One way or another, we pay for all the channels we watch - or don't watch. People subscribe to a channel and/or they pay for it indirectly through the cost of advertising built into a product's price. The "packages" on some subscription channels can be pretty expensive - and all programmes are interrupted by adverts.
I suppose it is reasonable that people should know what people at the BBC are paid. I'm not sure it should be confined to "high earners" (also, I don't think that, relative to commercial channels, they are "high earners". On The Wright Stuff this morning is was revealed that the salary of the highest paid person on the BBC, Graham Norton is £2.5m whereas that of Ant and Dec is £5m each). I knew a couple of people who worked in the offices of the BBC and they were fairly poorly paid.