Executive jobs and “personality-led” presenting jobs cannot be held to the same standard of equal pay, ITV’s former director of television has said.
Peter Fincham argued that the BBC must be fully committed to equal pay for behind-the-scenes jobs but it is impossible to compare the pay of on-air stars such as Chris Evans and Graham Norton.
Discussing a report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, which found the BBC is failing female employees who suffer under an “invidious culture” of discrimination against women, he said the corporation has resisted transparency.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “One of the BBC’s instincts, which I’m not sure is a good instinct, is to resist transparency.
“I think we live in an age where you could say there is a tension between transparency and disclosure in one direction and confidentiality in another one, and I think we live in an age in which transparency is winning.”
The former BBC One controller added: “The BBC has appeared to look as if it’s only telling as much as it needs to tell, the BBC needs to get in front of the story.
“It’s looking as if it’s behind the story but having said that, I know the BBC well, they will hate this criticism.
“I’m sure they will be trying hard to get into the right place on this whilst acknowledging that this is a difficult issue.
“It’s one thing to say that two people doing the same job behind the scenes, executive producers, there is absolutely no question the BBC like any organisation must be fully committed to equal pay there.
“But when it comes to personality-led jobs like Chris Evans or Graham Norton, they get paid a lot. Can you directly compare them to what somebody else is? It’s just not the same.”
Presenter Ben Shephard interjected: “Claudia Winkleman hosts the biggest show on the BBC on Saturday night (Strictly Come Dancing) – some would argue that’s a show that has a lot more viewers than many of the other shows.”
Fincham replied: “Couldn’t agree more, and she’s fantastic and she should be very well paid for it, but that is also complicated because each of these negotiations has been individual negotiations, as you will know, involving individual agents.”