Scott Mills was the BBC’s highest-paid star before his sacking
Scott Mills was the BBC’s highest-paid presenter in the latest financial year, receiving around £745,000 before his departure in March.
The 53-year-old was dismissed just days before the end of the financial year, meaning the figure represents almost all of his annual BBC earnings. His pay covered his time presenting the Radio 2 breakfast show, along with other work including several editions of the Scott & Rylan’s Pop: Top 10 podcast.
Mills’s exit came after it emerged that he had been accused of historical sexual offences involving a teenager under 16 in the late 1990s. A police investigation, launched in 2016, was closed in 2019 after prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. Mills said he had fully co-operated with the investigation, and he was not charged.
A sharp rise from the previous year
The salary listed for Mills was a substantial increase on the £355,000 he earned in the previous financial year. During that period, he presented Radio 2’s afternoon show for 10 months and the breakfast programme for two months.
His appointment to breakfast had initially appeared to reduce the BBC’s costs. Zoe Ball received more than £1.36m during her first year presenting the programme in 2019, although her earnings fell over the six years she held the role. She earned just over £950,000 in her final full year, meaning the move to Mills represented a saving of about £200,000 for the corporation.
Ball has since left Radio 2 for Greatest Hits Radio. Sara Cox recently took over the breakfast programme, while the BBC has yet to announce who will permanently replace her in the teatime slot. That unresolved appointment will be one of the next visible tests of Radio 2’s presenter strategy.
What the published figures leave out
The BBC’s annual salary table is not a complete ranking of its best-paid talent. It includes stars paid directly by the corporation, but omits many household names whose fees are paid through independent production companies.
Claudia Winkleman, Michael McIntyre and Graham Norton are among those absent, as are Alex Jones, Romesh Ranganathan, Lord Sugar, Rylan Clark, Bradley Walsh, Paddy McGuinness, Stacey Solomon, the Strictly Come Dancing judges and the investors on Dragons’ Den.
Some figures also cover only part of a presenter’s BBC work. Fiona Bruce, for example, appeared in the top 10 after receiving £345,000 for Question Time and news bulletins, but the figure did not include her work on Antiques Roadshow.
Other prominent names on the published list included Greg James, Stephen Nolan, Laura Kuenssberg, Vernon Kay and Alan Shearer. Kuenssberg’s pay rose slightly, reflecting her Sunday morning programme, Weekend Newscast and a weekly BBC News website column.
Lineker’s exit changed the sports pay structure
For six years, Zoe Ball and Gary Lineker had generally topped the BBC’s star salaries list. Both left their headline roles last year, however, and Lineker’s earnings fell significantly after he departed two months into the financial year.
Lineker left the BBC after sharing an Instagram reel containing an antisemitic illustration, for which he apologised. He later signed new contracts with ITV and Netflix.
His former role on Match of the Day was divided among Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates. Chapman was paid around £335,000, Logan £290,000 and Cates £215,000. Even combined, those figures were considerably below Lineker’s £1.3m. The three salaries nevertheless cover a broad range of BBC sports presenting work, rather than only their appearances on Match of the Day.
On Radio 4’s Today programme, Justin Webb was the highest-paid presenter, earning around £375,000 for presenting the programme and Americast. Nick Robinson’s earnings fell by about £80,000 during a year in which the Today podcast, which he co-hosted, ended.
Pay pressures coincide with a funding crisis
The figures arrive as the BBC confronts a wider financial and institutional challenge. The number of television licences in force fell by 539,000 during the year, taking the five-year decline to two million. Licences fell from 25.3 million in 2020-21 to 23.3 million last year.
Despite that fall, the BBC says its services reach 81% of UK adults each week and 94% each month, making it the country’s most-used media brand. Newly appointed director general Matt Brittin has described the broadcaster as being at a “moment of real jeopardy”, while arguing that the licence-fee system ties the corporation to the past.
The government is considering alternatives to the current funding model before the BBC’s charter ends in December 2027. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has called the issue an “existential threat” and said there are no easy solutions. The next funding settlement will determine how much pressure the corporation faces to contain talent costs while maintaining popular programming.
Accountability remains a parallel concern
The annual report covers a difficult year for the BBC, including controversy over Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set, a racial slur shouted at the Baftas and disputes over two Gaza documentaries. President Trump has also launched a lawsuit, which the BBC is defending, over the editing of a speech for Panorama. The controversy led to the resignations of director general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
BBC chairman Samir Shah acknowledged that such mistakes affect confidence in the corporation’s journalism, public trust and perceptions of accountability. Brittin also said the BBC must apologise when it makes errors, remain transparent and accept rigorous scrutiny.
Workplace complaints increased during the same period. There were 53 formal bullying and harassment cases and three sexual harassment cases in 2025/26, compared with 45 bullying and harassment grievances and one sexual harassment case the previous year. The BBC said it expected grievances to rise after an April 2025 workplace culture review urged staff to report bad behaviour.
The salary table therefore offers only one measure of the BBC’s current reckoning: it shows the cost of its most visible presenters, but not the full value of commissioned talent or the consequences of rebuilding trust while its funding model is under review.