GARY Lineker has once again been revealed as the BBC’s top paid star for the sixth year in a row.
The former footballer and Match of the Day host raked in £1.35 million last year, while Radio 2’s Zoe Ball came in second place earning £980,000.
England legend Alan Shearer was in third with a salary of £445,000 and news presenter Huw Edwards was in fourth earning £435,000 - a rise of £25,000 after hosting a number of special progammes including the Queen's funeral.
The BBC says a lot of people are missing from the list as the corporation does not have to make public the salaries of stars who are paid through its commercial arm BBC Studios or independent production companies.
Further down the list are Question Time host Fiona Bruce who has a salary of £395,000, Stephen Nolan who earns £400,000 and Radio 1 star Greg James who takes £395,000.
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Ken Bruce (£390,000), Lauren Laverne (£390,0000) and Sophie Raworth (£365,000) have also been named amongst the coporations top earners.
Since 2017 the BBC has been required by the Government to publish the salaries of employees who earn more than £150,000 a year from the licence fee.
This year the BBC has raised the threshold for disclosure to £178,000 – meaning many presenters and executives no longer have their pay publicly disclosed.
Four women are in the top 10 of the list - an improvement on last year.
The report also stated how the corporation's income from the licence fee was down from £3.8 billion to £3.74bn, which the BBC said was due to flat licence fee pricing and a decline in paid-for TV licences.
This year's annual report has been published amid turmoil for the BBC after an unnamed male presenter was alleged to have paid a teenager for sexually-explicit photos.
Andrew Marr has disappeared from the earnings list entirely as he exited the corportation in December 2021, with Laura Kuenssberg replacing him on his Sunday politics show.
She earned £305,000 from that programme and her appearances on Newscast, TV documentaries and from her work as political editor until May 2022.
The list also covers changes at Radio 2 given Steve Wright was taken off his weekday afternoon programme in September and as such his earnings dropped by nearly £100,000.
He made £360,000 in the financial year, for his last seven months hosting the afternoon programme, as well as his continued presenting of Sunday Love Songs and other occasional programmes for the network.
Wright was replaced by Scott Mills, who earned £300,000 from the BBC last year, a drop of £100,000 from the previous year.
Ken Bruce left his mid-morning programme in March but as he stayed with the BBC virtually until the end of the accounting period, his salary for last year was steady.
It is almost certain he will be replaced by Vernon Kay next year in the list.
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Others who have dropped out of the list include Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, who left the BBC at the end of the previous financial year.
There are some new entries in the shape of Rick Edwards, who earned £178,000 after replacing Nicky Campbell on Radio 5 Live's breakfast show, while Victoria Derbyshire has been given a raise of £50,000, bringing her salary to £295,000 as she took on presenting Newsnight.
The list is not a complete picture of what top talent at the BBC earn because so many are paid by production companies. so the list is missing the likes of Michael McIntyre, Tess Daly, Paddy McGuinness and Alex Jones.
Quiz show hosts Richard Osman, Sandi Toksvig, Victoria Coren-Mitchell, Romesh Ranganathan and Alexander Armstrong are also not in the list.
Graham Norton and Claudia Winklemen - who have featured high up the list in previous year - are absent because of the way they are paid.
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