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BBC paying 15 stars above 500,000 despite austerity drive

Dunya News

BBC is paying television and radio stars more than 500,000 despite its attempts to cut costs.

The public broadcaster will announce next week that it has cut the total pay for a select group of on-air talent by a third.Figures are expected to show the amount it pays its top talent – those earning £1m or more – in the year to March, has dropped to nearly £10m. This compares to more than £14.6m during the previous year.It was suggested that at least 15 stars are still being paid more than £500,000 despite the drive to cut costs.Household names said to be earning more than £1m are believed to include Graham Norton, the BBC One chat show host, Chris Evans, the BBC Radio 2 host, and Gary Lineker, the Match of the Day host.Others likely to be members of the “half-a-million-plus club” are Alan Hansen, the football pundit and Jeremy Paxman, the Newsnight host.Both Norton and Paxman, the best paid current affairs presenter, are reported to have taken pay cuts.Norton is said to have reduced his £2m a year salary - while also benefiting from an extra £400,000 in income generated by his production company, So Television - while Paxman is also thought to have dropped out of the million pound-a-year bracket.But Norton’s pay cut would leave Lineker as the BBCs highest earner.The former England striker earns an estimated £2m a year but he is under pressure to cut his pay when his contract is set for renewal next year.Hansen is also reported to have had his £1.5m-a-year deal cut by a third in February.Paxman earned about £1m for his work on Newsnight and University Challenge but a new deal signed at the end of 2010 saw his income cut to about £800,000.Will.i.am, the Black Eyed Peas front man, earning a fee of about £500,000 for acting as a judge on the under-fire reality show The VoiceThe BBC’s annual report, to be published on Monday, will reportedly show that despite a battle to rein in pay, the total pay on performers in 2011-12 was £202m – a fall of £9.7m on the previous 12 months.But spending on the highest earning talent has dropped by a third. Because there are fewer than 10 individuals involved, the BBC will not say how many stars earned more than £1m last year.Executives are only expected to say tat about 15 received more than £500,000 from the licence fee, a drop from 19 in the previous year, the Guardian reported. The BBC has been trying to cut the pay of its top stars by at least a fifth.A corporation source told the Daily Mail: “No-one is exempt from the pay cuts that are being dished out, and this includes top stars.“But they have all taken it on the chin because they know what the rest of the BBC has got to deal with.”Last year following pressure from MPs the BBC disclosed for the first time how many employees fall into each pay band.But to avoid identifying individual performers, the highest- paid earners are linked together in broad categories.A BBC spokesman was unavailable for comment.