Scott Mills was highest-paid BBC star before sacking

DJ Scott Mills was the highest-paid presenter at the BBC before he was sacked earlier this year, according to the corporation’s annual report.

The 53-year-old was paid around £745,000 before his exit in March, when it emerged he had been accused of historical sexual offences. Mills co-operated with a police investigation and was not charged.

Other top earners at the BBC included Greg James, Stephen Nolan, Laura Kuenssberg, Vernon Kay and Alan Shearer, but Gary Lineker dropped significantly after leaving two months into the financial year.

The latest annual report also shows the number of TV licences in force went down by 539,000 last year.

In total, the number of TV licences sold has dropped by two million in the past five years – from 25.3 million in 2020-21 to 23.3 million last year.

The annual salaries list is far from a complete picture of what top talent at the BBC earn, as the corporation only publishes the names of stars it pays directly.

A large number of household names, such as Claudia Winkleman, Michael McIntyre and Graham Norton, are missing from the list because they are paid via production companies.

Mills was sacked by the BBC just a few days before the end of the financial year, meaning the £745,000 listed in the report represents almost his full annual BBC earnings.

That includes his tenure hosting the Radio 2 breakfast show as well as other BBC work, including several editions of Scott & Rylan’s Pop: Top 10 podcast.

Sara Cox recently took over as host of Radio 2’s breakfast show, with the BBC yet to announce who will permanently replace her in the teatime slot.

In March, it emerged that Mills had been accused of serious sexual offences involving a teenager under 16 in the late 1990s.

A police investigation was launched in 2016, which Mills said he “fully co-operated” with, before it was closed in 2019 after prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

Mills’s pay in his final year was a significant increase on the £355,000 he earned in the previous financial year, when he hosted Radio 2’s afternoon show for 10 months and the breakfast show for two.

His predecessor Zoe Ball was paid more than £1.36m during her first year presenting the Radio 2 morning show in 2019.

However, Ball’s earnings reduced over the six years she was on breakfast, and she earned just over £950,000 on her final full year in the job.

That means the BBC saved about £200,000 when it replaced Ball with Mills. Ball no longer appears on the list and recently left Radio 2 for Greatest Hits Radio.

For the last six years, Ball and former Match of the Day host Gary Lineker have topped the star salaries list, but both exited their respective shows last year.

Lineker left the BBC last summer after sharing an Instagram reel that featured an antisemitic illustration, for which he apologised. He has gone on to sign new contracts with ITV and Netflix.

His former role on Match of the Day was split when he left and the show is now hosted by three presenters, who are individually paid significantly less than Lineker was.

Mark Chapman was paid around £335,000, Gabby Logan made £290,000, and Kelly Cates earned £215,000 – considerably lower than Lineker’s £1.3m even when combined.

However, all of the new trio’s salaries represent a wide variety of sports presenting work across the BBC, not just Match of the Day.

Laura Kuenssberg‘s pay increased slightly this year, taking in her Sunday morning programme and Weekend Newscast, as well as a weekly column on the BBC News website.

On the Radio 4’s flagship Today programme, Justin Webb is now the highest-paid presenter, earning around £375,000 for hosting that and Americast.

Nick Robinson‘s earnings dropped by about £80,000, in a year that saw the Today podcast, which he co-hosted, come to an end.

As usual, the star salaries list does not provide the complete picture of what top talent at the BBC earn.

Hundreds of big names are not listed because they are paid via production companies, rather than by the BBC directly.

Alex Jones, Romesh Ranganathan, Lord Sugar, Rylan Clark, Bradley Walsh, Paddy McGuinness, Stacey Solomon the Strictly judges and the Dragons’ Den investors are among the stars who don’t have their salaries published.

Meanwhile, some stars who do appear are listed only for some of their BBC work.

Fiona Bruce, for example, made this year’s top 10 after earning £345,000 for Question Time and news bulletins, but not for hosting Antiques Roadshow.

The BBC’s annual report covers a year in which the corporation faced a series of scandals, including Bob Vylan’s offensive Glastonbury set, a racial slur shouted at the Baftas, and controversies over two Gaza documentaries.

President Trump also launched a lawsuit, which the BBC is defending, over the way Panorama edited a speech he made, which led to the resignations of director general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.

BBC chairman Samir Shah acknowledged the rocky period in the report, writing: “We know that people care deeply about these mistakes.

“They affect confidence in our journalism, trust in the BBC as a public institution, and perceptions about how effectively we are held to account.”

Newly appointed director general Matt Brittin said the report “clearly reflects” the challenges the BBC faces, and also acknowledged recent mistakes.

“In an increasingly fragmented and contested world, trust in institutions and news organisations is under strain,” he said. “The BBC is no exception – not helped by significant, high-profile editorial failings in the past year.

“It is vital that the BBC puts its hand up and apologises when it makes mistakes and is always fully accountable, transparent in its response and open to rigorous scrutiny.”

The BBC’s services are used by 81% of UK adults every week and 94% every month, and it is the country’s most used media brand, according to the annual report.

However, Brittin said the broadcaster faces a “moment of real jeopardy” in a changing media landscape.

The BBC has traditionally been funded by the TV licence, but that model “ties us to the past”, Brittin said.

The government is considering a variety of funding options for the BBC that could take over from the current licence fee model at the end of the current charter in December 2027.

Speaking on Monday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the funding issue was an “existential threat” to the BBC, adding that the government was looking at a “range of options” but there were “no easy solutions”.

Meanwhile, the annual report also showed that formal bullying and sexual harassment complaints made by BBC staff increased last year.

There were 53 formal cases of bullying and harassment, and three of sexual harassment, in 2025/26.

The previous year, the number of bullying and harassment grievances was 45, with one further case of sexual harassment.

The BBC noted that the increase in grievances was a trend it “expected” following the publication in April 2025 of a review into its workplace culture, which included a call for staff to report bad behaviour.