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They Get Paid How Much???

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Salaries of the BBC’s top presenters have been made public.

Some of them are quite good at their jobs, but seriously, are the BBC not able to get others who could do the job just as well, if not better, for a fraction of these salaries?

The BBC’s top earners
1. Gary Lineker – £1.75m
2. Zoe Ball – £1.36m
3. Graham Norton – £725,000
4. Steve Wright – £475,000
5. Huw Edwards – £465,000
6. Fiona Bruce – £450,000
7. Vanessa Feltz – £405,000
8. Lauren Laverne – £395,000
9. Alan Shearer – £390,000
10. Stephen Nolan – £390,000

I don’t know who Stephen Nolan is, but for me the most incomprehensible salary is that paid to that candidate for The World’s Most Boring Man, Huw Edwards. Close to half a million for his capacity to send the nation to sleep. It beggars belief. It really does.

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Comments

  2. I’m sorry to say that this doesn’t boil my piss at all.

    I still value the BBC highly and think they are pretty good value with the breadth of TV offerings, news, websites, local radio, world services etc. I’ve lived abroad and travelled extensively and TV worldwide always re-affirmed to me how good the BBC is.

    BTW Stephen Nolan is an excellent radio 5 and Radio Ulster presenter.

    Steve Wright is admittedly a fucking dinosaur and I’n not that keen on Feltz but I know they are popular with plenty of people.

    • Yep, that’s just about my take as well.

      I used to get all manner of abuse on ex Forces/ Royal Navy sites/ forums for being pro BBC & licence fee. I still think it is incredible value for money while fully accepting that OOAA.

    • If the UK population is about 65 million we each pay Lineker about 2.7p per annum, which is a bargain for how much he winds up the right people on Twitter.

      • Couldn’t agree more.
        What they get paid is of no interest to me – at least the BBC steers clear of Ant and bloody Dec.
        And yes Lineker winding up the nutjobs is great entertainment.

      • Yep, me too. You only have to spend time in other English speaking countries, notably USA, Australia and New Zealand, sample their TV offerings and you realise just how lucky we are to have the BBC.

        • Yes, the USA with their shabby West Wing, and Sopranos, and The Wire, and Brooklyn 99, and PBS, and…

          They produce a lot of crap, but have you seen some of the absolute shit put out by the Beeb?

          The good stuff over here is very, very good.

          • USA and ANZ are like UK, oceans of mind-numbing garbage, interspersed with treasures. ABC in Oz turn out excellent stuff, and like the Beeb take their role as public broadcaster seriously. Also like the Beeb, under fire from the right for being a hotbed of lefties.

  3. Zoe Ball 1.4 million is the real shocker. They should have a ceiling at 500 grand or something. Lineker also works for BT sport, so earns even more. He is a decent presenter, but would MOTD ratings suffer if e.g. Mark Chapman presented all versions? And he has been told to tone down his Twitter outbursts (with a 25% deduction in salary).

    Despite not living in the UK I still like the BBC, but the days where all the best stuff was on BBC TV are long gone.

    • So what if Lineker earns more at BT? He also publishes books. Why shouldn’t he? What’s more sinister will be the attempts to curb a sports presenters right to express personal opinions on Twitter because his politics don’t align to the Gov’t.

    • Lineker’s appeal and salary is baffling to me. Other than a football highlights show once a week, what does he do for his 1.75m/year? What makes him so highly valued? He’s an average presenter with a very limited repertoire. Gary Imlach from ITV sport is superior in every way. Des Lynam was better. What am I missing? It’s not the money per se that bothers me. It’s why the BBC think he’s worth so much.

      • I like Gary Lineker. He’s very affable and jolly nice looking. Even Ant & Dec have some sort of tellytastic capabilities. The ones I don’t get at all are Jeremy Clarkson and Piers Morgan. To me they’re both thick, talentless boors and totes uggers to boot. It amazes me how they got successful on telly.

            • You’d expect any half-competent presenter to be articulate and quick on their feet. Isn’t that what the job’s about?

              Does he ever advance our understanding of the game, it’s minutiae, the psychology, the hidden details? No, he does not. In fact he frequently recoils if ever the conversation gets edgy. His main job seems to be keeping things comfortable and bland.

