Relativities

Greg Dyke, Royal Television Society Christmas lecture, on his remuneration at the BBC “When I joined I took the salary I was offered, which happened to be exactly the same as my predecessor and when I left my basic salary was something like half what the current Director General is now receiving".

Greg Dyke joined in January 2000. In his first full year in the job he earned a salary of £341k, rising to £454k with bonus and benefits. The BBC had a declared staff of 24,000. He "resigned" in January 2004. In the previous full year, he earned £464k including bonus and benefits (no bonus was paid for 2003/4 !). The BBC's declared staff was 27,600 in 3/4, apparently dipping to 27,250 in 2004/5 as Mark Thompson arrived (in reality, some 1,700 staff had been transferred to Siemens, but were essentially working full-time for the BBC).

In his first part-year at the BBC, Mark Thompson earned £459k in salary/bonus/benefits. The first full year - 2005/6 - the salary was £609k plus £10k benefits - Mark waived his bonus.

In the most recent accounts - 2008/9, the DG's salary was £664k, bonus waived again, benefits of £6k, "other remuneration" of £164k, making a total of £834k. Total staff declared - 22,874.