The BBC is under pressure to cut the salaries of “untouchable” male stars including Chris Evans and Gary Lineker, ahead of a report into the on-screen gender pay gap.
Women at the corporation questioned why the the pair are maintained on such exorbitant salaries – £1.75m for Lineker and at least £2.2 million for Evans.
The BBC claims that it cannot cut the pay of entertainment and sports personalities as it has done for news presenters, because there is too much competition from Netflix, Amazon and BT.
It appears that it is about cutting good salaries in order to be equal then.
Arriving soon on platform 9 3/4 is the insistence that Third World poverty will be solved by lower wages for bankers.
Has anyone taken the time to correlate the various salaries already know with viewing figures?
Obviously it’s not an exact science; people will still watch the Wendyball show even if an accountant from Ely was the anchorman if that was the only channel showing the Wendyball, but it may give an indication of relative worth in a market.
Chris Evans? Lineker I might be able to see, but who in their right mind thinks Chris Evans is worth that?
Amol Rajan, Huw Edwards, John Humphrys, Nick Robinson, Jon Sopel and Jeremy Vine? Who thinks any of these people should be earning six figures? For that matter who are these people? Can anyone put a face to a name? Or at least a face that you don’t automatically want to punch?
If there is a market out there for them, by all means, let them find it. No one at the BBC should be paid more than a mid-five figure sum. That way the BBC could be the hot house that nurtures Britain’s young talent.
Lineker retired from football over twenty years ago; there must be other former players who would love to step into his shoes.
Replacing Evans is actually harder: being mostly on the radio, listeners can’t see how much he has aged.
Remember what happened to Simon Dee when he left the BBC for commercial climes …?
But we’ve been told daily for 50 years that the third world is poor because we exploit them mercilessly to get rich. There’s nothing new in that.
Women at the corporation questioned why the the pair are maintained on such exorbitant salaries – £1.75m for Lineker and at least £2.2 million for Evans.
Not just women at the corporation, trust me.
@Andrew M
I agree 100%, people watch football because they like it, not because of the fill in people. In fact I think it would be worth doing match of the day on BBC2 or BBC4 or online at the same time but with more football and less Lineker and see which one people preferred.
When is Clare Balding’s salary being cut to match the other women at the BBC? Solidarity, collectivism and all that?
In general, the role of the public sector should be to provide what the private sector can’t or won’t provide. The private sector is more than capable of providing sports commentary and light entertainment. So why is the BBC even employing Lineker and Evans?
“The BBC claims that it cannot cut the pay of entertainment and sports personalities as it has done for news presenters, because there is too much competition from Netflix, Amazon and BT.“
I thought that the whole point of the licence fee was so that the BBC didn’t have to grubby itself worrying about commercialisation and could focus on quality or being experimental?
As for the cult of the personality, cut them loose and see how many people follow them as opposed to how many start to watch or listen once they’ve gone. We found out the limit to Evans’ cult status when he went to Top Gear and I’d guess that he won’t be missed much from the radio.
What BiND said. In spades.
On the BBC
Match of the Day regularly attracts 3.5m viewers.
The One Show 3.8m
The 6 O’clock news 4.5m
Countryfile 5.75m
East Enders 6.5m
Mrs Browns Boys 7.5m
Strictly Come Dancing 11m
So Communism at the BBC then. You reap what you sow…
It is quite funny.
Bloke gets paid £1m
Shrieking harridan gets paid £0.25m for doing something similar (or maybe not) and complains.
Bloke’s pay is cut to £0.25m
Everyone happy now?
You have to give the ginger twat some credit, he has managed to continue this trendy whacky funster thing going into his fifties with so much success the BBC can’t do without him.
Who could replace him?…does anyone know of a top whacky funster radio presenter?
I gave up listening to BBC radio back in the 1970’s when Terry Wogan used to wonder who shot JR in Dallas.
Lineker works for BT Sport as well as for the BBC so I can’t see where the competition argument comes in!
How about they let them go. They aren’t supposed to be competing with Netflix.
