The salary bill for senior BBC managers in its News Group division exceeds £16 million according to the latest figures from the broadcaster.

Overall the broadcaster claims its senior manager pay bill has been cut by 18.3 per cent, or £14.4 million, since August 2009 and the number of senior managers by 13.4 per cent.

The BBC says it is committed to reducing its senior manager pay costs by 25 per cent and headcount by 20 per cent by December this year.

In January the BBC reported that licence fee-funded senior managers within the previously named BBC Journalism division earned a combined salary of almost £17 million.

The group, made up of BBC News, BBC Nations & Regions, BBC Global News and the BBC Sport division employed 179 senior managers in total.

It has since undergone organisational changes to streamline operations and been effectively renamed News Group, and is responsible for all the BBC's news, current affairs and sport output.

Within this group there are three less senior managers overall, now standing at 176, which make up 31.5 per cent of senior managers at the BBC.

The BBC also today published the business-related expenses of the 108 most senior decision-makers in the corporation for the period October to December 2010.

According to the BBC these figures show a 14.1 drop on the same period for the previous financial year.

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