              This is not a proxy argument against his politics, by the way. He seems a decent sort in that regard. I just don’t get his appeal as a presenter.

            • I did a corporate job about 20 years ago where Lineker was the main presenter, something about kids books I think. He was very easy going and adaptable, which was fortunate as the show producer hadn’t got a fucking clue. I doubt he was being paid extra as it was sponsored by Walkers and he was their crisp poster boy in chief at the time.

    • Agree. I used to find Chris Evans a bit much but at least his battyness never seemed forced. Zoe Ball constantly seems to be acting a part with all the fake breathlessness and everyones so fucking GORGEOUS. I really wish they had given the breakfast slot to Sara Cox who has such a natural breezy personality, but I hear she wasnt tabloid enough.

  5. I don’t tend to get angry at this stuff much. I always just assume someone’s crunched the numbers somewhere and the higher paid stars are just “worth it” in terms of audience figures, and that it’s a pretty free market that finds its correct level.

    On the contrary, and paradoxically, footballers’ pay I just don’t understand. Possibly because I don’t really get football. It just seems to have inflated into this ridiculous industry where people pay hundreds of pounds to prop up individuals earning millions of pounds for “just” kicking a ball about.

    • Worth noting that if Shearer and Lineker were playing today the figures above would approximate to their weekly and monthly salaries respectively (with potential for lots of other earnings off the pitch).
      Lauren probably wouldn’t be raking it in on the Britpop revival circuit – even so, she’d have to share with Jonny X and the gals..

    • You quite rightly don’t understand it: nobody does. Football clubs – even the biggest clubs – pay fees and wages they simply can’t sustain. It’s utter, utter madness, as most clubs don’t turn a profit. They import and use business models, except the most important part: ‘the make more than you lose’ mantra.
      Barcelona and Man Utd – two of the biggest clubs on the planet – are simply loaded with debt. At the last count, Barca are nearly €500 million in debt.

  6. Without details on how much the likes of Piers Morgan, Jonathan Ross, And & Dec or pick any non BBC “talent” are paid I can’t see how any objective view of what the BBC is paying can be made, which just leaves us with “I don’t like them so clearly it’s too much”.

    • Well the UK population pays for all of them be it through licence fees or integrating the cost of advertising on ITV/Channel 4 etc into product prices.

      • In most cases, you can easily check just how much celebrity presenters on other channels get paid (sorry refuse to say “earn”) by checking out their company returns at Companies House

  7. Clearly, I’m in a minority here.
    Other presenters on other Channels doesn’t concern me overly.
    It’s interesting that the people who do impress me on the BBC, for instance the current Newsnight crew, don’t appear on the list. The qualities that impress me aren’t worth paying for and I simply fail to recognise the inherent magnificence of the Top Ten and that is a burden I will have to bear.
    At least none of the BBC Breakfast crew are there. Whatever they get, it’s too much.

  8. It’s all just economics and the free market, innit? Other stations would love to poach, for instance, Gary Lineker and would most likely pay more for the privilege.
    In the mad mad world of football paying a pretty average player a 100 grand a week is nothing in the overall scheme of things where television and sponsorship deals rule.
    Not saying I personally agree with all this but getting excited about it – nah!

    • Why would they love to poach Lineker, though? Can you spell it out for me exactly what is so attractive about him as a presenter? As a footballer he was first class. As a presenter he’s a long, long way from a natural finisher. What does he bring to party that is so special? Is it the large Twitter following? Is that it?

      • I think he is a competent presenter and a very lucky one. It was a job he wanted to do after he finished football and the BBC gave him the opportunity. When he started he was terrible. Even when he said “hello” he sounded like he was reading it, but couldn’t quite make out what the autocue said. If he hadn’t been a great footballer he wouldn’t ever have got the job. His presentational skills improved but he would never say anything remotely controversial or confrontational. I think he is himself now, but his large Twitter following is due to his job, not the other way around.

    • I think your argument is that audiences follow the presenter.
      I believe that audiences follow the show: that is to say, I would watch MOTD regardless of who the presenter is, because that’s the only game in town offering what it does.

      If ITV has the Champions League final, I’ll watch ITV, and it doesn’t matter if it’s Lineker, Elton Welsby or whoever presenting it.

      The only time the presenter makes a difference is when two channels have the same offering.

