Chatshow star Graham Norton enjoyed a £537,665 (€644,786) increase in his TV pay last year to £2.77 million (€3.32 million), new accounts show.
ITV subsidiary So Television sells The Graham Norton Show to the BBC and to TV stations across the world including Virgin Media in Ireland.
New accounts filed by So Television Ltd to Companies House in the UK show Mr Norton’s pay from the firm surged by 24 per cent from £2.23 million to £2.77 million last year.
Mr Norton’s show is known for attracting a regular line-up of A-list global stars.
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His pay works out at an average of £138,707 (€166,362) per episode for each of the 20 Graham Norton Shows Norton presented in 2023.
The £537,665 increase for 2023 followed Mr Norton sustaining a £788,530 pay cut from So Television in 2022.
Made up of presenter’s fees, production fees and royalties, his compensation soared last year after So Television’s revenues and profits increased sharply.
So Television relies on The Graham Norton Show for the bulk of its revenues which increased by £2.76 million or 23 per cent from £11.75 million to £14.5 million last year.
The directors state that revenues decreased “largely due to an increase in distribution channels”.
The accounts show that UK revenues increased slightly to £10.7 million while “rest of world” revenues more than tripled from £1.1 million to £3.76 million.
The firm’s revenues increased despite producing three fewer hours of TV in 2023 – 28 compared to 31 in 2022 – “due to a reduction in one-off shows/pilots from 2022″.
The company’s operating profits increased by 123 per cent from £1.1 million to £2.55 million and it benefited from finance income of £1.37 million resulting in the pretax profits surging by 145 per cent to £3.9 million.
Mr Norton’s TV fees are the entertainer’s main income stream.
The Irish presenter departed from his weekend presenting role on Virgin Radio UK earlier this year after declaring he wanted his weekends back after 13 years.
His novels are also best sellers – the critically acclaimed works of fiction Holding, Home Stretch, A Keeper, Forever Home, Frankie and The Swimmer have generated €7.6 million in sales in Ireland and the UK since 2016 according to Nielsen BookData, though the author receives only a small fraction of the sales figure in royalties. Revenues from sales in Ireland have totalled €3.93 million.
Accumulated profits at So Television in December 2023 totalled £27.8 million.
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