BBC Stars Salaries Not To Be Published

The BBC are currently rejecting calls to publish the individual salaries of top stars claiming that it is not regarded as a priority in the eyes of the licence-fee payers.

BBC Managers are resisting pressure from the Conservatives to make public the amounts paid to personalities such as Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton and Jeremy Paxman.

As part of their own research, the BBC have revealed that licence-fee payers do not regard the multimillion-pound deals as concern, despite public criticism when Ross was offered £5.6m-a-year in his last agreement back in 2006.

Only 6% of the viewers surveyed cited executive pay as a problem. "Repeats are the number one issue even though we have fewer now than for some time," a spokesperson commented. Other reasons mentioned were "quality of content, impartiality, swearing and profanity".

Along with details of expense claims, the exact salaries paid to more than 100 of its most senior executives were recently released. It was revealed that 46 of them earn more than the £192,250 paid to the Prime Minister. Tory leader, David Cameron, has repeatedly called for the BBC to ensure that nobody at the corporation is paid more than the Prime Minister and to make executive pay public.

Earlier this year, Ed Vaizey, Shadow Broadcasting Minister commented: "The BBC is publicly funded by licence-fee payers and they have a right to know how that money is being spent. The public is allowed to know what politicians are being paid and should be allowed to know how much senior talent and executives are paid."

A spokesperson added that the BBC is to publish an overall figure in the new year, showing how much the corporation spends on talent. This will allow the licence-fee payer to track the amount presenters and actors receive annually, a total of more than £70m a year. The publication will be part of the BBC's quarterly release of the salaries and expenses of its top 100 executives.

(BMcN/KMcA)