BBC stars warned to expect pay cuts in bid to cut budget

Some of the BBC's star presenters will be told they face pay cuts as part of the corporation's plans to plug a £2billion budget shortfall.

Director-General Mark Thompson has invited more than 100 of the corporation's highest earners to a meeting next week.

He is expected to warn them that less money will be available for salaries in future.

Mr Thompson has been forced into the tough cost-cutting measures after the BBC was given a lower than expected licence fee settlement.

As many as 2,800 jobs could go.

The effect of the cuts is likely to be widespread, with flagship programmes such as Planet Earth and BBC News bearing the brunt. Viewers will also be subjected to more repeats.

Among those likely to be asked to attend the meeting is Jonathan Ross, whose £18million deal makes him the highest-paid presenter in British TV history.

Other top earners include Graham Norton, who has a £5million two-year deal, and Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who each earn £3million from a three-year deal.

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Jeremy Paxman, who earns about £1million a year, could also be there.

But insiders have suggested that many of the immediate savings will be made from the salaries of presenters such as Vernon Kay, Tess Daly and Bruce Forsyth, who either do occasional projects for the BBC or a single series a year.

The talent meeting will be extremely sensitive as Mr Thompson will be keen not to alienate leading stars. Some key faces are not expected to attend.

The corporation's new chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, revealed earlier this year that the BBC Trust would be launching an internal investigation into whether it was inflating salaries.

Last year leading talent agent Anita Land said that paying Ross £18million over three years was an indefensible use of licence fee money.

She said: "Frankly I don't think Jonathan does deserve it – nobody in his position could deserve it. I am amazed the BBC managed to get away with it without landing more flak."

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Commercial rivals have long argued that they cannot compete with the financial firepower of the publicly-funded BBC.

They will now look to take advantage of its new position of weakness and try to lure top performers over to their networks.

Only last week it was revealed that newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky had quit the BBC to become the face of Channel 5 in a three-year deal which tripled her wages.

Meanwhile the BBC is accused of making unfounded allegations of corruption against police officers in a Panorama documentary about the Stephen Lawrence murder.

The police watchdog has found no evidence to substantiate claims in the programme, called The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence, that a detective took a bribe to shield those responsible for the death of 18-year-old Stephen in Eltham, South-East London, in 1993.

In the programme, BBC reporter Mark Daly claimed a "bent copper" was paid to stall the inquiry by the father of one of the five prime suspects. But the Independent Police Complaints Commission report, published this weekend, concludes this allegation is false.

The findings by the IPCC throw the spotlight once again on editorial and production standards at the BBC.

The report comes a week after BBC1 controller Peter Fincham had to resign after a programme trailer wrongly implied the Queen had stormed out of a photo shoot.