Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) shareholders defeated several proposals at its annual meeting on Wednesday that challenged the company's compensation policies and its dual-class share structure.

The Philadelphia-based cable and entertainment giant also said all its nominees for its board of directors were elected "overwhelmingly" and all management proposals for various stock compensation plans were approved.

The company declined to provide details about the voting results from the meeting. A spokesman said the results will be disclosed in a regulatory filing following its second-quarter earnings results as required by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shareholder proposals included a so-called "say on pay" measure to allow an advisory vote from shareholders on the company's compensation practices. Major companies like Verizon Inc. (VZ) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) have recently adopted "say on pay" measures, and political momentum appears to be building in Congress to legislate say-on-pay requirements for public companies.

Comcast Chairman and Chief Executive Brian Roberts said such a measure was a threat to the longstanding process in which shareholders elect directors and directors determine compensation policies, which has served the company well over time.

Another proposal recommended restricting the company from granting so-called "golden coffin," or death benefits, to executives. Comcast, which recommended that shareholders vote against all shareholder proposals, noted that Roberts gave up his right for 2009 to have his base salary and annual cash bonus paid to his family for five years after his death.

Shareholder activist Evelyn Davis presented a proposal to require the company to disclose all executives that receive a base salary in excess of $500,000 annually, along with additional bonuses and other cash payments. Currently, public companies are only required to disclose compensation amounts for certain top executives.

Shareholders also voted down a proposal to abolish the company's dual-class share structure, which preserves about one-third of Comcast's voting rights in the hands of Roberts.

Numerous corporate governance advocates have been critical of dual-class share structures, and controlling shareholders have come under increasing fire as shareholders suffer losses amid the global financial and economic crisis.

Roberts, whose father co-founded Comcast in 1963, owns all 9.44 million shares of Comcast's class B common stock, which has 109 times the voting power of the class A shares held by the public.

Comcast noted in its proxy that it can't do away with the share structure without separate approval from Roberts himself. The company also said its stock performance has outperformed the S&P 500 by a margin of 2-to-1 since it went public under the dual-class share structure in 1972, and many public companies -- like Viacom Inc. (VIA), the Washington Post Co. (WPO) and News Corp. (NWSA), publisher of this newswire -- have similar structures.

While fielding various questions and comments from shareholders at the meeting, Roberts said "every shareholder who has ever invested in Comcast has known about the [dual-class share structure]."

Roberts also said the company has no plans to sell its ownership stakes in two Philadelphia sports franchises - the Sixers and the Flyers - in order to pay down its $31 billion debt load.

"We're comfortable with our debt levels," Roberts said.

-By Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5216; nat.worden@dowjones.com