The BBC has fired the starting gun in a process to appoint a new director general to run the organisation, after its previous appointee was dispatched after just 54 days.
George Entwistle’s unceremonious departure has left the broadcaster rudderless as it battles to emerge from a number of crises, forcing BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten to fast track the process to ‘a few weeks’.
Calls have been made from within the BBC for the plum £450k posting to be offered to a talent from outwith the existing BBC culture.
Leading contenders which Patten is expected to put in the frame are Tony Hall, the former BBC News director he is currently serving as the chief executive of the Royal opera House. He has been named alongside Ed Richards, an outsider who is currently serving as the chief executive of Ofcom.
Also mentioned are Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s former chief operating officer (despite ruling herself out); Michael Jackson, a former chief ex4ecutive of Channel 4; Peter Fincham, ITV’s director of television and Dame Marjorie Scardino, the outgoing chief executive of Pearson.