  9. I don’t get too excited about BBC pay either but I’ll make an exception on the Steve Wright issue. How on earth does that painfully unfunny and musically clueless twerp still command a place on a national radio station? He was past his sell-by date in about 1989 and yet still he clogs up the airwaves with his nonsense. “Serious Jockin, no G.” Fuc off, no K.
    Footballers on the other hand, well don’t start me off. Lots of people seem to lay the blame at the door of the player’s agents. Genuine question, is there a good reason why clubs all over the world, at all levels, don’t just collectively say, “we will no longer deal with agents.” Surely this is the answer?

      • I agree about Steve Wright – his Sunday morning love songs show or whatever it is called is a crime against humanity. in 1989 he was mildly funny on weekday afternoons with his Mr Angry and all those. I have since lumped him and Tony Blackburn in the same bag but I was wrong. Blackburn may have cringey jokes but he plays some half decent records and clearly has a love for music.Not sure Wright is remotely interested.

  10. The same logic can be applied everywhere. I don’t like this person/don’t understand their value/talent so therefore they are paid too much.

    I don’t like Michael McIntyre, but if he can get paid a fortune for what he does then good luck to him.

  11. My view on this is tempered by the fact that the people leading the charge on this every year ie the right wing press that would dearly like to see the death of the BBC, would regard what their employees get paid as none of your business. I’m not always a fan of the Beeb but after watching the Murdoch dynasty 3-part series recently I’d take the BBC all day long over the potential alternative

    • That’s the real issue here. The disclosure of BBC salaries was a political act forced on them by the Tories because they knew it would make it harder for them to hold on to some of their people. Murdoch poached extensively from the BBC to staff Times Radio and of course has better access to Johnson than most of the Cabinet.

      The Times runs anti BBC stories every day – overpaid, biased, woke, a national disgrace staffed wholly by Remainers – and the readership seems to lap it up. Lineker’s ability to make the pearl-clutchers melt down is something to behold.

      • Yes, this. The usual suspects are now claiming that Lineker’s “obscene” salary is being funded at least in part by the over-75s, who have had their free licences taken away. A move, let it be remembered, forced on the Beeb by the government.

        As for Lineker, after years of being goaded by the sort of people who spell it Linekar that if he likes refugees so much he should have one in his house, he’s doing just that. Cue accusations of virtue-signalling…

  12. The wider picture here is that I think all people in all walks of life have the opportunity to earn too much money. I honestly can’t see what anyone would do with a salary over £100K (£200K if I’m feeling generous). I don’t earn anything like that amount and I would just be embarrassed to have that much money in my pocket!

    You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one….:)

  13. Ant McPartlin (he’s ITV, in fairness) recently gave his ex-wife £31 million in a divorce settlement. He seems like a vaguely competent tv presenter; a nice-ish man of limited talent who is popular in an idiot-next-door capacity…and he has £31 million spare. It’s certainly illustrative of why people want to work in the media.

    As for the BBC, the stance they regularly take is they pay the market rate – sometimes less. This might be true of some presenters, but it strikes me as rather disingenuous as a catch-all statement; Lauren Laverne (who I like, by the way) is not going to get £395,000 at Heart FM, principally because they’d never employ her.

    I’m sure there are people on this blog who know far more about the media than I do, but I wonder if I’m alone in wondering why, specifically, presenters get so well paid? What do producers and writers get? I couldn’t care less who presents Match of the Day (and I like Lineker, generally), as I fast forward the analysis anyway. A member of the public could chair QT, and I’d still watch it. If Steve Wright went on holiday and was replaced by a media graduate from Warrington, I doubt the show would be much different. Presenters facilitate: they are rarely talent in themselves. I’m sure others may well disagree.

    • You make a very good point in your third paragraph. Dig below the headline and you’ll find that Steve Wright’s Production Company are being paid £475k to produce all of his BBC output. That’s Wrighty, everyone else in his posse, his producer, Sally Traffic, the guests, travel expenses, researchers, office, equipment, PRS, etc, etc.

      I used to know Chris Evan’s producer socially but it has been about 15 years since I’ve been to Shoreditch.

