Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 14

Scott Mills Topped BBC Pay at £745,000 Before Sacking Over Historical Sex Allegations

Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 14

Scott Mills Topped BBC Pay at £745,000 Before Sacking Over Historical Sex Allegations

Q: While one star sues for his career's end, another's is worth £100m. Who really needs the BBC more?

Scott Mills needs the BBC more. The contrast is stark. Mills’ career was built largely inside the BBC over nearly three decades, and his dismissal from Radio 2 appears to have triggered wider professional fallout: lost presenting work, cancelled appearances and charity roles, and a planned unfair-dismissal claim. Even though the earlier police investigation ended with no charges, the BBC’s decision appears to have had direct consequences for his earning power, public standing and route back into mainstream broadcasting. Gary Lineker, by contrast, has shown he can thrive without the corporation. After leaving the BBC, his media company Goalhanger expanded rapidly, reporting £37.9 million in sales in 2025 and securing a reported £14 million Netflix deal tied to World Cup podcast coverage. An investor’s stake sale valued the business at more than £100 million. That gives Lineker a large commercial platform independent of any BBC contract. The BBC’s own salary data underlines the difference. Mills was the corporation’s top-paid presenter in the year to March 2025 on about £745,000, a sum heavily tied to BBC work. Lineker had previously earned around £1.3 million from the BBC, but his post-BBC trajectory suggests the broadcaster was no longer central to his financial future. So the answer is not really close. Mills appears to need the BBC as employer, platform and reputational anchor. Lineker may still benefit from the BBC’s reach, but he no longer depends on it.

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 14

£745,000 made Scott Mills the BBC’s highest-paid on-air presenter in 2025-26, with the annual report showing he received almost a full year’s salary before being sacked in March.
March brought his exit after allegations surfaced of serious historical sexual offences involving a teenager under 16; Mills said he fully co-operated with a police investigation that ended in 2019 without charges.
Greg James ranked second on about £440,000, while Stephen Nolan, Laura Kuenssberg, Vernon Kay and Alan Shearer followed; Gary Lineker’s pay fell sharply after leaving early in the financial year.
23.3 million TV licences were in force at year-end, down 539,000, as the report also underscored that many major BBC stars are excluded from the published pay list because they are paid via production companies.