Lineker was seen as a Pied Piper for the women and children audience. That was some years ago and I suspect the rationale no longer holds. There must be younger models for a fraction of the price, as many males over the age of 45 have found to their cost. Chris Evans will be replaced in the near future by a £150k/yr girl.
“The BBC claims that it cannot cut the pay of entertainment and sports personalities as it has done for news presenters, because there is too much competition from Netflix, Amazon and BT.”
Glad to see they are admitting they have a monopoly on news coverage. Will Murphy demand changes as a result?
Trebles and media plurality all round!
Theo beat me to it.
The BBC doesn’t need to compete. If it needs to exist at all (it doesn’t), it should be to fill a hole in the market where something essential is missing.
Andrew C – “Bloke’s pay is cut to £0.25m Everyone happy now?”
Well I am not entirely unhappy. Partly because I have such a poor moral character I don’t mind people I think are grossly over-paid being brought down a peg. But mainly because it is the opportunity for a wonderful social experiment. Bloke on the BBC thinks he is worth £1.25 million but has his pay cut? Fine. Let’s see how many of them walk. Let’s see how many of them find work outside the sheltered workshop of government “services”.
If they do, all the more power to them. I won’t begrudge them a penny they get at SKY. But I bet few will even try.
Bernie G. – “Lineker was seen as a Pied Piper for the women and children audience. That was some years ago and I suspect the rationale no longer holds. There must be younger models for a fraction of the price”
You would think but I reckon the competition is harder than you think. Rule out all those that are not sufficiently appealling to the female audience. And those that are too thick even for football – which means Beckham is probably out. Rule out all of those with too many criminal convictions especially where women are concerned. And those with a history of saying bad things on Twitter. The sort of things that would upset anyone on the Left or so gross it would unduly upset the wrong people on the Right.
In fact it is a bit of a miracle they found one.
Chris Evans will be replaced in the near future by a £150k/yr girl.
Billy Piper?
A classis cautionary tale of what happens when you put bureaucrats in charge of spending other people money.
If there was a public vote tomorrow amongst licence fee payers, I don’t think anybody would vote to pay lineker or chris Evans that kind of money.
As the BBC is a public institution spending tax payers money all salaries over say 100k should be made public, every year and should require explicit renewal by a committee answering to the public.
How come Lineker is so slim when he;s always eating crisps? The other night I must have seen him down 20 packets. Perhaps he has bulimia.
I read that Lineker is paid £700k pa to advertise Walkers.
And £200k extra NOT to advertise anything else.
Good negotiator or what?
Tim picked a very poor analogy there. The BBC big names produce no identifiable wealth. It doesn’t matter if Chris Evans produces viewing figures of 5 million or 5. Whether he’s employed by the BBC & what he’s paid is purely an arbitrary decision.
Since the BBC’s income is fixed by what’s raised by the TV Tax – not its popularity – reducing what’s paid to one employee does increase what’s available to other employees.. It is a zero sum game.
Amazing how peeps flip-flop about the BBC. Either they bitch how the BBC shouldn’t do this or that/compete with commercial TV. Or they are bitching because the BBC is not relevant/has no viewers.
You can’t have it both ways.
@bloke in spain
yes
@So Much For Subtlety
I don’t what about Graham Le Saux, he could replace Lineker.
Or how about a female footballer, Gary is probably in favour of more women in TV so would be happy.
Saying that no one and more football could be better.
@Bloke In Italy
Wonderful idea.
If salaries can be cut by 25%, that suggests that they have been overpaid for years. Furthermore, ISTM that a very large part of their “value” is that they are the ones “off the telly”. There may well be others who can do the job as well, but don’t earn anything like the money because they do not have the name recognition.
The one that amazes me is Vanessa Feltz, afaik she presents an early morning radio show quite badly, so why does she need the monster pay?
I can’t stand him personally, but Evans is different as a Radio man.
All Lineker does AFAICS is chat about football. I think the commentating is harder.
Incidentally, does anyone else find the BBC’s comparison with Netflix a weird one.