      • Isn’t the whole production company thing just a hangover from John Birt’s days, insisting that a certain percentage of shows be made by “independents”? I doubt Steve Wright does anything outside of a BBC facility apart from bank the cheques. I can see that some radio programmes are made/recorded elsewhere, using non BBC resources but not a daily show surely?

  15. I listen to the BBC all day, and the only one of those 10 I see/hear with any regularity is (ironically, given the original post) Stephen Nolan.
    He blows hot and cold; was excellent on game machine addiction in betting shops a few years ago, but too many times goes down the wrong avenue entirely when interviewing someone.

    Re: the DJs, why does anyone need a DJ in 2020?
    Zoe Ball is going to know more about Jimi Hendrix, Tamla or The Kinks than me … oh, yeah?
    We now know far more about popular music than the whole of the BBC put together, don’t we?
    If I want to know about anything about the subject, I wouldn’t ask Steve Wright, I’d come on here.

    • I don’t listen to the radio, as I don’t see the point. I have so much music of my own I want to listen to, so I don’t want to listen to what someone else wants to play, especially if they insist on talking between the tracks. My wife…or ex-wife, I should say…although technically she’s still my wife at the moment…I know, the wife who I’m in the process of divorcing…anyway, she listens to the radio in the car, so I’d have to put up with it. It was okay if it was the morning, as we could listen to Popmaster, although Ken Bruce doesn’t half play some rubbish records. The Jeremy Vine show did my head in. But the one I liked best was Steve Wright, especially when he does his ‘serious jacking’, because it was reassuring to confirm my opinion that radio is rubbish and DJs are ruddy annoying*.

      * I’ll make an exception for Brian Matthew. His show was a great mix of songs you knew (although Where Do You Got To (My Lovely) seemed to be on every week!), artists you knew singing songs you didn’t know and songs/artists you’d never heard of. What’s more, any inter-song chat tended to be information about the songs, with no wackiness or ‘bants’ to be heard. And when he was ill, most of the people fitting in (Time Rice, Paul Jones, Johnny Walker) seemed to be good substitutes too. Sadly, Tony Blackburn turned every show into a rubbish wedding disco.

      • I still think selective radio listening has a place – both of introducing you to something you haven’t heard before or sometimes reminding you of something you already have that you have neglected. The trick is finding a DJ whose tastes have some correlation to your own. Mine are currently on 6 music – Don Letts and Guy Garvey.

        • SOTS, wow!, no wonder they put it on at 6 a.m.
          I think they base the whole thing on about five 60s compilations purchased from Sainsbury’s.

          The strange thing is, if you’re going to get Blackburn to do anything he’d surely be more at home doing the chart show, the one that Paul Gambaccini, who is hopeless at it, is currently doing … and vice-versa!

          I’ve only truly liked one DJ, Mark Lamarr, whose departure from Radio 2 about 10 years ago signalled the station’s demise.

          • Radio 2 was good for a while, probably about 10 years ago as.you say. Radio 1 started focusing on an audience barely out of nappies and Radio 2 moved in to mop up pop/,rock listeners who were a bit older, also some very good specialist shows.

            However whatever one’s opinion of Zoe she is not there to inform people about Hendrix or The Kinks She may know a little about Britpop era, but her main job is to present a bland show, engage with her listeners and keep listening figures up. Not to my taste but I am guessing she is the most listened to “DJ” (presenter) in the UK. She also does a fair bit of TV work.

            Still not worth 1.4 million a year though.

  16. People who gripe about what other people are getting paid and say “Couldn’t they get someone just as good for less than that” should not then be annoyed if their own employers were to take the same attitude about them.
    In a highly-competitive marketplace, the sheer numbers of people watching those BBC presenters justify what they get paid. They would soon be got rid of if their viewing figures weren’t satisfactory.

  17. Lots of opinions above.

    Have to say, I’m not too fussed what others earn, good luck to them if they can, but I am a bit surprised that Zoe Ball is paid quite so much as she is.

    Huw Edwards is a bus fan (he did the after dinner at the CPT dinner a couple of years back) so I can forgive him almost anything.

  18. All the indignation of the right-wing press makes me chuckle. The Telegraph’s pocket cartoonist ‘Matt’ – who is admittedly the best in his business by a long way – is paid absurd amounts for what he does, including a grace and favour holiday home and as much time off as he likes. Why? Because rivals (the Mail, the Times) allegedly come knocking every so often, offering even more money and perks. But the BBC? How dare they!

