In an effort to increase transparency, the BBC has today published the salaries of its senior managers and their expenses for the period January to March 2014.
The report – published here – shows that many of the 116 senior managers on the list are paid more than £200,000, with Helen Boaden, director of radio, receiving total remuneration of £352,000, James Harding, director of news and current affairs, receiving £340,000 and Danny Cohen, director of TV on £327,800.
Other senior staff on six-figure salaries include Bal Samra, commercial director and managing director taking £322,800, James Purnell, director of strategy and digital, on £295,000 and Ben Stephenson, controller of drama commissioning, on £247,800.
The Corporation’s director general, Tony Hall, is paid £450,000.
The same list shows 12 former staff members, including Lucy Adams, the former HR director and Zai Bennett, former controller of BBC Three.
The news comes as the BBC announced that between August 2013 and August 2014 the number of BBC senior managers has reduced by -5.7% and the pay bill by -5.4%.
Between August 2009 and September 2014 the BBC reduced overall senior manager headcount by 230 from 640 to 410 (-36%) and the senior manager pay bill by £27.4m from £78.5m to £51.1m (-35%).
“Since August 2009 the BBC has reduced senior manager headcount and pay bill by over a third,” a BBC spokesperson said. “We’ll keep driving down costs whilst making sure we have the right people in the right jobs and are giving audiences the best programmes and services.”
In June this year the BBC announced that a further 65 redundancies will be made across its radio division as the Corporation attempts to “preserve the quality of its programming in the face of significant savings challenges.”
The job cuts form part of the BBC’s ‘Delivering Quality First’ programme, which aims to save £800 million per year out of the BBC’s overall public-service income of around £3.6 billion. The 65 job losses, which affect every station, are part of an ongoing plan that will see a reduction of approximately 200 roles – roughly 15% of the division’s headcount – between 2012 and 2017.
In 2012 the BBC Radio division contained around 1,300 people and this is expected to drop to 1,100 by 2017.
