BBC will not fund Alan Shearer and Micah Richards’ World Cup podcast costs
The pair present The Rest Is Football alongside Gary Lineker, which will be shown on Netflix this summer in video form.
Licence fee payers will not shoulder any of the cost linked to BBC pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards’ work on The Rest Is Football podcast during this summer’s World Cup, the Press Association understands.
The podcast will be aired on Netflix this summer in video form after the streaming giant struck a deal with Goalhanger Podcasts, a company co-founded by former BBC presenter Gary Lineker, in December.
It is understood flights, accommodation and other expenses related to Shearer and Richards’ work for the podcast will be kept entirely separate from costs connected to their work for the BBC.
Former England and Newcastle striker Shearer is expected to be in North America throughout the finals and will fit his commitments to the podcast around his contracted BBC work.
Richards, a Premier League title winner with Manchester City in 2012 and 2014, is expected to be primarily studio-based in the UK for his BBC work, but it is understood he will be free to travel to and from the US for other work that does not clash with his BBC commitments.
It is expected more than 40 episodes of TRIF will go out as part of the World Cup deal with Netflix, with the schedule and content for an audio-only version published in the conventional way alongside the video podcasts still to be confirmed.
While Lineker is expected to be in a studio in New York for each of the podcasts, there is an acceptance that Shearer and Richards – while still set to be heavily involved – may sometimes need to dial in virtually due to their BBC work.
The Times has reported the World Cup deal between Goalhanger and Netflix is worth £14million, which dwarfs Lineker’s BBC 2024-25 annual salary of £1.35m.
It is not clear whether Netflix or Goalhanger will pick up the tab for the production and logistics costs of the podcasts under the deal, but multiple sources insisted none of it would fall on the BBC. During Euro 2024, PA understands podcasts were filmed at a Berlin venue rented by Goalhanger, also at no cost to the BBC.
The BBC and Goalhanger are understood to be working closely to ensure Shearer and Richards’ schedules are aligned during the World Cup.
The podcast was originally launched in August 2023 and is reported to have around seven million listeners every month.
The BBC, Netflix and Goalhanger Podcasts declined to comment.
Lineker left the BBC earlier than originally planned at the end of last season. He had been due to continue fronting its FA Cup and World Cup coverage this season, but his departure was brought forward after he shared a post about Zionism which featured a depiction of a rat, historically an antisemitic insult.
Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan are set to be the lead presenters of the BBC’s World Cup coverage and are expected to be based primarily in the UK during the tournament.
It is understood one or more of them may travel to the United States briefly at some stage during the tournament if required for BBC duties, but they will not be constantly flying back and forth, so their presence on the ground is likely to be dictated by how the home nations fare.
The BBC does not yet have a full idea of its costs in covering the tournament but is working from the starting point of a significant increase in matches compared to the last finals in Qatar in 2022, with 104 to be played this time, compared to 64 four years ago.
