This is taken from the Guardian:

BBC chief: viewers aren't bothered about big salaries
By Emma Barnett
Published: 6:52AM BST 29 Sep 2010

Viewers do not care about the high salaries of executives and presenters, the director-general of the BBC has claimed.

"When you look at the concerns that the public raise about the BBC, when they're given a list, these don't rate high," Mark Thompson told the Royal Television Society International Conference in London.

The corporation has come in for criticism in recent years over the pay of its "top talent" and executives. In July, it emerged that members of the BBC's executive board, including Mr Thompson, were given a pay increase last year despite promises to exert control over senior management salaries.
 
Its annual report showed an increase in overall numbers and pay. In total, the executive board was paid £4,769,000 in the year to March 31 2010, up from £4,601,000 in 2008-9. The BBC's total wage bill went up £9 million to £1.012 billion, and the number of employees earning more than £100,000 rose from 308 to 313.

Despite a ban on bonuses in the BBC's main public-service arm, John Smith, the chief executive of its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, received bonus and incentive payments totalling nearly £400,000.

Mr Thompson defended the BBC from accusations it failed to act quickly enough on executive and "talent" pay. "The BBC was one of the very first public bodies to start moving on executive pay, freezing pay, stopping bonuses," he said.