Lineker takes top spot on BBC earnings for eighth year running

Former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has emerged as the BBC’s top paid presenter for the eighth year running, the corporation’s annual report shows.

Lineker earned between £1,350,000 – £1,354,99 in the last financial year, followed by former Radio 2 breakfast host Zoe Ball on £515,000 – £519,999.

Lineker signed off from his final edition of Match of the Day in May after 26 years in the hot seat. He had been due to remain with the BBC to front coverage of the men’s FA Cup and the World Cup, but in the end, left the corporation completely after apologising for reposting a social media post about Zionism that included an illustration considered antisemitic.

The report comes as the BBC confirmed that several members of staff have been dismissed following a review into the corporation’s culture which was published in April.

Samir Shah, chairman of the BBC, acknowledged that over the past year, there had been a “string of revelations” about abuses of power in the workplace.

The comments came following a report on Monday which upheld 45 allegations about TV presenter Gregg Wallace’s behaviour on BBC show MasterChef.

Later on Monday, Wallace’s co-host John Torode said a separate allegation against him of using racist language had also been upheld, as part of the same inquiry.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Torode said the allegation was that he made the remarks in 2018 or 2019 and that he had apologised immediately afterwards.

However, the TV chef said he had “no recollection” of any of it, adding: “I do not believe that it happened.”

He added that the allegation stated that the “person I was speaking with did not believe that it was intended in a malicious way and that I apologised immediately afterwards”.

As usual, the BBC’s annual report does not paint the full picture of what star presenters at the BBC earn.

A huge number are not listed because the corporation does not have to make public the salaries of stars who are paid through its commercial arm BBC Studios or via independent production companies.

Lineker’s salary remained the same as last year’s, while Zoe Ball’s has dropped from the previous year’s £950,000-£954,999, reflecting her departure from the Radio 2 breakfast show to take up a new role fronting Saturday afternoons on the station.

Lineker’s salary is still included in the BBC’s latest annual report as he’s only just left, but next year he will no longer be included.

Zoe Ball hosted her final Radio 2 breakfast show in December after six years in the slot, and earlier this year took up her new Saturday afternoon role.

Elsewhere, director general Tim Davie’s salary has gone up by £20k from last year (£527) to £547k, representing a 3.8% pay rise.

The BBC’s licence fee is set by the culture secretary Lisa Nandy.

This year income generated by the licence fee increased from £3.7 to £3.8bn after inflation.

The report stated there was a drop in the number of households paying for the licence fee, from 23,131,000 in 2024 to 22,772,000 in 2025 – a drop of 359,000.

This represents a decline of 1.56%, compared with last year’s figure of 1.26%.

That number is holding up fairly well, declining less quickly than might be expected given the competition from streaming services.

The report also revealed 50% of UK adults think the BBC is effective at providing news and current affairs that is impartial, an uptick of 5% on last year’s 45% of those surveyed.

A further 63% of UK adults think the BBC is effective at providing news and current affairs is accurate, compared to last year’s 59%.

The number of adults using BBC services weekly last year declined slightly from 75% to 74%, though 70% of under 16s use BBC services including TV, iPlayer, radio and online content on a weekly basis.

Of those platforms, iPlayer is the fastest growing platform for long-form content.

The report also showed that 10 out of 10 of Christmas Day top shows were from the BBC – but that includes King’s speech which is also broadcast on other channels.

The BBC’s annual report comes in the wake of a series of controversies faced by the corporation. As well as Masterchef, they include Glastonbury and the decision to broadcast Bob Vylan’s set.

Earlier this year, a documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, was pulled from iPlayer after it emerged its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

On Monday, a report concluded the documentary breached editorial guidelines on accuracy.

It stated the BBC bears “some responsibility” for “not being sufficiently proactive” in the early stages of the project, and for a “lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions” – although the the party with most responsibility for this failure”.