“We compete for talented executives in a highly- compensated industry based largely in the New York and Los Angeles markets,” New York-based Viacom said in its compensation report.

Iger, Zaslav

Robert Iger, chairman and CEO of Walt Disney, checked in with $34.3 million for third place, and David Zaslav, who runs the smaller Discovery Communications Inc., received $33.3 million. At Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable company, Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $31.4 million, while Steve Burke, who runs the NBCUniversal division, collected $31.1 million, according to a filing.

“The board view is a CEO might move if he isn’t paid what his peers are when evidence shows they don’t or can’t move very often,” said Elson, the law professor.

Ellison’s $78.4 million package for the fiscal year ended in May was disclosed in September and rejected by shareholders in the Redwood City, California-based software maker the following month in a non-binding vote at the annual meeting.

Among the top compensations awarded in 2013 so far was the $52.5 million paid to Nolan Archibald, who retired as chairman of Stanley Black & Decker Inc. He received a bonus for meeting cost savings as a result of the 2010 merger of Stanley with Black & Decker. The previous year, Archibald got $10.7 million.

‘Performance Metrics’

Moonves, 64, saw his total pay rise 7.7 percent in 2013. That includes a bonus of $28.5 million, $26.5 million in stock awards and $5.85 million in option awards, according to the filing. Moonves’s salary held steady at $3.51 million.

“I don’t have a problem with the amounts being granted as long as they are predicated on the right performance metrics, which they typically aren’t,” Paul G. Hodgson, co-founder of BHJ Partners, a governance consultant, said by phone. “With this level of pay it has to depend for eventual vesting on continued outperformance of peers.”

CEOs from media and communications companies were the highest paid group on the S&P 500 with median compensation of $12.3 million, while energy CEOs received $10.5 million. Technology companies paid their CEOs a median of $9.8 million in 2013 and utilities CEOs got $7.9 million.