One of Channel's 4's most senior executives has admitted he is paid too much and said there should be a clearer set of regulations about salaries within public service broadcasters.
Stuart Cosgrove, the Glasgow-based Channel 4 director of nations and regions, today told a debate on public service broadcasting at the Sheffield Doc/Fest that it wasn't right that he was paid more than Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond.
The move follows a row about the size of salaries for executives at the BBC and for stars such as Jonathan Ross, who is on a reported £6m a year.
BBC director general Mark Thompson is paid £816,000 a year while Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan gets £1.2m a year.
While Cosgrove did not disclose his salary - and it is not listed in the Channel 4 annual report - Salmond collects £77,000 a year as first minister of Scotland as well as £60,675 for his role as MP for Banff and Buchan while he is also eligible for £53,091 as MSP for Gordon, although he only collects a third of this which he pays into a charitable trust.
Cosgrove said: "The benchmarking for my salary is higher than it is for the job that I do.
"We need to have a much clearer set of regulations around salaries. I work very, very hard and travel a lot for my job but I do find it hard to rationalise when I am on more money than the first minister of the country I come from.
"I don't think I am massively paid but I think the dynamics have changed."
In the debate, the Guardian's director of digital content Emily Bell said the level of salaries at the BBC was too high.
"It is absolutely the case that if the BBC wishes to continue to be a special place it needs to behave more like a true public body," she said.
"There is no excuse for not having full transparency and some kind of [salary] cap."
She added: "I have no idea why the BBC board gets bonuses. It is just so completely inconsistent with best practice in the public sector."
Meanwhile, Ofcom's partner for content and standards Stewart Purvis – who will help rule on the Sachsgate row - said the number of complaints received over Russel Brand and Jonathan Ross's prank calls to actor Andrew Sachs would not influence the regulator's stance on the issue.
The number of complaints to the BBC now stands at 42,000.
"The interesting thing is I don't think there is any logical relationship in the complaints we receive and the seriousness of any issue," he said.
"The level of fuss is not actually a measure of whether it is a breach of the code or not."
A letter from Ofcom asking the BBC to set out the situation over the calls has now been despatched to the corporation.
