Graham Norton earns over €2k per minute from his chat show

Chat show king, Graham Norton last year landed a bumper 40% pay increase to be paid €5.84m (£5.19m) over a 17-month period.

Graham Norton earns over €2k per minute from his chat show

By Gordon Deegan

Chat show king, Graham Norton last year landed a bumper 40% pay increase to be paid €5.84m (£5.19m) over a 17-month period.

The pay is for presenting So Television’s popular primetime and multi-award winning show, The Graham Norton Show that is broadcast on BBC1 on Friday nights and on TV channels across the world.

The popular and charismatic BBC presenter is in a league of his own as the £5.19m (€5.84m) represents pay of £108,214 (€122,067) per show or £2,164 (€2,441) for every minute on screen from the 48 Graham Norton shows broadcast between August 2016 and the end of last year.

The £5.19m (€5.84m) in pay represents nearly double the £2.6m (€2.93m) paid to Norton for the 12 months to the end of July 2016.

However, on a pro-rata basis, Mr Norton’s pay increased by 40% where his pay for the 17 months equated to a monthly pay packet of £305,547 (€344,662) compared to the monthly pay of £217,799 (€245,681) in the prior 12 month period to the end of July 2016.

A note attached to the So Television Ltd accounts on Norton’s pay states that “the increase in payments is largely due to an 81% increase in turnover from £11.6m to £21m, which is due to the improved performance of the company and the financial statements covering a 17 month period”.

On a like-for-like basis, So Television’s revenues increased by 28% over the 17 months.

Fifty-five-year-old Norton has shown over the past couple of years that his talents extend well beyond entertaining millions of TV viewers every week with the publication of two novels, his debut ‘Holding’ in 2016 and ‘A Keeper’ at the start of October.

Norton’s show is a ‘must do’ for Hollywood 'A-listers' promoting their movies in the UK and Europe and already in the current run, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Jamie Dornan, Sir Michael Caine and Jude Law have been guests on Norton’s couch.

At the end of last December, Mr Norton was also owed £722,698 (€815,216) by the production company.

The overall fees received by Norton last year dwarfs the fees paid to RTE’s top earners due to the size of the UK market and Norton’s global appeal where the Graham Norton show is sold around the world.

Norton and producer of the Graham Norton show, Graham Stuart sold So Television to ITV in 2012 with ITV agreeing to pay the two £10m (€11.3m) up front while a further £7m (€7.9m) was payable depending on its performance up to July 2016.

ITV will also be happy with the deal in spite of the stellar fees that Norton commands as pre-tax profits at the firm last year increasing by 18% to £2.9m (€3.2m)

A breakdown in revenues show that last year revenues in the UK totalled £14.82m or 70.7% with revenues in the ‘rest of world’ making up the remaining 29.3% or £6.15m (€6.8m)

According to the directors’ report, “the Graham Norton show continued to perform very well, both in the UK and internationally, leading to increased distribution sales. In addition, So Television relaunched Blind Date for Channel 5.

Born in Dublin and raised in Bandon, Co Cork, Norton first shot to prominence in 1996 for his part of Father Noel Furlong in 'Father Ted' before he moved to Channel 4 to host his own chat show.

Awarded an honorary doctorate by UCC in June 2013, Norton established So Television Ltd with Graham Stuart in 2000.

Numbers employed by So Television remained the same at 26 last year and staff costs totalled £2m (€2.25m)

Remuneration to the firm’s five directors that includes Norton and Stuart last year remained static at £354,167 (€399,506)- with the unnamed highest earning director receiving £354,167 (€399,506) in fees.

The report states that the firm produced 65.5hrs of programming during the 17 months compared to 43.15 hours delivered in 2016.

The directors’ report state that the directors expect the company to continue to grow through the development of productions for broadcasters and the company’s objective is to maximise long-term growth.

Accumulated profits at the group last December totalled £14.63m (€16.5m)

The firm’s cost of sales last year increased from £8.3m to £16.15m with the firm’s gross profit increased from £3.24m (€3.65m) to £4.8m (€5.4m).

Administrative expenses increased from £1.14m (€1.28m) to £2.13m (€2.4m) resulting in an operating profit of £2.9m (€3.27m). Net interest receivable of £225,257 (€254,094) resulted in the £2.9m (€3.27m) profit.

The firm paid only £2,834 (€3,196) in corporation tax. Based on the UK corporate tax rate of, the firm would have liable to a tax bill of £566,814 (€639,376).

However, mainly as a result of ‘group relief’ totalling £564,821 (€637,128), the tax bill was only £2,834 (€3,196).

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