The BBC is to reveal the salaries that it pays to its star presenters for the first time, but will still withhold their names, The Times has learnt.

The corporation will disclose in January that it pays a small group of its “top talent”, including presenters such as Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton, a total of more than £70 million a year.

The publication will come as part of the BBC’s quarterly release of the salaries and expenses of its top 100 executives. However, in a move that is certain to draw criticism from those who have campaigned for more transparency over how the BBC spends its £3.6 billion licence fee, the corporation will reveal only the number of performers who fall within broad salary bands rather than individual contracts.

Last week the BBC disclosed that its top 107 managers earned more than £20 million a year as it published executives’ salaries for the first time. It has promised to update the figures every three months but has been criticised after it emerged that nearly 300 staff being paid more than £100,000 had been omitted from the list.

The corporation says that some of those staff work for its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and so are not paid from public funds. But it is understood that there are 33 executives earning more than £150,000 who are paid from the licence fee — which costs each household £142.50 — whom the BBC considers “not important enough” to name.

Agents to BBC stars said that they were receiving panicked phone calls from their clients as news spread that salary details were to be published. One agent, who represents several of the corporation’s biggest names, said he was confident that the BBC would not be brow-beaten by the Conservative Party, which has called for full disclosure of stars’ salaries.

The BBC has looked to cut salaries of its top stars by 25 per cent. The comedian Alan Davies and Bruce Forsyth, the host of Strictly Come Dancing, have confirmed that they have taken a pay cut to stay at the corporation. The publication in January will come at the same time as the BBC opens talks with Ross for a new contract, with his £18 million, three-year deal expiring in July. Negotiations with Norton, who has said that he will take a pay cut, are continuing.

The puppeteer behind the popular BBC children’s television star Gordon the Gopher is to receive an annual salary of £110,000. Paul Smith, who operated the puppet in the 1980s, has been promoted to become the head of the BBC’s Editorial Standards unit in its audio and music division.

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