- The BBC employed 18,974 people last year on an average salary of £52,000
- The corporation’s bill for TV talent rose by £14million to reach £208million
- And the wages of the best-paid stars soared by 21% compared to last year
- Director-general Tony Hall vowed to defend the BBC and claimed it will raise £1billion by selling programmes abroad
The BBC has hired more workers and boosted the amount it pays out in salaries despite plans to save money by cutting staff, it emerged today.
The corporation is also spending more money on retaining big names such as Gary Lineker and Graham Norton, with the bill for the highest-paid stars rising by a fifth.
But BBC bosses insisted that the broadcaster should not cut back on its operations – and vowed to raise £1 billion from selling programmes abroad, in order to offset licence fee losses.
Two weeks ago, director-general Tony Hall revealed that the BBC would have to cut 1,000 jobs in order to make £50 million of savings by streamlining the organisation’s management.
However, the corporation’s annual report released today shows that the total workforce has risen from 18,647 to 18,974.
The overall wage bill in the past year was £976.5million, up from £955 million the year before, meaning that the average BBC worker is paid more than £52,000.
Actors, presenters and television personalities were paid a total of £208 million, which is £14 million than the BBC paid out the year before.
Nine of the on-screen ‘talent’ were paid more than £500,000 – but the BBC has repeatedly refused to release the names of the highest earners, claiming it would jeopardise future contract negotiations.
The corporation spend £5.1million on the salaries of those paid more than £1million – up by 21 per cent over a year – with Mr Lineker and Mr Norton believed to be part of that exclusive group.
Lord Hall is paid a total package of £466,000, with the six other executive directors – including former Blair minister James Purnell – all earning more than £300,000.
A spokesman for the BBC said that much of the increase in wages was driven by the incorporation of the World Service into the main corporation budget for the first time.
The director-general today hit back at suggestions that the BBC should scale back its ‘imperial’ ambitions, for example by axing entertainment shows such as The Voice or reducing the size of its website.
‘There is an alternative view that prefers a much-diminished BBC,’ Lord Hall said. ‘It’s a view that is often put forward by people with their own narrow commercial interests or ideological preconceptions.’
He insisted that audiences did not want ‘a significantly smaller BBC’ and the public’s voice ‘will matter most in this debate’, vowing to protect the universal licence fee and maintain independence from politicians.
Lord Hall said: ‘I have real difficulty with the idea of artificial restrictions on creativity – after all, the last time politicians tried to be creative we ended up with the Millennium Dome.
‘So it will be hard to support any proposal that stops us finding the next Strictly, the next Bake Off or – dare I say it – the next Top Gear.’
The BBC announced a five-year plan to generate £1billion from BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, to help cope with a possible squeeze on other sources of funding.
The organisation makes money by selling British shows abroad, with Doctor Who being its biggest hit and Great British Bake Off, Top Gear and The Weakest Link also successful internationally.
Producers in France and China have launched local language versions of Top Gear, while Bake Off has migrated to Turkey and Israel.
Last week it emerged that the BBC had agreed to cover the cost of free TV licence for the over-75s, following a negotiation which Lord Hall described as ‘not a good process’.