Jonathan Ross ‘takes 50 per cent pay cut’

Jonathan Ross, the BBC chatshow host and radio presenter who once joked that he was paid the same amount as 1,000 BBC reporters, has accepted a 50 per cent pay cut. Ross's current three-year deal - worth an estimated £18 million - ends in June.

The deal will mean Ross, 49, see his future income reduced to around £3m a year. He has reportedly also agreed to shorten his next contract from three years to two.

A source told the London Evening Standard that it was Ross's idea to slash his wage. "In the current climate it is the thing to do. He wants that scenario... Jonathan feels very loyal to the BBC and they have been loyal to him."

Discussions between Ross and the BBC are understood to have taken place in the past 24 hours but the corporation's Director-General Mark Thompson is yet to sign off the presenter's new pay package.

Ross's hefty pay packet has been the subject of much criticism, along with the salaries of other BBC talent such as Graham Norton. In 2007 Ross caused outrage when he joked at the British Comedy Awards that his salary meant he was "worth 1,000 BBC journalists".

Ross was suspended without pay for three months last year for making obscene phone calls to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs on Russell Brand's radio show. ·