BBC pay list: the hidden names the corporation does not want you to see
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2017/07/2133.jpg Matt LeBlanc's salary for Top Gear is hidden from public view Credit: BBC Worldwide
20 July 2017 • 8:55pm The published table of the
BBC star salaries contains 96 names, but the real number is likely to be higher as a technicality allows the true figures to be masked.
The government required the disclosure of “people paid more than £150,000 of licence fee revenue” in the last financial year.
But that means direct payment only. Anyone who is paid via an independent production company is exempt from the list, as is anyone paid by the corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.
Some stars also earn far more than the published figures suggest.
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Graham Norton's earnings from The Graham Norton Show are not included in the BBC report Credit: Isabel Infantes/PA
Graham Norton’s stated earnings of £850,000-£899,999 make him the third highest-paid star on the list, but they cover only his work on Radio 2, Eurovision and the BBC One Saturday night show Let It Shine.
His main entertainment programme, The Graham Norton Show, is made by his own production company, So Television, and the money he earns from that is not covered in the BBC report.
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Chris Evans’s total salary is believed to be far higher than the £2,220,000-£2,249,999 reported, because Top Gear is part-funded by BBC Worldwide and the figure topped up by them. A BBC spokesman declined to be drawn on the matter.
Snakes and ladders: the BBC's highest-paid stars 01:16
Also absent from the list was Matt LeBlanc who took over as lead presenter of Top Gear following Evans’s departure. He is paid via BBC Worldwide and his salary is confidential.
Independently-made shows include Question Time, The Apprentice, University Challenge and MasterChef, meaning the salaries of David Dimbleby, Lord Sugar, Jeremy Paxman, John Torode and Gregg Wallace do not appear in the published accounts.
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Lord Sugar is paid via an independent production company for his work on The Apprentice Credit: Jim Marks/BBC
Instead, the BBC pays an overall sum of money to the programme-makers, who decide what proportion of it is paid to the stars.
Lord Sugar defended high salaries in a discussion on social media. He told the BBC’s second highest-earner, Gary Lineker: “You should not worry. You are in a market where presenters are paid at going rates. ITV [and] Channel 4 pay more than the BBC.”
Lineker’s salary of £1,750,000-£1,799,999 covers his presenting roles on the BBC, which he undertakes in addition to work for rival BT Sport.
But it does not include any money paid to Goalhanger Films, the production company he set up and which makes documentaries for broadcasters including the BBC.
Sir David Attenborough’s salary remains unknown as his natural history programmes are funded by BBC Worldwide. Such programmes have such high production budgets that they have to be funded by commercial income.
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Tom Hiddleston's salary for The Night Manager is unknown because it was not made solely by the BBC Credit: Des Willie/Television Stills
The list of highest-paid actors is dominated by the cast of EastEnders, Holby City and Casualty. But it is unlikely that they out-earn the Hollywood stars who have graced BBC One dramas in the past year: Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager and Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock. Both were co-produced with independent companies.
The situation will become more opaque in the 2017/18 accounts because the corporation’s in-house production unit, BBC Studios, became an independent commercial entity at the beginning of this tax year.
As a result, programmes it makes - including Strictly Come Dancing, Casualty and A Question of Sport - will be classed as independent productions, and the salaries will not be disclosed.
And while Labour said they wanted to see a 20:1 maximum pay ratio between the highest and lowest paid staff, sources said that would not apply to stars employed indirectly.
The figures do include freelance presenters whose money is funnelled via personal service companies.
