Shortlist For BBC Chairman Whittled Down To Seven
The shortlist of candidates for the position of BBC chairman is understood to have been whittled down to seven candidates, including former Channel 4 chief executive Michael Grade and political TV stalwart David Dimbleby.
Interviews for the position, which has been vacant since Gavyn Davies resigned over the Hutton report in January, will be held next week by a panel headed by Sue Street, permanent secretary at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
The full list of candidates is believed to comprise David Dimbleby, Michael Grade, Lord Burns, Patricia Hodgson, Richard Lambert, Lord Watson and Baroness Young. However, a spokesman for the DCMS refused to confirm the list, stating: “We’re not going to confirm any names, it is purely speculative and we don’t comment on speculation.”
The appointment of the new BBC chairman is expected to be announced in mid-April, when the DCMS interview panel will make a recommendation to be confirmed by the Queen.
Once the process of appointing the Corporation’s chairman is complete the search can begin for a replacement for director general, Greg Dyke, who also resigned over the highly critical findings of the Hutton report. A successor to Dyke cannot be appointed by the BBC’s governors until the new chairman is in place.
The task facing both the new chairman and director general will be to boost staff morale at the Corporation, which is slowly emerging from one of the most difficult periods in its eighty year history.
Earlier this week the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising launched a withering attack on the BBC’s increasingly aggressive approach to programming and self-promotion in its submission on the Corporation’s Charter Review (see IPA Report Deplores Aggressive And Commercial BBC).
The IPA’s comments come just weeks after a report commissioned by the Conservative party recommended a reduction in the BBC licence fee and the right for commercial broadcasters to bid for funding to make public service programmes (see Tory Report Calls For Reduction Of BBC Licence Fee).
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk DCMS: 020 7211 6200 www.dcms.gov.uk
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