The BBC’s Gary Lineker is the highest-paid on-air talent at the network, according to new salary information released this week.
The annual report offers information for on-air hosts and other employees who earn more than £150,000 (around $195,000) per year, with on-air talent earning a collective total of £23.4 million (around $30.2 million) during 2022. The figure is a 15 percent increase compared to the previous year, and the highest cumulative pay since 2017.
Lineker, who hosts “Match of the Day,” earned the most at £1.35 million (about $1.7 million), while BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball was the highest-paid female presenter at £985,000 (about $1.27 million).
Across all on-air talent, the total paid out in 2022 was £139.8 million (around $180.2 million) across a headcount of 24,450, the BBC reported.
The annual report claimed the BBC serves around 90 percent of British adults each week through a variety of platforms, including traditional radio, television, digital broadcast and streaming.
In the United Kingdom, the BBC is primarily funded through a license imposed on television sets in most households, though around 500,000 residents refused to pay the license in 2022, the BBC said. Of the 24 million who did, the BBC brought in around £3.8 billion (around $4.9 billion in revenue).
The BBC’s production arm, BBC Studios, has helped supplement some of the licensing revenue with cash earned from licensing and distribution, which hit £200 million (around $257.8 million) for the first time in 2022.
