The changing BBC rich list: How host of new faces are set to top the cost-cutting Beebs highest earners after Gary Lineker stepped down from MOTD, Zoe Ball quit breakfast show and Huw Edwards left in disgrace
Change is underway at the top of the BBCs rich list, with a host of big name departures leading to new faces at the top of the salary rankings.
Change is underway at the top of the BBCs rich list, with a host of big name departures leading to new faces at the top of the salary rankings.
Zoe Ball - who is second on the list with a pay packet of £954,999 - became the latest big star to reveal a major career update on Tuesday as she stepped down as host of the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show.
And BBC bosses will save hundreds of thousands of pounds by swapping her for incoming replacement Scott Mills who will be paid significantly less, MailOnline can reveal.
While Ball, 53, will stay at the channel, her decision to leave its most prominent presenting slot to spend more time with her family was bound to have consequences for her remuneration.
The announcement came just a week after it emerged the BBCs highest paid star, Gary Lineker, was leaving Match of the Day - despite reportedly offering to take a £350,000 pay cut from his £1.35million salary.
Huw Edwards saw his pay shoot up from £439,999 to £479,999 in the year ending April 2024, but he will not be returning to our TV screens after being convicted for possessing indecent images of children.
Zoe Ball became the latest BBC star to reveal a major career update this week as she stepped down as host of the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show. She is set to replaced by Scott Mills (left)
Earlier this month it was announced the BBCs highest paid star, Gary Lineker , was leaving Match of the Day - despite reportedly offering to take a £350,000 pay cut
Huw Edwards is another of the BBCs top earners for 2024, but he will not be returning to our TV screens after being convicted for possessing indecent images of children
These moves suggest Radio 1 breakfast host Greg James could be set to become the BBCs highest paid star on £419,999 - although Balls replacement Scott Mills is likely to enjoy a substantial bump to his current salary of £319,999.
James moved up the list earlier this year to become the fourth highest paid star at the BBC, up from seventh in 2023, with his pay jumping from up to £399,999.
The 38-year-old came to prominence after taking over the Radio 1 drivetime slot from Mills in 2012.
He went on to host Radio 1 Breakfast after switching shows with Nick Grimshaw in 2018.
He has also hosted a number of TV shows for the corporation including Sun, Sex and Holiday Madness and Unzipped, both on BBC Three.
James is followed on the BBCs talent pay figures for 2024 by Question Time and BBC News presenter Fiona Bruce and Radio 5 Live presenter Stephen Nolan who are in joint fifth position and earn up to £409,999 apiece.
Desert Island Discs and 6 Music host Lauren Laverne, who was paid up to £399,999, is in sixth and is one of four women in the top ten.
Alan Shearer, without a major international football tournament on in 2023, saw his pay drop from up to £449,999 to as much as £384,999, putting him seventh on the list.
Radio 1 breakfast host Greg James could be set to become the BBCs highest paid star on £419,999
BBC Director General Tim Davie was the highest paid executive, but his pay did not rise this year
In joint ninth, with BBC Radio 4s Today programme presenter Nick Robinson, was BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty, whose pay went up slightly to £349,999.
The salary figures also show that most of the presenters listed had posted pay rises between 2023 and 2024, with BBC News presenter Reeta Chakrabarti getting a huge increase in the region of £55,000 to up to £274,999.
Balls pay deal had been the focus of anger from licence fee payers - in 2020, it was revealed that she was earning £1.36million, and the resulting outcry led her to take a voluntary £380,000 pay cut.
The BBC said at the time that she felt it was inappropriate to earn so much in the middle of the pandemic.
Her exit from the Radio 2 breakfast show is now being seen as an opportunity to reset BBC salaries.
An insider said: The reality is that the market has changed, and the BBC has changed, and that will be reflected in the deals we do.
Sources say that BBC bosses have recently become determined that the days of high six- and even seven-figure presenter salaries at the BBC should come to an end.
So when £950,000-a-year Zoe - currently their best paid radio star - floated that she was thinking of moving on, they made minimal efforts to persuade her to stay.
In the latest BBC pay rankings BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty was joint ninth, after her annual earnings from the corporation went up slightly to £349,999
That position in the pay scale was shared by the BBCs former political editor Nick Robinson who is now one of the main presenters of Radio 4s Today programme
BBC News presenter Reeta Chakrabarti was given an increase in the region of £55,000 to up to £274,999, according to the latest annual figures
Currently Mills, 51, who has hosted a number of different slots on the network and regularly stood in for his pal this year while she was off on compassionate leave, earns a comparably modest £315,000 each year.
