Are Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen worth £1million+?

[Gromit]

BBC salaries for its highest paid entertainers are in the news again. There are said to be 15 personalities earning in excess of £500,000 a year. Many I personally do not like but understand their worth and can see they get the viewers/listeners to justify the fee. Graham Norton and Chris evans fall into this category.

But I fail to see the worth of Lineker and Hansen. Lineker is so bland and Hansen is an absurd idiot. MotD would be so much better without the pair. It just adds insult to injury that they are paid huge amounts of money as well.

http://www.telegraph....-austerity-drive.html

The BBC think it is worth paying these 'stars'. Are they right?

[ladybirder]

ADVERT FREE? You must be joking, they're always advertising their own stuff on BBC3 and 4 which lots of people don't have.

[emmie]

its not advert free, the BBC insists on covering their own programmes over and over, also Andrew LLoyd Webber has used the BBC for his own shows, by putting on these so called talent programmes, that is not money well spent.

[Bazile]

I thought I was the only one that thought that Alan Hansen and most other football pundits are a waste of time ( and my opinion was despite me realising how much they are paid )

They usually come out with the obvious statements like for example -

- He picks up the ball from the halfway line and runs forward towards the goal and gets tackled by xxx - when xxxx was free on the left hand and calling for the ball.

What's expert about obvious statements like that ?

One of the very few type of pundits who I consider are are essential are snooker commentators , who 99.9 % of the time are correct in what they say the player should do next in play , because that is exactly the shot that then occurs .

In general I think that the BBC wastes a lot of money on paying for people who are not needed ,( especially in news ) and could operate an equally efficient service with less people.

[emmie]

They have set up operations in Salford which no one seems to like, costing millions, having to shunt people back and forward, incurring ever more costs. Then they rope in some MP who isn't going to be able to schlep halfway up the country to give his opinion on some Parliamentary matter, so instead of a live broadcast, with the said MP in the studio, it has to be a live feed. Many of the newsreaders didn't want to go, and can you blame them.

[Messi_Ten]

I wouldn't move up north, it's grim!

[ladybirder]

North Yorkshire is the most beautiful place on earth. FACT.

[sp1814]

ladybirder/em10

Technically, those aren't advert, but trailers - and I think most people would agree that they are a good thing (there would be nothing more irritating than missing the first episode of your favourite show because the BBC hadn't trailed it beforehand).

[emmie]

sorry to disagree, but they are on so often, they are an irritant. As to much of what's on, anything new is repeated shortly after, and then after that and after that.

[craft1948]

North Yorkshire is indeed very beautiful..............Salford is not.

[emmie]

it's no so much they moved to Salford, it's that they moved at all.

[ludwig]

No. they're not worth that money - and I quite like them both, but it's a ridiculous amount. They must have bloody good agents.

Other people could do just as well for alot less. Carol Vorderman wanted a silly amount to put letters on a board for Countdown.
Someone else is now doing it just as well for alot less.

[TTG]

Just show the footie for goodness sake! I always 'fast forward' past the pundit talk.

[jno]

if Ant and Dec can get £5 million each then Lineker's pay looks like chicken feed. Whether any of them is "worth" it is another question; you could only answer it if you knew what someone else would pay. Would the BBC pay A&D £5 million? No. Would ITV pay Lineker £1 million? Very likely.

[ludwig]

// Would ITV pay Lineker £1 million? Very likely. //

I doubt it. If they would, that's where he'd be working.

[JimmyCooper]

SP - http://www.guardian.c...onathan-ross-itv-deal

http://www.dailymail....handed-mere-1-5m.html

Dont know how you think he is on the same money at ITV

With regards to MOTD, you dont even need alleged expert analysis you just need to show the football. The same with SKY and the amount they used pay Keyes and Gray. people watch for the football not the pundits so yes a complete waste of money