    Gary Lineker may seem inoffensively bland, even dull to some, but talk to TV backroom folk and they all seem to think he’s made of the right stuff.That goes a long way. He studied hard at the presenting business to get where he is, starting when he was still a player. Try chairing analysis on football, on live TV with millions watching, with a producer shouting in your earpiece, and see how unflappable you’d look. He also has the added kudos of owning a World Cup Golden Boot when some wag yells ‘and what have you done?’

    Huw Edwards is in the same boat in terms of high-wire live stuff, but does all the ‘Dimbleby’ stuff – as well as the news, there’s Festival of Rememberance, The Cenotaph, Royal Weddings/Troopings/Funerals. If there was a safer pair of hands, they’d be doing it, but it’s him and I imagine for good reason.

    The fact that, as has been mentioned above, The fact that ITV and Sky ‘talent’ don’t have to disclose their earnings is the real elephant in this room.

    • They’re not paid for by the public. What annoys me (mildly…I don’t care that much) is that BBC services are being closed and pensioners potentially taken to court over licence fees while absurd sums of money are handed out. You could change the lot of them tomorrow and most people wouldn’t care. IMHO, OOAA etc.

      • Not all of the public are licence payers. Some don’t own TVs, tablets, mobys or computers. It’s incorrect to say they are paid for by the Public. They are paid by the Licence Payers. You don’t get a choice to pay Income Tax. You can choose whether or not to have a device that receives a TV signal if you don’t like how the licence money is spent.
        Whether the BBC should be funded by the TV License Fee in the 21st century is a valid argument. How they choose to spend their income is not.

        • True but a trivial percentage. Most people do. Any business in receipt of public money is accountable for how it is used. It’s not income. It’s a levy, and any money made off it is is a dividend which in some way should be shared with the stakeholders, i.e. the paying public. Pissing it away in stupid salaries whilst cutting services is not on.

  19. I’m sure Ant, Dec, Cowell et al, Willoughby, Schofield, I could go on, earn more than double Linaker’s salary for far less quality (as it happens, I think the tactical analysis is pretty spot-on on MOTD despite the time constraints, far better than Sky or BT, even with the same presenter). The one that boils my piss is Leigh Francis….

    Formula 1 on the other hand. Give me Sky every time.

      • A few years ago, there were several heated exchanges about the BBC and I was one who was a big supporter but in the last couple of years, I’ve become indifferent to, not only the BBC, but broadcast TV in general. There are a handful of shows every year that catch my attention but these could be made by a streaming service if the BBC didn’t make their own content any more. BBC4 however, wouldn’t be funded by any other means so it gets a pass, as does Radio 4, for its diversity of content.

  20. I don’t understand the anyone could do their job mentality. I guarantee that 99% of people couldn’t do their jobs. I’m sure that it isn’t just playing records or interviewing a politician or introducing a football match.

    Is it too much money? Probably. Could they get more money in other companies? Probably. I am i bothered? No.

    Should they earn more than the Prime Minster? This useless, feckless, lying Prime Minster? Definitely!

  21. Someone could probably do my job for less and when I eventually retire I am sure the company will look to save money. When you have been with an employer as long as Lineker has been at the BBC your salary tends to go up on a yearly basis. We have staff at my company that are possibly being paid more than the going rate because of the length they have been there as opposed to some
    ability that puts them above anyone else.

      • I’m inclined to agree. It adds familiarity and credibility. But it makes no sense if football fans are so disinterested in who presents. Indeed it questions why virtually every Sport from snooker to snowboarding always includes a former pro as part of the commentary team.

        • This is a trend. I think all cricket commentators on Sky were not only Test players, but also captained their country (just about). This can lead to truly great commentators (Benaud), but also terrible ones (Botham, thankfully now spending more time with his wine).

  25. It’s true some of these seem pretty random. Zoe Ball but not Claudia Winkleman; Huw Edwards but not Mishal Hussain, etc etc. But leave aside personal taste; the idea of successful tv and radio presenters who are good at their job being paid a lot more than I am seems perfectly reasonable to me.

