UK’s highest-paid TV host suspected of dodging £150 annual license fee

The top-paid TV host in Britain is reportedly dodging an annual license free of £154.50 he is supposed to pay to the BBC, the channel he earns a whopping sum of £1.75 million a year from.

Gary Lineker revealed in a podcast that TV detectives had been knocking on his door for the past four years demanding he should pay for licenses related four apartments registered under his name.

The former England national football team starlet has been presenting Match of the Day on BBC for the past two decades. He is currently the highest paid TV and radio presenter in Britain and one of the most prolific in the world.

Lineker has denied dodging the license, saying he has turned the four apartments into one house for which he has paid the annual license.

“... I get - every month - a letter from the license fee saying 'You've not paid',” he said, according to a Monday report in the Daily Mirror, adding, “But I have paid, I have got a license, but they've still got it in their books as four apartments.”

All households in Britain who own a TV set are supposed to pay the annual fee for the BBC. Courts impose relatively heavy fines on those who do not have a license.

Media professionals and political campaigners have argued that the license fee should be scrapped, saying the BBC enjoys massive financial support from the government and political parties. They also believe the organization has failed to maintain its position as a popular media outlet, especially in the face of growing competition from rivals both on air and on the internet.