Virgin Media awarded more than $50 million (£25.1 million) to its top seven executives and nonexecutive directors after a year in which the former NTL failed to buy ITV and dismissed private equity approaches.

Board members of the British cable company also held a special meeting in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, while the company’s largest investor, Sir Richard Branson, is eligible to receive £100,000 a year for promotional appearances.

Steve Burch, the chief executive, was the best-paid, receiving $11.14 million in pay, bonuses and share awards, followed by Cob Stenham, who died in October and received $10.7 million in pay and awards in 2006. Jim Mooney, the company’s executive chairman who made the initial approach to ITV, was awarded $7.29 million — and while the company said that it was possible that not all the share and option awards may be honored, the executive made $1.75 million on selling shares and options acquired previously.

Stenham’s family were given extra time to exercise stock options, while an executor to his estate was appointed. During 2006, he and his family were able to cash in $6.3 million of options that he had been awarded.

The details of the bumper earnings were set out in a proxy filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. They cap a mixed year for NTL, in which the company bought Telewest and Virgin Mobile, but also saw its shares ease by 7.3 per cent on the Nasdaq exchange, where it is listed.

The company dismissed takeover interest, after an approach by Providence Equity foundered after NTL investors wanted over $30 a share, a level that the stock has never reached. The shares were trading at $25.54 yesterday, valuing the company at $8.3 billion.

Had the company accepted an offer, it would have triggered even larger payouts. Virgin Media’s statement spells out that Mr Mooney would receive $28.9 million in cash and accelerated shares and option payments, while Mr Burch would take home an immediate $23.6 million. Last year NTL, as was, lost £509.2 million, reflecting high historic depreciation and interest charges, and customer numbers declined marginally from 4.95 million to 4.89 million, as the company tried to focus on higher-value subscribers.

Virgin Media’s Delaware listing requires the company to hold board meetings in the United States. It was not explained why it was necessary to hold a board meeting in Puerto Rico, to which “spouses and partners of directors were invited” and their costs of travel met by the firm.

The document also spelled out the payments made and due to Sir Richard, whose Virgin Group owns 10.5 per cent of Virgin Media’s shares, although he does not sit on the company’s board. He is entitled to £100,000 a year in appearence fees. The chief of Virgin Group, which owns the brand used by the cable company since February, earned £60,822 last year.

Virgin Group received £4.8 million for use of the Virgin brand, and is entitled to 0.25 per cent of revenue from Virgin-branded businesses, including for the first time the company’s broadcasting arm. Virgin Retail, the group’s high street stores, received £1.8 million in revenues from sales of mobile phones relating to Virgin Media’s mobile arm.

On board

— Jim Mooney, the chairman of Virgin Media, has headed the company since its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2003. He is the link between Virgin Media’s mainly US shareholders and its UK-based management

— Working for him is Steve Burch, who spent 17 years at US cable operator Comcast before joining Virgin Media in January last year. His pay package includes $175,000 for legal costs relating to litigation with his former employer

— The two other individuals at Virgin Media are Sir Richard Branson, who joined after accepting shares in the sale of Virgin Mobile, and William Huff, once the eminence grise, but whose shareholding is down to 5.8 per cent

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