SCANDAL-HIT BBC boss Tim Davie has been given a sizeable pay rise to earn £544,999 a year.
The broadcaster’s annual report shows the Director-General’s pay packet swelled by around £15,000 or 2.5% over the past 12 months – despite controversies including those involving Gregg Wallace, Bob Vylan and a Hamas documentary.

Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, has seen his pay rise despite controversies[/caption]
Punk Duo Bob Vylan during the controversial Glastonbury set on Saturday[/caption]
Gregg said he was ‘deeply sorry for any distress caused’[/caption]
The Beeb is required to publish the pay and expenses for all senior leaders earning over £178,000 annually “in the BBC’s public services”, according to its report.
Davie – who took up his current role in 2020 – was paid an estimated £529,999 in salary and taxable benefits in 2023-24.
Key points in the BBC Annual Report
- Gary Lineker has topped the list of highest earners for another year
- He was followed by Zoe Ball, who remains second best-paid at the Beeb despite her dramatic pay cut
- More than two thirds of the broadcaster’s top 20 earners received pay rises
- BBC Breakfast star Naga Munchetty received a boost to her pay, but co-host Charlie Stayt’s salary stayed the same
- Disgraced presenter Huw Edwards did not feature on the list after his exit from the broadcaster
- Meanwhile the number of people paying for a TV licence fell by around 300,000 last year – almost two per cent in all
Asked by The Sun why Davie had received a £15,000 bonus despite significant failures throughout the year, BBC’s chair of the board Dr Samir Shah said: “His pay has been frozen since 2021 and I think that it is reasonable as we direct anybody’s pay when you compare it to peers in the media.
“There is little doubt that Tim’s pay is significantly under the [going rate].
“If you look at the figures, trust levels have gone up – if you look at the report, the actual performance of the BBC has been exceptional.”
He added: “I have no problems with awarding him with what is a very small bonus – which still ends up [with] his salary being significantly lower than any of his peers in the sector.”
The report also features a column by Dr Shah in which he references the “profoundly shocking revelations” involving disgraced News At Ten anchor Huw Edwards.
He announced in October the Beeb’s board had commissioned an independent review into its “workplace culture”.
It came in the wake of Edwards, as well as “several further cases of inappropriate behaviours and abuses of power”, Dr Shah wrote.
In his column, he added: “The first thing to say is that the BBC is a wonderful place to work.
“Our staff are dedicated, hardworking and treat each other with respect.
“However, there are pockets in the organisation where this is not the case. There are still places where powerful individuals – on and off-screen – can abuse that power to make life for their colleagues unbearable.”
It comes after former MasterChef host Wallace launched a scathing attack on the broadcaster and threatened his “next move” yesterday after he was sacked.
The one-time greengrocer turned TV personality, 60, was axed after an investigation upheld 45 out of the 83 allegations made against him.
The bombshell inquiry, carried out by law firm Lewis Silkin for production company Banijay, unveiled a litany of complaints against him.
Most of them involved inappropriate sexual language and humour and a further 10 were made about other people – two of which were substantiated.
Last week BBC bosses were told to “get a grip quicker” after the live stream of punk rap duo Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set was left on air despite controversial comments which some interpreted as antisemitic.
Ofcom boss Dame Melanie Dawes insisted there is a risk the public lose faith in the corporation if coverage isn’t pulled swiftly and investigations are lengthy.
The broadcaster had apologised after the band’s lead singer chanted “death, death” to Israeli defence forces during their festival set last month.
The regulator also stepped to launch a probe into Beeb doc Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which faced backlash when it was revealed the narrator was the son of a Hamas official.
Earlier the BBC admitted to breaching their own editorial guidelines by failing to disclose this to viewers.
An independent probe into the documentary was commissioned by the broadcaster earlier this year.
The broadcaster spent £400,000 of licence payers’ cash making the doc, which was branded a propaganda show for the evil terror group Hamas, The Sun revealed in February.
In a shocking revelation, the main narrator of the heart-tugging, supposedly factual exposé – 13-year-old Abdulla Eliyazour – was the son of senior Hamas official Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri.

Ofcom has now launched an investigation into the BBC documentary[/caption]
Huw Edwards has ignored BBC pleas to return the £200,000 he was paid after his arrest on paedophile charges[/caption]