Britain's biggest entertainers are underpaid

The BBC published the salaries of its top-earning stars for the first time on Wednesday to address concerns that on-air talent at the UK’s public broadcaster was being overpaid. The truth: they’re taking home a lot less than their global counterparts.

Former Top Gear host and radio presenter Chris Evans led the payroll, earning about £2.2 million ($2.9 million) in 2016, the British Broadcasting Corp. said in its annual report Wednesday. Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker and chat-show host Graham Norton took home about £1.75 million and £850,000 respectively.

That’s well above the average salary of £44,000 taken home by stage managers, producers, sound engineers and other employees of the world’s oldest national broadcaster. Yet given the salaries offered to TV talent across the globe, UK taxpayers might count themselves lucky.

Norton hauls in less than one-sixth the pay of US talk-show host Jimmy Fallon, who earned $15 million in 2016 from NBC, according to Forbes. Even in the UK, ITV Plc’s Ant and Dec, hosts of Britain’s Got Talent and I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! earn £5 million per year each, according to The Guardian.

“I completely understand that to lots and lots of people these are very large sums but we are a broadcaster, a global broadcaster, in a very competitive market,” BBC Director General Tony Hall said on the network’s Radio 4 Today programme. “We have to be competitive, but not foolishly.”

NBC news anchor Lester Holt earned an estimated $4 million per year as of 2015, dwarfing the annual salary of the BBC’s top newscaster Huw Edwards, who earns between £550,000 and £599,000.

Across Europe, the comparisons are similar. In France, Vivendi SA-owned Canal+ retains TV presenter and comedian Cyril Hanouna on a $50 million ($58 million) per year deal, well above the £350,000 to £400,000 earned by newsreader and Antiques Roadshow BBC star Fiona Bruce. Italy’s state broadcaster RAI reportedly pays host Fabio Fazio about $12 million per year, beating the £200,000 to £250,000 earned by Dan Walker, who presents the BBC’s morning news programme.

Germany’s Guenther Jauch, who moderates quiz shows including the German version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for RTL Group, will make about $5 million this year.