BBC broadcaster Stephen Nolan has defended his salary amid proposed cuts at the corporation.
The 52-year-old is currently the seventh highest earner in the corporation with a salary of £405,000 in 2024-25, earning £10,000 more than former BBC Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg. This figure excludes any earnings for programmes made through his own production company, Third Street Studios
Nolan is also the only regional star to make the list of the broadcaster’s top earners. Earlier this month, the BBC announced that they were cutting between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs in an attempt to make £500m in savings due to “significant financial pressures.”
Defending his salary, Stephen Nolan told Belfast Live: “I get a lot of flak for many different things, because of what the Nolan Show is. It’s a magnet for people to say it as it really is, right, every single day, and long may that continue.
“I can tell you now, true bill, but the thing that I get the least hassle, stroke conversation about is my salary, and that’s the truth out in the street, and I think that’s because, I’m not too sure this is the corporate BBC, answer that they want, right, but there’s a working class guy from a working class estate in Northern Ireland that’s getting paid really well in the BBC. What’s wrong with that? What do you want it to be?
“So I’m actually very proud of where I came from, and guess what, I like to earn money and I’m trying to be as successful as I can be, and what I usually get is, you know, some punters, yeah, they’re joking with me and they’re they’re winding me up and all that, you know, lend us a few quid and all that kind of stuff, very few people resent it.”
BBC’s top earners 2024-25
1. Gary Lineker (£1.35m)
2. Zoe Ball (£515k)
3. Alan Shearer (£440k)
4. Greg James (£425k)
5. Nick Robinson (£410k)
6. Fiona Bruce (£410k)
7. Stephen Nolan (£405k)
8. Laura Kuenssberg (£395k)
9. Vernon Kay (£390k)
10. Justin Webb (£365k)
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