Chat show king Graham Norton’s TV pay rebounded by just under £1 million to £3.025 million (€3.384 million) in 2021, 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.
Now, new accounts filed by So Television to Companies House in the UK show that Norton’s pay from the firm increased by £956,638 (€1.07 million) or 46 per cent from £2.069 million to £3.025 million in 2021.
Norton’s pay - made up of presenter fees, production fees and royalties - rebounded after he had his TV pay slashed by £1.166 million in 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So Television relies on The Graham Norton Show for the bulk of its revenues and company revenues in 2021 increased by £1.3 million or 11 per cent from £11.39 million to £12.7 per cent.
The directors state that sales increased due largely to distribution revenues increasing.
The firm increased revenues despite producing two fewer hours of TV in 2021 - 29 compared to 31 in 2020.
The directors state there was a £900,000 increase in distribution revenue as the company returned to normal production.
They state: “The Graham Norton Show continues to be popular in the UK and internationally.”
The company increased its pre-tax profits by 18 per cent to £2.82 million despite the hike in pay to its star performer.
Norton’s TV fees are the entertainer’s main income stream.
However, Norton receives separate fees for his Saturday and Sunday morning shows on Virgin Radio UK.
In December 2020, Norton left BBC Radio 2 after 10 years to present the shows.
Norton’s novels are also best sellers and his critically acclaimed works of fiction, Holding, Home Stretch, A Keeper and Forever Home have generated millions in sales in Ireland and the UK since 2016 according to Nielsen Book, though the author receives only a small fraction of the sales figure in royalties.
A breakdown of So Television’s 2021 revenues show that £9.38m was generated in the UK with £3.3 million generated in ‘rest of world’.
Norton and producer of the Graham Norton show, Graham Stuart sold So Television to ITV in 2012 with ITV agreeing to pay the two £10 million up front while a further £7 million was payable depending on its performance up to July 2016.
Born in Dublin and raised in Bandon, Co Cork, Norton first shot to prominence in 1996 for his part of Father Noel Furlong in 'Father Ted' before he moved to Channel 4 to host his own chat show.
Norton established So Television Ltd with Graham Stuart in 2000.
Numbers employed by So Television last year remained at 21 and staff costs increased marginally to £2 million.
Accumulated profits at So Television in December 2021 totalled £23.54 million.
