BBC publishes new list of highest paid presenters

The BBC have released a list of its highest paid presenters. Gary Lineker has agreed to take a cut of £400,00 whilst 4 of the list are female specifically Vanessa Feltz, Lauren Laverne, Fiona Bruce and Zoe Ball.

To me the most intriguing aspect of the report is further down the page with the new Director-General Tim Davie making or perhaps re-iterating the activities of Lineker on social media

"And before you ask, Gary knows his responsibility to the BBC in terms of his use of social media," Mr Davie added, referring to social media rules for BBC staff and presenters that are expected to be announced soon".


Now call me cynical or suspicious but I'm thinking that the pay cut may be some kind of hint albeit a tacit one of Davie reeling Lineker in when it comes to tweeting.

The link to the report is below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54119758

If the case, then an expensive pay cut. It must amount to about a quid per tweet ever made ?

Lineker has responded to news of the pay cut:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/gary-lineker-takes-pay-cut-144419860.html

My interest was again peaked by a quote from Davie:

On Lineker’s response to any new Twitter rules for the BBC, he said, “that’s a question for Gary”.

Impartiality cannot be “endangered by the wrong use of social media and there are no exceptions to that,” he said.

I may be mis-reading this but I'm interpretating that remark as saying that some care may have to be taken in future over twitter.

I never understood why Gary Lineker is the highest paid BBC personality - when most people would think Graham Norton was the biggest paid star.

Gary Lineker compared to Graham Norton in terms of the amount of work they do for the BBC and also their profile, Graham Norton is known internationally, with a large audience in the USA with Graham interviewed on their big talk shows such as Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, whereas Lineker is only known in the UK really.

How can they justify his large earnings, compared to Graham, as an example.

Because we know Graham is paid through his production company for his chat show. I’m sure this discussion has been had before.

I'm sure it has.


Like you I can't understand it either. Maybe its because of his past as England Captain or possibly his performances on They Think It's All Over.

Remember that virtually all of Lineker's work is 'internal' and listed on the disclosures. Norton's Friday show isn't listed as it's bought in and is a package. Norton's entry amounts to his R2 and Eurovision involvement only. One of the anomalies that this wholly imo vacuous exercise enshrines.

Surely the impartiality only applies to people employed by BBC News?

It has been expained to Jk Derry at least twice before.

With external production companies or BBC Studios making most shows, it is very much a radio and news list now, which isn't particularly useful to anyone. If BBC Studios started to do sports shows, I'd seem them putting Match of The Day out to tender, as that would help reduce Gary's wage.

Whilst the list is missing plenty of big names, I am guessing most would still be in the £200 to £400k bracket and the few with jobs on both sides of the list would still not be much more. It very much leaves the top three looking rather expensive, though other than reductions at contract renewals like Gary, I can't see it changing much.

If you were going to be cynical of suspicious, it’s probably more along the lines of how Lineker’s pay cut and Ball’s pay rise will just about ensure that Zoe is now the top paid star which is quite convenient

Obviously people think that FTA commercial channels, their programmes and talent are 'free'. Advertising revenue is collected somewhere down the line, usually in a supermarket.