With the exception of the obligatory dagobabble background obligatory in the house, the only TV I watch is Netflix. As far as I’m aware Netflix doesn’t air any material would require a big name anchorman, so doesn’t pay any.
“Chris Evans will be replaced in the near future by a £150k/yr girl.”
And then watch BBC mgmt clutching their pearls when RAJAR releases its next audience figures.
The BBC completely misjudged Top Gear. Chris Evans may be a petrolhead, but TG was never “zany” – it was “blokey”. Chris Evans was completely wrong for TG, but he is right for the breakfast show.
The northern female presenter they wheel out to cover the breakfast show whenever Evans goes on hols is truly appalling. Not quite sure how she manages to combine being boring and setting your teeth on edge but she does.
And on the subject of dagobabble & thoroughly off-topic. Last week’s ES version of X-Factor brought us a monstrously fat woman, draped in spangly curtaining, whose act consisted of her getting her massive tassled tits to revolve at high speed either together or in opposite directions. She also, as a finalé, managed to drop into a splits and, incredibly, get up again without assistance.
I can only say, my jaw dropped in amazement. Dancing dogs had nothing on this.
It would be amusing if Lineker’s salary was slashed, given how he’s such a socialist ‘n all.
A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work!
“Bloke In Italy
A classis cautionary tale of what happens when you put bureaucrats in charge of spending other people money.”
That could be printed at the bottom of just about every spending analysis of anything the government does.
The level of quality the Beeb has descended to is shown by them using “paid” and “earned” interchangably as though they mean the same thing. Time was the National Broadcaster would know the difference.
Nauseating: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1892975/BBC-boss-retires-with-4m-pension.html
Glad I don’t have a need for a TV license.
The one that amazes me is Vanessa Feltz, afaik she presents an early morning radio show quite badly, so why does she need the monster pay?
To keep her in pies?
“Arriving soon on platform 9 3/4 is the insistence that Third World poverty will be solved by lower wages for bankers.”
Read a blog by a Cambridge biology PhD student doing fieldwork in Africa. Staying in local village saw the womenfolk struggling back and forth to the well. Reminded all the peeps back home in the UK to stitch off the tap while brushing your teeth, only shower for 2 mins, don’t flush the loo unless it really needs it and baths are well out… Otherwise, it was suggested, the poor sods in Africa will have to deal with the resulting water shortage by walking even further to reach the next working well.
Hold on here. Cutting Lineker would be AGE DISCRIMINATION!
anon,
With Le Saux you’d get both.
Match of the Day needs a generational cull: Lineker, Shearer, “Wrighty” out, out, out.
For the opiners, I’d like to see people who played more recently and perhaps ex-managers and ex-referees. For the “host” anyone would do. I’m available.
Read a blog by a Cambridge biology PhD student doing fieldwork in Africa. Staying in local village saw the womenfolk struggling back and forth to the well. Reminded all the peeps back home in the UK to stitch off the tap while brushing your teeth, only shower for 2 mins, don’t flush the loo unless it really needs it and baths are well out… Otherwise, it was suggested, the poor sods in Africa will have to deal with the resulting water shortage by walking even further to reach the next working well.
That is from someone who actually possesses a degree and has been accepted into Cambridge to study for a PhD. Incredible.
Two points immediately strike me, who isn’t bright enough to have a degree from Cambridge:
1. The UK’s water system isn’t connected to the part of Africa she is in.
2. The lazy-arsed males might want to carry some water or even, heavens forfend, build a fucking water system involving pipes, water stores, etc. A bit of cultural appropriation from the West, as it were.
It’s 2018, for fucks sake.
Hold on here. Cutting Lineker would be AGE DISCRIMINATION!
I’d settle for them wearing shirts that fit.
Shut the BBC/Channel 4 down in 24 hours flat and then it will never again matter what any of the cunts are–or were- paid.
And a big chunk of the CM propaganda machine is smashed at the same time.
@ Rob
Some of the moderately intelligent charities are raising money to dig wells closer to villages, install plastic non-rusting and less-likely-to-break-pipes, install drinking taps that switch themselves off automatically when not in use, recycle used water ….
