BBC bosses pocketed bumper pay rises last year at a time when thousands of workers faced redundancy, the corporation's annual report revealed today.
Director-general Mark Thompson saw his pay packet rise by £160,000 from £459,000 to £619,000 although his salary for the previous year was not for a full year. His fellow executives also enjoyed significant pay rises.
Thompson waived his right to receive a bonus, although his colleagues did not.
Director of television Jana Bennett was paid £353,000 inclusive of benefits and bonus. Her basic pay rose from £255,000 to £321,000.
Jenny Abramsky, director of radio and music, saw her basic pay rise from £233,000 to £295,000 - taking her total wage to £322,000 with benefits and bonus.
The increases come at a time when the corporation is cutting costs and axing jobs. Some 1,132 posts have already been closed, with more than 2,000 to go next year.
The BBC said the pay hikes were part of a two-year process to bring executives' base pay up to the market median.
BBC chairman Michael Grade said: 'the governors believe the BBC's executive pay policy now properly reflects our combined duty to licence fee payers and our responsibility'.
Meanwhile BBC TV is facing a loss of younger viewers in 'disproportionately large numbers', the annual report revealed.
BBC director general Mark Thompson said shows such as EastEnders, Life On Mars, Doctor Who and The Apprentice were attracting younger audiences, but he said the BBC needed to think 'creatively'.
He said: 'we have still got overall reach (TV and radio) heading to 90% of the entire population. That suggests that our ability to reach all audiences in this world of change is astonishingly high'.
Despite the fact that rising numbers are watching BBC2 and BBC3, they have not made up for BBC TV's overall losses.
BBC1 lost nearly one million viewers, while BBC2 went from 34 million to 33 million viewers this year.
The corporation says it expects to make changes to BBC1's early evening schedule.
