Darroch’s £2m bonus for surviving News Corp turmoil at Sky

As a reward for leading the company throughout Rupert Murdoch’s bid, the chief executive will receive 300,000 shares in July 2013 if the company meets targets over the next two years. The shares are currently worth about £2.2 million.

An annual report released by the company yesterday also revealed that Darroch’s salary last year was £888,000 and he received a £1.8 million cash bonus.

He will be given a further 600,000 shares in two years’ time if the company hits its targets under a long-term incentive plan.

Darroch’s basic pay has gone up 5.3 per cent to £935,000 in the current year.

News Corp was forced to drop its bid to buy the 61 per cent of the company it did not already own following the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

BSkyB recently reported a 32 per cent rise in profits as increasing sales of telephone and broadband packages offset a slowdown in new TV subscriptions.

An additional 26,000 households signed up for its TV services in the three months to 30 September, bringing the total to 10.2 million, but this was down on the 100,000 who signed up in the previous quarter.

Underlying profits rose to £327m as the group benefited from “cross-selling” to existing customers, with strong sales of line rental, telephone and broadband packages.

Some 2.9 million customers now take broadband and telephone packages in addition to TV.

Profits were also boosted by a £39m “break fee” from News Corp after its bid fell through.

Darroch said: “In tough market conditions, our move to more broadly based growth and multiple products is serving us well.

“New customers are choosing Sky over other providers, and existing customers are taking more from us.”