A BBC source told MailOnline: Scott will get a bump in his salary for taking on the breakfast gig, thats the flagship role and its very demanding so he deserves it – but it wont take him anywhere close to the money Zoe has been getting.
The truth is, even though she is very well liked by the management and a real BBC stalwart, any opportunity to save some serious money has to be snatched at these days. This could save something close to half a million quid every year.
Despite having previously taken a pay cut Zoes money had come under renewed scrutiny lately because its right up towards the top of the published salaries list – next to the likes of Gary Lineker who is leaving too.
She would have been the corporations biggest salary if she had outstayed him.
When Scott starts his money will be hundreds of thousands of pounds less per year than Zoes was, so theyre pretty pleased that next time they have to report their presenter pay it will look a lot less excessive.
Despite the high pay for its biggest names, the corporation revealed last month plans to cut a number of shows as part of a savings drive.
This includes long-running interview show HARDtalk, whose presenter Stephen Sackur branded the move depressing news for the BBC.
Scott Mills and Zoe Ball were pictured embracing after leaving Wogan House in central London on Tuesday as the BBC announced he would be replacing her on the Radio 2 breakfast show
Lauren Laverne, soon to return to presenting Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4, was paid up to £399,999 - putting her in sixth place in the pay table and as one of four women in the top ten
The move also means UK radio audiences, including those on Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live, will now get overnight news bulletins from the BBC World Service, while radio station Asian Network will also lose its own bespoke news service.
News bosses are planning to close 185 roles and open 55 new ones, which is a net reduction of 130 posts.
There are expected to be a further 50 posts going in the BBCs separate media operations division, of which 25 are linked to the news cuts. This includes people like camera operators.
The job losses are part of an expected broader 500 roles going across the BBC, announced earlier this year.
In a letter to staff in October, chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, Deborah Turness, said it was a tough day and there had been difficult decisions, adding it had to operate within our budgets.
She said the cuts would help meet the BBCs savings and reinvestment challenge.
Ms Turness revealed proposals to deliver a saving of £24 million in the news division adding this was four per cent of our current budget.
She added that she was sorry to say that post closures are unavoidable.
HARDtalk host Stephen Sackur said the news that the programme had been cancelled was disappointing
The corporation revealed last month it was cutting a number of shows as part of a savings drive, with chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, Deborah Turness (pictured), saying it was a tough day
The National Union of Journalists said it was concerned that important domestic stories will be lost in the overnight radio news bulletins.
It added the UK-based bulletins had been part of BBC radio for over 40 years and were now being scrapped for a minimal saving.
It comes after the BBC director-general Tim Davie announced in March this year the requirement to find a further £200 million in savings.
This is despite the BBC having set out a £500million annual savings and reinvestment plan in May 2022.
A further shake up to the BBCs presenting line up also came earlier this month, when Lineker was axed from Match of the Day.
It followed claims from one insider that the new boss of BBC Sport views the former England footballers salary as excessive and believes his name no longer carries as much weight as it once did.
The former footballer is not close to his new boss Alex Kay-Jelski, who appeared determined to replace him after starting his Head of Sport job in April.
Hes fronted Match of the Day for over 25 years, so the show is due a change, and Kay-Jelski is the man ruthless enough to trigger one, the source said last month.
Alex Kay-Jelski was appointed as the director of BBC Sport in April this year had been determined to replace Lineker
Lineker (pictured in 2023) was open to staying at MOTD and is believed to have offered to take a £350,000-a-year pay cut from his £1.35million salary to stay but was turned down
Theres a feeling within Match of the Day a new era is ready to kick in and Lineker will be the biggest casualty.
Indeed, Lineker was open to staying at MOTD and is believed to have offered to take a £350,000-a-year pay cut from his £1.35million salary to stay but was turned down, according to BBC culture and media editor Katie Razzall.
According to insiders, Kay-Jelski was equally tough in negotiations with Lineker over the renewal of his current contract, which expires at the end of the football season.
It is understood that Kay-Jelski was irritated by Linekers often outspoken comments on his non-BBC podcast that he hosts alongside MOTD colleagues Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, which is produced by his own lucrative company Goalhanger.
