April 17, 2006 By Tony Sanders
Sumner Redstone told Newsweek magazine he is "pretty confident of winning" the legal suit against Howard Stern and that CBS delayed suing Stern "because we do not lightly enter into litigation." Redstone also said in the interview that the FCC's fines against the TV broadcaster for indecent programming are "awful" and that "the government absolutely should not determine what Americans see and hear." A report by The Hollywood Reporter says Redstone received nearly $24.48 million in total compensation for last year, as chairman of Viacom and CBS. The pay scale was revealed in the proxy statements filed by the two companies late Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Viacom reported total 2005 compensation of $17.35 million for Redstone, including a salary of $5.81 million paid by the pre-split Viacom, restricted share awards, other compensation as well as a $7.13 million bonus paid this year by the new company after the split into two firms. However, the filing said that the post-split CBS in addition paid Redstone a bonus of the same amount, bringing his pay from both companies above the $20 million mark. The CBS filing confirmed this. As previously reported by Billboard Radio Monitor, CBS claims in its suit that Stern's plugging of Sirius and satellite radio during 2004-2005, while he was still a CBS employee, constituted breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of CBS' most valuable asset-its airtime. A March 24 analysis in Monitor of the CBS vs. Stern suit by attorneys Howard Weiss and Harry Cole said "In the unlikely event that the case does go to trial, it's anybody's guess who will prevail." Gregory S. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
