The salary for most public television stars should not be higher than €240,000 a year, the public broadcasting sector has told media minister Ronald Plasterk.

But while €240,000 would be the maximum for most presenters, a ‘very limited’ number would be able to earn more, the tv companies said.
The public tv plan follows MPs’ calls for action on what they called inflated tv salaries. Top presenters Paul de Leeuw and Matthijs van Nieuwkerk are known to earn more than €400,000, the Volkskrant sdays.
Different standards
Plasterk earlier called for a €200,000 limit. MPs want the prime minister’s salary of €176,000 – the so-called Balkenende standard – to be the ceiling.
In an initial reaction, the Christian Democrats’ media spokesman Joop Atsma said he ‘could not explain why the Balkenende standard should apply in education and healthcare but not to tv presenters’.
Plasterk will react to the proposal later this month.
The Dutch public broadcasting system is partly funded by taxpayers and partly by advertising.