    The BBC can’t win of course. If they didn’t pay this sort of money (which in many cases I suspect is outgunned by their commercial rivals) and had a bunch of b division presenters they’d be slaughtered for being second rate. And when they do, and, uniquely, have to declare the figures, they’re slaughtered for being profligate with our money.

    • Their TV equivalents 30/40/50 years ago, despite earning significantly less money were … 1. more famous and 2. had much bigger audiences. Fewer channels, obviously.

      Same with radio. I never listened to Radio 1, ever, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have known by sight pretty much every Radio 1 (and Radio 2) DJ circa 1980. They’d pitch up on TOTP for a start.

      News readers … I bumped in to one of the above on a train five years ago on the way to Elstree, I recognised him, but I couldn’t have told you his name was Huw Edwards. If Richard Baker had been travelling on the same train in 1978, 99% of the population would have said, “F*** me! It’s Richard Baker!”

      I used to love it when, dependent on the sport, you’d know exactly who would be doing your football, rugby, cricket commentary. Even ice skating. Now, I wouldn’t recognise any of them. I guess that’s why I like Test Match Special so much, there’s still familiarity any time you switch on.

  28. To be honest, the majority of the salaries don’t surprise or bother me. I still think my licence fee (about £3 a week) is a bit of a bargain.

    Having had a quick look at the long list yesterday, the one that did catch my eye was John McEnroe. From my relatively limited interest in tennis I thought he was a great player and he’s always been able to talk a good game, but £200k for two weeks work. Makes the Wimbledon strawberries and cream look like a right bargain.

    • John McEnroe must be one of the best sports commentators anywhere in the world. I don’t really like tennis but I could listen to him jabbering on all day. A lot of folk probably end up watching Wmbldn* who wouldn’t bother otherwise. Mind you, half a mill….

      (*as Harry Carpenter used to say)

    • I read a piece years ago by a journalist, I forget which, who met John McEnroe after his peak playing days but before he started commentating for the BBC.

      The journalist was heading into the gents when he met McEnroe coming out. Being a professional he put his bladder out of mind and asked, ‘Hello John. Any chance of a quick word for me and my viewers on the BBC?’ and got the obliging reply , ‘Fuck you, fuck your viewers, and fuck the BBC.’

  29. There’s a lot of conflating love of the Beeb with questioning them spending silly amounts of (public) money here. The two are possible at the the same time.

    • You might baulk,* as others have, at the above figures when proper local news journalism of the type that only the BBC can or will do – as opposed to shitey This Is… clickbait – is being decimated.

      (*Baulk, I say)

    • That’s fair comment, and I’m probably one of the guilty ones. I think it’s a response to the fact that most of the public criticism is coming from vested interests – political, or financial, or both, who will use any opportunity to attack the BBC and ultimately destroy it.

      Leaving aside the question of whether Gary Lineker or Zoe Ball are worth those figures (both good and popular presenters, but I’d say ‘no’), it’s the broad principle I’m interested in. TV and Radio presenters are essentially in show business, and pay in that line of work when you get to a certain level bears no relationship with jobs like, say, teachers, doctors, shop workers, etc etc. I’m ok with that. And I think we have to accept that the BBC is in that market, and so just like ITV, Sky, etc etc, it’s going to pay some big numbers to its presenters. Whereas some of the critics want to have it both ways – it shouldn’t be trying to compete with the other outlets and pay anything like these numbers on principle AND it shouldn’t be crap and have low viewer or listener figures.

      • There’s the thing. Is being a PSB the same as being in show business? I think all the gaudy glitzy stuff should be on commercial channels. The Beeb should do the stuff commercial channels won’t make.

  30. The success of Lauren Laverne presents the horrifying idea that being in a minor indie band can be a springboard to a lucrative career in broadcasting.

    “For analysis of these complex international economic issues, over to Dermo from Northside”

  31. I too have been in a toilet with an international tennis star! Goran Ivenisevic at Auckland Airport. I waked in and he was at the urinals – he looked around as I came in and smiled and said hello.

    Didn’t recognise him straight away – I left before he did and I went through the arrivals bit. I saw all the photographers. He was behind me and then I recognised him – I think he’d just won Wimbledon

  33. My urinal encounter was (almost) with Colin Blunstone, I did the business then held the door open for him as he went in to do the same (glad I washed my hands), he thanked me. He didn’t have a tennis racquet with him.

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