But people have to *want* to change.
“But people have to *want* to change.”
And not have soldiers that will take it all.
It does no good to build a power plant when the soldiers are going to take all copper wire from the grid.
@Rob
I was a bit concerned that I’d selectively misquoted her and been a bit unrepresentative so I dredged up her post again and had a re-read:
http://www.libertyruth.com/blog/world-water-day-3-stories-3-thoughts-3-actions
It is indeed never explained why turning off the shower while applying shampoo is going to help anyone in Africa fetch their water easier so the conflation is a bit odd.
Weren’t peeps discussing on the industrial revolution / tax the robots thread, just how much folks would hate it if there was a “robot tax” on washing machines because they threatened female manual labour opportunities?
Well I forgot to add that my well-informed scientist tells us decadent Westerners that we should really hand-wash all our clothes except when necessary…
“install drinking taps that switch themselves off automatically when not in use”
Anyone who has been to Africa will know why fifty years on the same charities want your £3 a month to provide clean water.
Firstly a tap believe it or not requires basic maintenance, that of course never happens so the tap runs all the time and the water runs out, answer, dig another well and install another tap, eventually.
As for automatic taps, please, how long do they think they would remain “automatic”.
Well I forgot to add that my well-informed scientist tells us decadent Westerners that we should really hand-wash all our clothes except when necessary…
The “when necessary…” bit includes taking a big bag of washing round to her mum’s house.
“Shut the BBC/Channel 4 down in 24 hours flat and then it will never again matter what any of the cunts are–or were- paid.”
Yeah, as if that’s ever going to happen, or that even a majority of the electorate would approve of it.
Your angry fantasies are boringly repetitive, Ecksy, as I recall David Thompson pointed out to you on his blog.
For my part, I favour the BBC becoming a subscription service.
@ wiggiatlarge
Ah, too hard for a tourist to grasp the idea. You put a weight on one side so that if you don’t lift it up the tap is closed.
If there is just *one* person in the community who thinks that having a tap is worth a minimal effort, it will be maintained.
“Water Aid” is not 50 years old – before privatisation the old local government-owned water boards did nothing for charity. water Aid was created by the Eeeevil capitalists.
It wouldn’t be easy for the Beeb to go subscription. It would work for all those with Sky boxes assuming the beeb paid Sky the king’s ransom required to hop onto their crypto system. Same for Virgin Cable. For the rest it’s a Beeb set-top box required or a Common Interface module for the TV. Come to think of it, the work I did professionally 20-odd years ago might then actually become useful in the UK.
J77,
“Some of the moderately intelligent charities are raising money to dig wells closer to villages, install plastic non-rusting and less-likely-to-break-pipes, install drinking taps that switch themselves off automatically when not in use, recycle used water ….
But people have to *want* to change.”
Didn’t Blue Peter fall foul of this problem 50 years ago? The reason the village is away from the water supply is mosquitos and girls are sent for the water because they’re the least productive, or so the men believe.
Presumably the charities have solved this problem and provide mosquito protection as part of their work?
Name anyone who wouldn’t watch Match of the Day without superannuated presenters. I’m not even sure if anyone cares about the punditry. Most of them seem to have no more clue than some bloke down the pub.
And as for Evans, there are people on local commercial radio who do the same sort of stuff (and I listen to it, because I hate Evans) and in the case of one presenter, she doesn’t even have her own home. You could offer £100K/annum and you’d have people from local radio queueing around the block for the job.
hal,
“Amazing how peeps flip-flop about the BBC. Either they bitch how the BBC shouldn’t do this or that/compete with commercial TV. Or they are bitching because the BBC is not relevant/has no viewers.”
Other than the parliament channel, disabled broadcasting and the world service, we don’t need the BBC.
The cost of broadcasting video is now so cheap that anyone can enter the market. Make TV on cheap video cameras.
When ITV Digital collapsed the BBC bailed the whole Freeview DTV out on the condition that set top boxes did not have a card slot so it would be very difficult to make the BBC subscription based. Says something about how many people they think would actually pay for it.
