Media CEOs the highest-paid US executives

They're not Hollywood stars, they're not TV personalities and they don't play in a rock band, but their pay packages are in the same league.

Six of the 10 highest-paid CEOs last year worked in the media industry, according to a study carried out by executive compensation data firm Equilar and The Associated Press.

The best-paid chief executive of a large American company was David Zaslav, head of Discovery Communications, the pay-TV channel operator that is home to Shark Week.

His total compensation more than quadrupled to $US156.1 million ($A199.6 million) in 2014 after he extended his contract.

Les Moonves, of CBS, held on to second place in the rankings, despite a drop in pay from a year earlier. His pay package totalled $US54.4 million.

The remaining four CEOs, from entertainment giants Viacom, Walt Disney, Comcast and Time Warner, have ranked among the nation's highest-paid executives for at least four years, according to the Equilar/AP pay study.

Pay packages for CEOs overall grew for the fifth straight year in 2014, driven by a rising stock market that pushed up the value of executive stock awards.

Median compensation for the heads of Standard & Poor's 500 companies rose to a record $US10.6 million, up from $US10.5 million the year before.

For the annual CEO pay study, Equilar assessed data from 338 companies that filed proxy statements with regulators between January 1 and April 30, 2015.

To calculate a CEO's pay package, Equilar and the AP looked at salary, stock and option awards, perks and bonuses.

The study only includes chief executives who have been at the helm of their company for at least two years.