Clive Myrie tops BBC pay league for outdoor talking gigs
Clive Myrie has earned more money from outside speaking events than any other BBC journalist, pocketing at least £66,000 in a year, new figures suggest.
Myrie, who already earns about £310,000 a year from the corporation, made the extra income from 11 events, according to a new report.
The news host, who also co-hosted the recent BBC1 election night coverage, took part in three events that paid ‘over £10k’, worth a minimum of £30,000. The real figure could be much higher.
Myrie, 60, also made another seven appearances that each earned him between £5,000 and £10,000.
The figures, revealed by industry publication Press Gazette, cover the year between the start of July 2023 and the end of June 2024.
Presenter Myrie Edwards at the Bafta Awards in May 2024. He made £66,000 in a year from external speaking events
Just behind Myrie on the list of top earners from outside work, were Today presenters Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, who according to the report both earned £45,000 from this type of work in the 12-month period.
They were in joint first place for the highest number of £10,000 plus events that they took part in, both doing four each in the year.
Myrie is the top earner based on the minimum amount people received for their speaking. The highest pay bracket the BBC lists events for is for ‘over £10k’ meaning that an upper limit is not possible to work out.
The three top-paid gigs for Myrie were paid for by the Black Police Officers Association, the British Insurance Brokers Association, as well as Legal and General, the financial services company. He acted as an events host for two latter gigs.
Among the ‘over £10k’ gigs by Rajan, was an event for a pensions’ association and for Woman & Home, while Robinson’s fees included money from accountancy firm Ernst & Young and bank BNP Paribas.
Other BBC news stars to receive a fee of £10,000 or more for an individual outside speaking events were Fiona Bruce, Katya Adler, Jeremy Bowen, Ros Atkins and Zoe Kleinman.
Antiques Roadshow host, Bruce took lucrative payments from the European Contact Centre & Customer Service Awards and Waverton, an investment company.
According to the research, the corporation’s on air journalists received at least £685,000 collectively to take part in 465 external engagements in the year.
Amol Rajan pocketed £45,000 from public speaking events between the start of July 2023 and the end of June 2024
BBC Radio 4’s Nick Robinson made £45,000 from speaking at outside events
While she did not receive any payments in the top price tier, Front row presenter Samira Ahmed took part in 19 outside speaking engagements.
According to Press Gazette this means her income from these ranges between £42,500 and £110,000, potentially putting her near the top of the list.
BBC news correspondent Mark Simpson was found to have done the largest amount of events, carrying out 21 gigs, earning between a minimum of £3,000 and a maximum of £28,000 in total.
The research showed that 17 BBC journalists earned at least £10,000 from this work across the 12-month period.
According to the publication another Today presenter Justin Webb earned a minimum of £41,250 from these events, Naga Munchetty at least £36,000, with Bruce earning £25,000, while Jeremy Bowen earned £20,000.
Research carried out by the Mail earlier this year, showed that Myrie, along with Munchetty and Huw Edwards had racked up six figure incomes in the first three years since the BBC introduced the external events register in 2021.
In these earlier figures, BBC Breakfast presenter Munchetty was shown to have pocketed in excess of £155,000 from external events, on top of her six-figure salary at the corporation.
BBC news presenter Clive Myrie had earned more than £130,000 from this external work in those first three years, since the BBC started publishing the payments in 2021.
Huw Edwards, who this week was sentenced for accessing indecent images of children, had previously been among the top outside earners, until he was suspended in July last year.
Huw Edwards arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court on September 16
The former BBC broadcaster was sentenced for accessing indecent images of children. He had previously been among the top outside earners, until he was suspended in July last year
He previously made at least £125,000 from events published on the list, since 2021.
BBC stars earn this money working as either hosts, speakers, interviewers, moderators, panellists or event chairmen for external companies and organisations.
The corporation introduced the external events register in 2021 in a bid to strengthen impartiality at the corporation.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We publish the external paid-for work of on-air journalists for transparency and every event is approved by a senior manager in line with our editorial guidelines.’
