BBC star salaries: Gary Lineker gets a pay cut while Zoe Ball tops the list

Match of the Day host Gary Lineker has agreed to cut his salary by £ 400,000, the BBC revealed as it posted its latest list of best-paid bidders.

The chart shows Lineker as the highest earning star with an unchanged salary of £ 1.75m in the last financial year.

But he has since signed a new contract, in which he will cut fees by 23%.

This means he may earn less than Zoe Ball next year. The presenter of Radio 2 has seen her pay increase of £ 1 million since taking over the breakfast show in 2019.

Fiona Bruce and Lauren Laverne have also moved into the top ten of the BBC’s 10 highest-paid stars, which feature four women for the first time. The company’s annual report shows that Vanessa Welitz is also among the top earners.

Lineker’s new salary will be featured on next year’s roster. “Gary Lineker has signed a new five-year contract providing for the last quarter of the contract,” General Manager Tim Davy told reporters.

He described the former England player as a brilliant broadcaster and said his new deal was a perfect example of “the best talent and the best value”.

“Before you ask, Gary knows his responsibility to the BBC with regard to his use of social media,” Davy added, referring to social media rules for BBC staff and program providers expected to be announced soon.

Linker, a prolific tweet who often discusses his political views online, sent a message to the “haters” on Twitter.

• BBC star salary: who gets what?

Overall, the BBC’s total payroll bill for on-air talent in 2019/20 rose by £ 1 million to £ 144.6m. Still, all high income earners are white.

Some stars are not on the payroll because BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, which hosts many of the popular shows, does not have to disclose their fees.

As a result, some of the BBC’s biggest shows – such as Top Gear and Doctor Who – are absent from the list.

Ball’s pay soared despite the fact that her spin-off show Strictly It Takes Two was produced by BBC Studios and was not included.

Last year, three women had top winners – Paul, Claudia Winckelmann and Feltz.

The overall gender pay gap at the BBC decreased from 6.7% to 6.2%. Former General Manager Tony Hall has pledged to close the gender pay gap by 2020.

“It was a very aggressive target,” said Mr. Davey, adding, “We can be proud of our progress but we have to go further.”

But he said he wanted to increase the number of women across the leadership ranks, where the number is currently 45%, below the 50% target. “It’s about the leaders, it’s not about words, it’s about actions,” he said.

The annual report also showed that 12.3% of BBC leaders were BAME, below its target of 15% for 2020.

This annual report contains a lot of complex messaging, but it likely leads to simple, negative headlines for the BBC.

The payroll for broadcasters on the air – myself included – reflects three years of reforms.

As part of these reforms, many broadcasters – especially but not exclusively men – either made major pay cuts (Huw Edwards, Jeremy Vine etc.) or let the BBC (Chris Evans, John Humphries Leaves Today, Eddie Meyer).

Now, many broadcasters – especially but not exclusively women – are getting pay raises.

Crucially, the pay increases for these broadcasters (Zoe Ball, Fiona Bruce, Lauren Laverne, Emily Metlis) reflect overtime.

The overall pay increase for those whose payroll is spread out – around £ 1 million – isn’t huge, financially, given the number of people they relate to, and the salaries themselves. In fact, it is less than inflation and hence depreciation in real terms.

However, the optics are bad for the BBC. The complexity does not penetrate the stories about high wages.

The simple truth is, at a time of tremendous hardship across the country, with so many people being redundant or left behind and suffering, these massive salaries (and their modest overall increase) will make many license fee payers disgraceful.

The other big story is the finances of the BBC. In the medium term, they are very nervous. Remarkably, by the end of next year, the BBC will have saved nearly £ 800m in just five years.

But the fact that licensing fees did not rise with inflation between 2010 and 2017, and hit 125 million pounds (at least) from the coronavirus pandemic, is a major damage to the baseline for next year.

And that’s before you even think about whether the generation that is giving so much time to TikTok, YouTube, and WhatsApp feels they need to pay for a TV license.