I believe the BBC actively lobbied against having all digital tellies come with a subscriber card slot as standard.
So fuck ’em.
ITV digital didn’t work in no small part because the BBCs engineers insisted on a ludicrously high interference margin, and it wasn’t just engineers being overly cautious. This meant they had to wind the transmitter power down and they couldn’t get the coverage they needed to meet their subscriber plans.
Clever merchandising of things like the globally popular Doctor Who, Strictly, etc would be enough to finance the Beeb. Proper marketing of what are now called the BBC Proms would probably suffice to finance its patronage of the performing arts. Proper management of what remains of the back catalogue of programmes could keep it going for years. Maybe we should burn the coffins of the idiots who wiped all those video and sound tapes. The TV tax needs to go
Which is bollocks. Peston earns less at ITV than he did at BBC.
BBC entertainment and sports personalities are group think SJW luvvies. Doubt BT, Amazon etc wouldn’t want them.
.
@Tm W,
An article for you: contact BT, Amazon, Netflix, RT et al saying Liniker, Evans etc are looking for a move from BBC due to the negative press on BBC bias & pay. What would you offer?
Let’s be honest: if you loaded the top fifty highest earners at the BBC into a giant cannon and fired them into the sun, who the fuck would even notice?
Testament is a record company that makes a living from selling records of live concerts in Central Europe that were recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. The BBC should have a similar archive. I just want to say fuck off to Petroc Trelawney
“Yeah, as if that’s ever going to happen, or that even a majority of the electorate would approve of it.”
It won’t happen agreed Theo–but it fucking should. And as to the level of approval such decisive anti-socialist action would enjoy we differ on that score as on so many things.
“Your angry fantasies are boringly repetitive, Ecksy, as I recall David Thompson pointed out to you on his blog.”
I care no more for his opinions than I do for those of a public school fool who still pays for a party that both regards and treats him as a mug. As if same-old, same-old tired “There’s nothing anybody can do ” boo hoo isn’t the full extent of your stunning range of comment. Don’t like my opinions don’t read them. Get used to them tho’ cos they’re staying as long as I do.
Pcar – “Peston earns less at ITV than he did at BBC.”
It is still too much. Frankly if Peston earned more than a half decent bootblack it would be too much.
Bloke in Costa Rica – “Let’s be honest: if you loaded the top fifty highest earners at the BBC into a giant cannon and fired them into the sun, who the fuck would even notice?”
To be honest, the only people on the BBC that most people can probably think of are David Attenborough and Sister Wendy. I bet they paid Sister Wendy nothing at all. While David A probably has top notch agents who make sure he is in the Top Fifty if not the Top Ten. You reckon he gets a share of the money from flogging Life on Earth and whatever around the planet?
Which is fine. DA has earned it the right way. Who would begrudge him? Especially as when he was a Administrator he was responsible for some really out standing TV – Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, The Ascent of Man, Alastair Cooke’s America, putting Rugby League on the TV, that sort of thing. So people probably would notice. The question is why has everything else gone so wrong?
“Let’s be honest: if you loaded the top fifty highest earners at the BBC into a giant cannon and fired them into the sun, who the fuck would even notice?”
Mr Ecks would smile.
“putting Rugby League on the TV”: that happened long before Attenborough ran Beeb 2. I can remember it. In fact they should show some of the ancient stuff so that younger people can see the extraordinary mud baths on which we played in those days – rugby, football, or League. All were played on mud for much of the season. Or maybe “in mud” would be more accurate.
@ BiND
Protection against malaria is, and has been for years, a big thing – mosquito nets and vaccines (provided free by Wellcome aka Glaxo Smith Kline, the largest pharmaceutical company in the UK).
The reason why women collect the water is because the men should be out hunting or tilling the fields.
@Pcar, January 29, 2018 at 10:38 pm
Correction: …BBC entertainment and sports personalities are group think SJW luvvies. Doubt BT, Amazon etc would want them.
I do thank BBC for sending Clarkson, Hammond and May over to The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime. I heard it cost BBC $55M a year.