Media elite: Matt Lauer signs $20 million-a-year deal that includes helicopter commute

Media elite: Matt Lauer signs $20 million-a-year deal that includes helicopter commute - BizPac
There is good reason why they’re called the media elite.

“Today” host Matt Lauer signed a $20 million-a-year deal with NBC in June that is said to include helicopter service to fly him from his spread in the Hamptons to the TV studio in Manhattan and back each day.

Page Six from the New York Post reported:

As part of the deal, NBC agreed to pay for Lauer to chopper out to the Hamptons, where he has a 40-acre horse farm in Water Mill and a nearby mansion, reportedly worth $15 million, in which he lives year-round with his wife, Annette Roque, and their children.

According to Page Six, NBC is determined to keep Lauer now that the morning show has recovered from a hit it took when co-host Ann Curry was dismissed in 2012 — reports are that Curry and Lauer didn’t get along.

“NBC News chiefs want to do everything to keep Matt happy,” a source told the New York Post. “They believe ‘Today’ has turned a corner and he is the key to its continuing success.”