Proof BBC names ARE paid more than ITV rivals
THE EXCUSE that the BBC is forced to pay stars so much because rivals pay more has been exposed as a myth.
ITV actually pays less than the BBC for its top news anchormen.
Director-general Lord Hall insisted: ‘We are in a very competitive market.’ He said rivals ‘will pay large amounts of money’ and he feared they would ‘come after our talent’.
Yet ITV and Sky News do not lavish as much cash as he suggests. News at Ten’s Huw Edwards pockets £550,000-£600,000, the BBC revealed. It is understood ITV’s Tom Bradby gets a sum ‘similar but less’.
BBC host Andrew Marr is paid £400,475 a year, while the salary of ITV’s Robert Peston is ‘in the high £300,000s’. At Sky News, top stars’ pay is said to be ‘similar’ to the BBC.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘It’s well known that BBC journalists have left and been paid considerably more at other broadcasters.’