Hugh Edwards emerged as the BBC’s highest-paid journalist last year, earning £480,000 despite being suspended for nine months. The annual report reveals that Edwards received a £40,000 pay rise, making him the corporation’s third-highest-paid journalist.
Edwards was suspended in July 2023 over allegations he paid a young man for explicit images, and did not resign until April, citing medical reasons. During this period, he was contracted to present BBC One’s news bulletins for 160 days, including news and election programmes, among other programmes.
Gary Lineker remains the BBC’s highest paid presenter on a fixed salary of £1.35m. He is followed by Radio 2’s Zoe Ball, on slightly less at £950,000. Nick Robinson saw the biggest increase, entering the top 10 of the highest paid thanks to his work on BBC podcasts. His salary jumped from £280,000 to £350,000 after the launch of the Today podcast. The total salary of Today presenters now stands at £1.56m, up from £1.49m the previous year.
All but a handful of presenters received pay rises last year. The BBC is committed to publishing salaries above the £178,000 it earns from licence fee revenue. The new list includes former weather presenter-turned-radio DJ Owen Wyn-Evans, who now earns £200,000. Vernon Kay, who replaced Ken Bruce as Radio 2’s mid-morning presenter, enters the list on £325,000, while Gary Davies joins on £205,000.
Edwards is second only to Greg James, presenter of Radio 1’s Breakfast Show (£420,000) and Fiona Bruce (£410,000), who presents Question Time and the BBC’s news bulletins. Bruce’s full salary, including Antiques Roadshow, is much higher.
Tim Davie, the managing director, defended Edwards’ continued salary. Davie said: “We always try to be wise with the spending of public money and we don’t want to waste a single pound. From the outset we have tried to act proportionately and fairly and deal with this appropriately. I think that’s what we have done.” He confirmed that Edwards’ contract had been agreed before the scandal broke.
Edwards also gave after-dinner lectures and hosted awards evenings such as ours. Business Champion Awards In 2022 and 2023.
The report also revealed that half a million people stopped paying the licence fee last year, causing an £80m drop in income. Despite the number of payers falling from 24.4 million to 23.9 million, Tafazeva, the BBC’s chief operating officer, assured me that the licence fee “still offers excellent value for money”.
Davie highlighted hit shows such as Gladiators, Blue Lights and Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland as examples of the company’s “sustained creative excellence”. He also acknowledged the tough times ahead and announced that 500 jobs would be cut by March 2026 as part of a “simplification” effort.
The report found that the BBC was failing to meet its performance targets for reaching young audiences, with only 71% of 16-34 year olds using the BBC’s services on a weekly basis, below the target of 75%. For under-16s, the figure was 69%, and for over-16s 85%.
The report also revealed an increase in the number of formal cases related to sexual harassment and bullying, rising from 34 to 50. The average time to close a case increased from 69 days to 101 days.