Clare Balding named Britain's top earning TV host

Updated
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Clare Balding has submitted her company accounts - revealing that she made £1.24 million in profit last year from presenting shows on a number of channels. This makes her the highest-paid female TV host in the country.

The figures were revealed by the Daily Mail, which also highlighted that her income is up £500,000 from a year earlier. It added that the following year's accounts are likely to show she made even more - as she picked up a number of new roles - including presenting BBC2's Wimbledon highlights programme.

Men earn more

The newspaper said this made her the best-paid female host, although it highlighted that her male counterparts are thought to earn more.

In July the BBC revealed details of how much it spent on stars earning more than £1 million. In total it said it spent £5.1 million, on what was thought to be three or four top stars. There was plenty of speculation surrounding the individuals who were earning these sums - from Jeremy Clarkson to Graham Norton - but nobody suggested any women could be part of this elite group.

The Mirror has suggested that Chris Evans is also likely to outstrip Balding in earnings over the next few years - for combining his BBC 2 role with presenting Top Gear.

Earning less
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While all of these stars show there's money to be made from presenting programmes for the BBC, it's a far cry from the heady days of inflated pay - when Watchdog presenter Anne Robinson made £4 million a year.

In the past six years the BBC has reduced the amount it spends on 'top talent' by more than 20% - and slashed the number of presenters on screen or radio by a third. Many of the highest-paid presenters have seen their pay cut dramatically, as the BBC decided not to compete with commercial channels for talent that wanted to earn more elsewhere.

These earnings also pale into insignificance compared to the sums that stars can make in the US, where James Corden is rumoured to be making £1.5 million for his first year presenting The Late Late Show, but his predecessor Craig Ferguson was said to have made £2.5 million. In the States, the biggest names can make jaw-dropping sums, including the £13 million that Jay Leno was said to earn.

But what do you think? Are TV presenters worth millions? Let us know in the comments.

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