The station’s bosses are set take home millions, while the cost of living crisis weighs heavily on many of its lower paid staff.
Mahon, who was awarded the maximum bonus payout possible by the corporation’s remuneration committee for 2021, could receive almost £1.4m in total remuneration for 2022 if she is deemed to have once again hit the top performance targets.
Channel 4’s almost 1,000 staff also benefit from the performance of the company, although the broadcaster’s annual report shows that the pay gap between top management and regular staff is widening quickly.
Mahon was paid £1.196m in 2021, compared with £991,000 in 2020. In 2020, her pay was 23 times that of a Channel 4 employee in the 25th percentile, the lower end of the broadcaster’s pay structure. This gap rose to 30.3 times in 2021.
Her estimated remuneration for last year would beat the previous record paid to a Channel 4 chief executive, held by Andy Duncan who received £1.21m in 2007 in a pay packet that was boosted by a special bonus payout linked to his move from the BBC.
The most Mahon’s predecessor David Abraham received in any of his seven years in charge, from 2010-17, was just under £1m.
During her almost six-year tenure, Mahon has navigated Channel 4 through the pandemic and headed off the latest attempt by the government to privatise the state-owned broadcaster.
In 2021, Channel 4 made a record £1.2bn in revenues, the first time it has surpassed £1bn, up 18% on pre-pandemic levels.
Channel 4’s board rewarded Mahon by upping the maximum annual bonus payout from 50% to 80% of base salary in 2021 – to “ensure appropriate reward for her leadership during a period of significant uncertainty” while bonus terms for staff and other management were unchanged.
The broadcaster’s financial performance for last year is understood to have fallen short of the record levels seen in 2021.
However, even if she is awarded a bonus of just over 50% of her end-of-year base salary, Mahon is likely to become the broadcaster’s best-paid executive since it was founded 40 years ago.
This is in part because of a decision taken by Channel 4’s board during the government’s privatisation drive to award a separate “retention bonus” to acknowledge the commitment of staff during that “extraordinary and difficult period”.
The additional bonus, which will be paid out if staff stay in post until June 2023, is understood to be 25% of base salary for top executives, then 20% for other management and 15% for regular staff.
Having seen off privatisation, weathered the pandemic and navigated the shift of much of Channel 4’s operation out of London after government pressure, there is speculation as to whether the time is right for Mahon to seek a new opportunity – after banking her £153,000 retention bonus this summer.
In total, Channel 4’s top and highest paid management – which alongside Mahon also includes chief operating officer Jonathan Allan and chief content officer Ian Katz – are likely to take home around £3m between them in pay and bonuses for last year.
Channel 4’s staff received a 5% pay rise last year, less than half the rate of inflation.
However, staff bonus awards range from a maximum of 10% of gross salary for a typical staff member to 20% for a head of department, from 30% to 50% for Katz and Allan, and between 30% and 80% for Mahon.
Channel 4 pays out about £5m annually in bonuses in total to regular staff, and they will also receive the additional “retention bonus” in the awards for 2022.
Mahon’s pay will be made public when the corporation publishes its annual report in June or July.
Channel 4 declined to comment.
