Show support for Hollywood strike writers, Netflix shareholders refuse to support executive compensation plan

CTOnews.com Netflix shareholders refused to support the company's executive pay package in a non-binding vote Thursday in solidarity with striking Hollywood writers, Reuters reported.

Thousands of Hollywood film and TV writers took to the streets early last month to call for higher pay after the Writers Association of America failed to reach an agreement with entertainment companies such as Disney and Netflix on pay increases. This is also the first major strike in the US entertainment industry since 2007.

Meredith Stiehm, president of the Western Writers Association, which urged investors to oppose the pay package for Netflix executives, said that if Netflix was able to pay its executives more than $166 million last year, it should be able to pay writers $68 million to boost their income.

Netflix said it would report the vote in regulatory documents. The company's executive compensation package last year garnered only 27% shareholder support. To that end, Netflix made a number of changes after voting last year, including salary caps and performance-based bonuses for its co-CEOs.

Under this year's compensation package, Reed Hastings, chairman and president of Netflix, will receive a salary of $500,000 (currently about 3.55 million yuan) and $2.5 million (currently about 17.75 million yuan) in stock.

Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are paid $3 million a year.(currently about 21.3 million yuan), and Sarandos will receive $20 million Peters will receive $17.3 million in stock and $14.3 million in bonuses.

The Writers Guild of America had hoped to secure $429 million a year for more than 11,500 Hollywood writers, but AMPTP, which represents big companies, proposed only $86 million a year.