BBC stars ‘humiliated’ as pay details are revealed

Top earners’ salaries to be shown in precise bands – but loophole means many are now off the books

THE BBC is to release details of its top talents’ pay in £10,000 bands, in a move that has infuriated a number of star presenters.

When the salaries of those earning £150,000 or more were published last year, they were grouped in £50,000 bands to provide some level of privacy for famous faces on the payroll.

But this year the BBC will come close to publishing exact salaries after Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary, said that the previous disclosures were not sufficiently detailed and asked for or the bands to be narrowed.

The BBC will also break down presenters’ salaries by programme, explaining how much of their money was derived from a particular show.

The list of high earners, the second to be published at the behest of the Government, will be made public on Wednesday. It is expected to feature more women this time around after the BBC offered “pay revisions” to several news presenters who were found to be significantly underpaid in comparison to male peers, including Emily Maitlis and Sarah Montague.

When told their names would appear in £10,000 bands, the presenters appeared divided on the issue.

“This is the latest humiliation,” said one person on the list. “We’re resigned to the fact that the BBC has effectively launched a National Trolling Festival where we all get pummelled over our salaries. Everyone is totally exasperated and fed up – managers and presenters.

“Transparency will effectively y lead to a rate card where they ‘pay the chair’ instead of the presenter.”

Another broadcaster was resigned to the disclosure. They said: “Of course I’d rather the world didn’t know how much I get paid. It’s very un-British, isn’t it? But this is where we are now.”

But others say the change is positive. “If you’re earning over £150,000, just shut up about any ‘humiliation’. Total transparency is key,” said one.

The list is still a long way from total transparency. A third of the names disclosed last year will not show up at all because their programmes are made by BBC Studios, a commercial entity that was created at the start of the last financial year.

That has provided a loophole where presenters’ pay is routed through what is now classed as an independent t production company, meaning it no longer onger comes to them directly from the licence cence fee and does not have to be declared. lared. The 17 actors paid more than £150,000 for their roles on Casualty, Holby City and East-Enders will disappear from the list. The BBC’s highest-paid actor is Casualty’s Derek Thompson, who last year earned £350,000£399,999.

Strictly Come Dancing salaries will also become secret, hiding the pay of presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, and judges Darcey Bussell, Bruno Tonioli, Craig Revel Horwood and Shirley Ballas. Winkleman was the highest-paid woman on the list last year with a salary of £450,000£499,999, which included pay from her weekly show on BBC Radio 2.

Other presenters whose shows fall within the loophole include Alex Jones ( The One Show), Matt Baker ( The One Show and Countryfile), Nick Knowles ( DIY SOS), and Paul

Martin ( Flog It!).

The secrecy allows for entertainment presenters and actors employed via BBC Studios to have their pay increased without it becoming public knowledge.

Some broadcasters with a portfolio of shows will appear to fall down the salary league table, but only because part of their earnings are off the books. For example, Fiona Bruce’s salary for anchoring news bulletins will be public, but her Antiques Roadshow pay will not.

The BBC declined to confirm the new salary banding ahead of Wednesday’s report, but a spokesman said: “The BBC leads the way in transparency, is the only media organisation to release this data, and this year people will see we’ll go even further in the information we publish.

“BBC Studios is now a commercial operation not underpinned by the licence fee so, just like the independent production companies it competes for business with, it isn’t required to disclose salaries.”