Image copyright
BBC/Getty/PA
Zoe Ball, Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz have all moved up the list
The BBC is to reveal its latest star salaries list, but three women are known to have moved into the top 10.
The top 12 earners were all male last year, but Claudia Winkleman, Zoe Ball and Vanessa Feltz will be in the top 10 this time.
Match of the Day’s Gary Lineker is still at the top of the list, according to BBC media editor Amol Rajan.
The full list of correspondents and presenters earning more than £150,000 will be published at 11:00 BST.
The list is part of the corporation’s annual report and covers the period from April 2018 to March 2019.
Gary Lineker topped last year’s list, with £1.75m
Some male stars, who took a pay cut in the wake of criticism of the BBC over equal pay, have dropped out of the top 10. Jeremy Vine, John Humphrys and Nicky Campbell are among those known to have taken pay cuts.
Others are expected to have dropped as a result of changing shows, such as Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw, who moved from the high-profile breakfast slot to afternoons.
In the past 12 months, Chris Evans – who was second to Lineker on the list last year – has left for Virgin Radio, replaced by Zoe Ball. As a result, his figure will reflect nine months of work on the Radio 2 breakfast show before leaving in December, and not his full annual salary.
Similarly, Zoe Ball’s figure will only cover what she earned for hosting the breakfast show in the first three months of this year, plus her earnings for the Saturday-only Radio 2 show she hosted prior to that.
Simon Mayo and Eddie Mair are among the other stars to have left for commercial radio stations in the course of the year.
Image copyright
Getty Images
Chris Evans left Radio 2 after nine years fronting the breakfast show
Likely risers include Trevor Nelson and Greg James, who have begun new programmes on Radio 2 and Radio 1 respectively.
The corporation’s overall gender pay gap has fallen from 7.6% last year to 6.7% this time, Amol Rajan said.
Woman’s Hour presenter Jane Garvey, who leads a campaign group called BBC Women, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’d like to congratulate the three women who have made it into the top 10.
“That’s 30% of the top 10. Of course it would be nice if it was 50, or maybe even more than that. Who knows, we might reach that state of nirvana at some point in my life.”
She said she had sympathy with the viewers and listeners who felt the salaries were still too high. “Perhaps it would have been better to cut more male salaries rather than to up some female salaries,” she said.
Trevor Nelson and Greg James have started new shows on Radio 2 and Radio 1
But for BBC Women, the focus was on supporting female employees who had launched grievance procedures over unequal pay. “The grievances that are under way at the moment throughout the BBC largely feature, yes, some female presenters. Overwhelmingly, though, they are producers, they are journalists, they are studio managers.”
Lord Hall said the public supported the BBC to give high salaries to “big stars” because they were “talented and entertaining”.
In an article for The Huffington Post, he wrote: “The BBC was rightly criticised for a lack of female representation when we first published details of our highest earning stars two years ago.
“But the reality is that on pay we have come a long way to becoming a fairer organisation since then.”
The list does not cover every star who works for the BBC – actors and some entertainment presenters who work for the corporation’s commercial arm BBC Studios are not included.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.