Top Gear’s Clarkson leads the way with £3m as BBC throws light on big earners

The annual report and accounts of BBC Worldwide – the corporation’s commercial arm – show it got a dividend of £4.5m in 2012 from a company called Bedder 6.

The company, which is registered at the west London base of BBC Worldwide, was set up by Clarkson and Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman.

The BBC owns 50 per cent with Clarkson reported to own around 30 per cent – which would mean his dividend would be around £2.7m. That figure, combined with his BBC salary, would push him over the £3m a year mark, making him the corporation’s top earner.

The BBC’s accounts paid more than £16m to top talent in 2011/12, although the sum is down from more than £21m the year before. The BBC does not disclose individual salaries despite calls for it to do so, but instead details the number of individuals in separate bands of £500,000 to £750,000, £750,000 to £1m and from £1m to £5m. Accounts published yesterday showed 16 top earners shared about £16.4m in 2011/12.

Among the names widely reported to earn more than £1m a year is Match of the Day host Gary Lineker. In 2010/11, 19 people filled the top three bands pulling in pay of more than £21m. Stars reported to have taken pay cuts include Graham Norton and Jeremy Paxman.

The BBC also announced it will review the way hundreds of TV and radio presenters are paid after hearing claims at least one was “bullied” into staying off the payroll and told it would help him dodge the taxman. The corporation insisted it only employed 148 public faces through personal service companies as it was the industry norm and not to avoid paying tax. But chief financial officer Zarin Patel told the Commons public accounts committee that public concern over the use of such arrangements meant it would look again at whether it was acceptable for the licence fee-funded broadcaster.

It also emerged the BBC has sold Television Centre, where shows including Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Doctor Who were recorded, for about £200m to property developers Stanhope Plc. The site in White City, west London, will be empty by 2015 after staff have moved to MediaCity in Salford and the new Broadcasting House in central London.