The BBC’s top technology staff are paid “well below” their equivalent in the commercial sector despite the broadcaster being widely considered a “technology leader” with innovations such as the iPlayer, according to a report by the BBC Trust.

The review found a "small number of hotspots” within the corporation's pay structure where the BBC paid well below relevant labour market benchmarks. The review said: "This is particularly true in the technology sector."

The reduced pay is in part owing to a “discount factor” that the broadcaster will look to make explicit in a restructured pay scale.

Staff working for the BBC are considered to benefit from the prestige of working for the broadcaster and as such are prepared to accept lower pay.

The BBC Trust said this should be made explicit in the pay structure, and the move would see executive directors’ salaries discounted by 50-80 per cent compared with the commercial sector, with senior managers facing discounts of between 20 and 50 per cent.

The corporation has also said that it would disaggregate specific sectors such as technology in an attempt to make them comparable with the commercial sector, before the discount factor is applied. The pay scale would also be more granular to reflect the industry’s nuances.