Broadcaster Stephen Nolan remains among the BBC highest paid presenters with earnings in the past year of between £405,000 and £409,999.
The TV and radio host’s total pay packet ranks joint fifth among colleagues, of which Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker is the highest paid at between £1,350,000 and £1,354,999..
Mr Nolan’s salary, which is unchanged from the previous year, is disclosed in the BBC’s annual report. However, the figure does not include earnings from his production company, which makes a number of television programmes for the broadcaster’s regional BBC NI arm, including Nolan Live.
His disclosed salary is for two radio shows – Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show and Radio 5 Live’s Stephen Nolan Show – and aforementioned Nolan Live on BBC 1 NI.
The report reveals that BBC Northern Ireland’s overall reach dropped by two percentage points last year to 84% of all adults in the region.
The Irish News asked the BBC to provide viewing and listenership figures for the programmes Mr Nolan is involved in but it declined.
In a statement it said: “Stephen Nolan’s salary reflects his work for BBC Radio 5 Live, his weekday programme on BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle, Nolan Live on BBC television and iPlayer, and the considerable audiences that engage consistently with those programmes.
“His published earnings can vary, depending on the extent of work undertaken for the BBC and when payments are made.”
In February, it emerged that Mr Nolan’s morning radio programme was no longer ‘the biggest show in the country’.
Official figures confirmed that Cool FM had surpassed BBC Radio Ulster in the number of listeners during The Nolan Show slot on weekday mornings.
RAJAR, the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK, found that, on average, from 9am to 10.30am, Cool FM featuring presenters Paolo Ross, Rebecca McKinney and Pete Snodden reach 286,000 adults compared to BBC Radio Ulster’s 272,000.
DUP East Derry MP Gregory Campbell said it was important that the BBC was transparent in how its funds were spent.
“We have had a partial victory for now that salaries above £178k are published but the payments to companies owned or partially owned by BBC employees or talent are kept secret,” he said.
“This must change. It is not sustainable. The director general of the BBC has repeatedly stated he is committed to full transparency, this has to be the next step and until undertaken there will continue to be justifiable criticism.”
