The BBC is on fire. It needs a new Director-General. The runners and riders:
- Charlotte Moore: BBC Chief Content Officer who announced her departure from the BBC to join Left Bank Pictures as CEO and Sony Pictures Television as an EVP in February. Is said to have actively thrown her hat in the ring…
- Jay Hunt: Former chief creative officer at Channel 4 and now working on the creative director, worldwide video, Europe for Apple. Hunt was last at the corporation as BBC One’s Controller in 2010. Could she return?
- Mark Thompson: Served as BBC DG from 2004 to 2012 and now Chairman and CEO of CNN. This would be a big u-turn from Mark who is widely thought to have put BBC days behind him…
- Trevor Phillips: Currently presenting Sunday Morning on Sky News. The former EHRC chairman has some experience navigating testy politics, and is the preferred candidate of those who want serious BBC reform…
- Alex Mahon: The CEO of Channel 4 until she left in February to lead live entertainment group Superstruct Entertainment. Channel 4 pedigree raising alarm bells on the right…
There is some talk in news circles about the structure of the Director-General role changing, including a rumour that it could be split in two to better manage at-times competing functions. The proposal would be for a full-time journalist to head up the editorial side of the BBC at the DG level, and a seperate non-journalist businessperson to head up the commercial functions, also at the same DG rank. Many at the top of the BBC feel this double-header would unencumber the role. The job is a poisoned chalice when it comes under media scrutiny…
Despite the government not having a technical role in the appointment it is a highly politically-charged process and there will be significant lobbying and jostling from all sides, including from Downing Street. Labour sees the analogue BBC as its own territory and wants to install a loyalist. Is the ‘plot’ to remove Davie actually an own goal for the right?
