Overview
- The BBC’s annual report published July 14 names Scott Mills as the highest-paid on-air presenter for the year to March 2026, with pay recorded in the £745,000–£749,999 band.
- The corporation terminated Mills’s contracts in March after receiving new information linked to a historic Metropolitan Police inquiry into alleged offences from 1997–2000, a file that prosecutors had closed in 2019 for insufficient evidence.
- Mills’s on-report salary more than doubled from the prior year after he took over the Radio 2 breakfast show in January 2025, and his dismissal left Sara Cox as the interim breakfast host.
- The published pay list covers only staff paid directly from licence-fee revenue and excludes those paid via BBC Studios or independent producers, while total on-air talent costs rose slightly to about £14.2m for the year to March 2026.
- The report renews public debate over value for money, transparency and the BBC’s funding model as executives highlight reductions in very high‑paid contracts even as the organisation faces trust and governance challenges.