BBC Pay Cuts Have Match Of The Day Host Lineker In Line For Reduction

The total pay of the BBC's handful of on-screen million-pound earners "has dropped by a third" to just short of £10M ($15.6M) in the last financial year, according to Dan Sabbagh of the London GUARDIAN. Broadcasters such as Graham Norton and Jeremy Paxman "are among those understood to be taking pay cuts" during the period. The BBC is expected to reveal on Monday that the amount it pays "top talent," earning £1M ($1.6M) or more, has dropped to £9.7M ($15M) in the year to March '12. A cut to Norton's pay would leave sports broadcaster Gary Lineker as the BBC's "highest earner." The former England striker turned Match of the Day host earns an estimated £2M ($3.1M) a year, but he is "under pressure to cut his pay when his contract comes up" next year after fellow pundit Alan Hansen had a third slashed from his annual salary of £1.5M ($2.3M) in February (GUARDIAN, 7/13).