Netflix Inc. (NFLX.O) gave Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos a 50 per cent increase in salary for 2019, vaulting him into the ranks of Hollywood’s best-paid media moguls with US$18 million in base compensation.

Sarandos’s cash pay compares with the US$20.2 million that 21st Century Fox Inc. (FOXA.O) Chairman Rupert Murdoch got last fiscal year, and the US$17.7 million Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N) Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger received. Netflix also granted Sarandos US$13.5 million in stock options, according to a filing Friday, comparable to the awards other elite media executives received.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, meanwhile, is getting paid like his Silicon Valley counterparts, with most of his pay incentive-based. His base salary stays at US$700,000 for 2019, and his stock-option allocation rises to US$30.8 million from US$28.7 million.

Sarandos, 54, joined Netflix in 2000 and has emerged this decade as one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood, presiding over a budget of as much as US$8 billion this year to produce or acquire exclusive programming for the streaming-video giant.

Chief Product Officer Greg Peters will make US$10 million in salary, up from US$6 million in 2018, and gets US$6.8 million in options, up a bit from US$6.6 million.

Sarandos and Peters each had US$1 million base salaries in 2017 but had hefty cash-bonus targets. The federal tax plan passed late that year eliminated companies’ ability to deduct performance-based bonuses to managers paid more than US$1 million, so Netflix decided to consolidate all cash compensation into salaries.

Chief Financial Officer David Wells’s salary will rise to US$3.5 million from $2.8 million, with his options up to US$2.8 million from US$2.45 million. Wells announced in August he’ll step down after the company finds a successor, saying he wants to focus on philanthropy.

Netflix shares have risen 33 per cent this year, compared with a 3.5 per cent drop for the S&P 500 movies and entertainment index. The Los Gatos, California-based company had 137.1 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter and said it expected to add a record 28.9 million customers for the full year.