BBC to make public the cost of its TV and radio talent, but not individually

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 23:04

THE BBC will make public the total amount it spends on its stars, but will continue to keep individual talent fees secret, the corporation announced yesterday.

While the exact salary of senior executives and top decision-makers will be released, the wages of top talent will not.

The pay of the top 50 earners in BBC management was released yesterday, revealing that dozens earn far more than the Prime Minister's annual salary of 189,994. The director- general, Mark Thompson, was the highest paid member of staff with a salary of 647,000.

In future the BBC said it intends a breakdown of pay for the top 50 earners in BBC management and the decision-makers "with the greatest responsibility both for spending public money and for overseeing the BBC's services and operations".

Mr Thompson said the total number of managers involved will be around 100 people beyond the executive board.

He added: "To repeat, in each case, there will be full disclosure of remuneration by name."

But on the matter of high-profile stars, Mr Thompson said: "It has been our view that it does not make sense for the BBC to disclose individual talent fees. Why? We operate in an industry where confidentiality is the norm in which only one of our competitors is themselves subject to freedom of information.

"There's a real danger that talent would migrate to broadcasters where confidential information about how much they are paid will not be disclosed. But we recognise that the public have a legitimate interest in how much the BBC spends on talent, including top talent.

"In future, we will disclose the total amount we spend on talent as a whole, and we will work on a plan to make our spend on talent more transparent so the public can monitor the direction of travel over time."

It has been reported that leading stars at the BBC face substantial pay cuts due to the recession. Those on large contracts include Jonathan Ross, said to be on 6 million a year; Graham Norton, who is believed to earn 2.5 million a year and Jeremy Paxman, reported to be paid 1 million.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said the BBC appeared to be paying some of its radio presenters more than twice what commercial stations paid theirs.

The BBC refused to give the National Audit Office (NAO), the public spending watchdog, a breakdown of presenters' salaries for a selection of radio shows unless the NAO signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Edward Leigh MP, the chairman of the committee, said it was "disgraceful" that the BBC could dictate what the NAO could inspect when public money was at stake.

Mr Thompson emphasised that the entry level for a BBC presenter was not "6 million a year".

He said: "The overwhelming majority (of) our talent who work with us to help inform and entertain the public are paid pretty modestly. But we do employ a small number of people who earn a great deal."

Mr Thompson argued that, from experience, disclosure of individual talent fees was likely to lead not to better value for money but fresh upward pressure on pay.

He said on-air artists were not public officers of the BBC but freelancers, adding: "They are not the kind of individual public servant the Act envisaged disclosure about."