BBC wage bill trimmed by loss of Chiles, Bleakley and Ross

Corporation pays 19 stars more than £500,000 but defections of big names to ITV cuts talent costs by £9m The departure of big-earning stars Adrian Chiles , Christine Bleakley and Jonathan Ross to rival ITV helped the BBC cut its talent pay by £9m last year. Chiles and Bleakley’s high-profile defection from The One Show to ITV’s beleaguered new morning programme Daybreak in 2010 and Ross’s move to front a new ITV chatshow contributed to the reduced wage bill. For the first time, and after pressure from politicians, the BBC has published a detailed breakdown of how much it pays its key presenters in its 2010-11 annual report, published on Tuesday. In the year to the end of March, the BBC paid out £213m in talent costs, compared with £222m in the previous 12 months. For confidentiality reasons it does not name individuals but groups them into eight different bands of pay. The annual report reveals that 19 stars earned between £500,000 and £5m in 2010-11 – down from 21 the year before. Ross was previously the BBC’s highest-paid star, but ended his exclusive deal with the corporation last July, while Chiles left in April after losing out to Chris Evans to present The One Show on Fridays. He was followed by Bleakley in June after the BBC refused to become what its creative director Alan Yentob called a “patsy” in her negotiations with ITV . The corporation also admitted that the big fall in talent pay may be difficult to repeat next year, saying: “A resurgent commercial market has … seen the departure of several high-profile individuals to other broadcasters, making further reductions challenging.” The BBC also revealed that 274 presenters earned more than £100,000 during the past financial year, up from 270. It has aggregated the top three pay bands, those covering £500,000 to £749,000, £750,000 to £999,000, and £1m to £4.9m. Those top pay brackets collectively received £4m, £3.3m and £14.6m respectively. Those understood to be among the BBC’s biggest earners include Evans, Gary Lineker and Graham Norton. New BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten said the detail in the talent pay tables was “pretty much a non-issue as long as we can demonstrate that figures overall are under control”. Bal Samra, the BBC rights and business affairs director, added that the main reason more people were earning more than £100,000 was an increase in in-house production, as opposed to commissioning independent companies, so that more stars contracted to the corporation were being used. Emma Boon, campaign director of rightwing pressure group the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “The number of people in that six-figure pay bracket has gone up, which is a big disappointment. Licence-fee payers constantly hear the BBC say it wants more money. “The BBC should be congratulated for cutting the overall talent bill, but a large amount of that seems to come from a small amount of departures.” The corporation’s report also showed that overheads rose by £15m in its last financial year, to £421m, because of spending on the controversial relocation of several thousand staff from London to Salford and the redevelopment of Broadcasting House. In addition, the BBC revealed the number of complaints about its programmes grew by 20,000 to 240,000. The bulk were triggered by EastEnders’ controversial cot death baby storyline , a trailer for Graham Norton’s entertainment show Over the Rainbow appearing over the end of Doctor Who , and jokes stereotyping Mexicans on Top Gear . There was also a big fall in the amount of drama shown on BBC channels over the 12 months to March 2011. Drama output was down by 630 hours, mostly due to fewer episodes of US imports Diagnosis Murder and Murder, She Wrote airing during the daytime. Meanwhile, cuts to BBC World Service output resulting from a reduction in its Foreign Office grant are having an impact, with the international broadcaster’s audience down by 14 million, according to the corporation, to 166 million in the year to the end of March. BBC BBC licence fee Television industry Television Tara Conlan guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.