The runners and riders in the race to succeed Tim Davie as BBC director general
With the frontrunner for the role, BBC News boss Deborah Turness, joining Tim Davie out the door, the race to be the next director general of the world’s most famous broadcaster is wide open.
Turness would have been the main name in the frame, however her resignation yesterday alongside Davie has torpedoed that possibility, with the BBC now likely to recruit from outside of the organisation given Davie did not have a deputy DG.
There is a very high chance the next director general will be the first woman in the role, given the number of strong female candidates in the mix to succeed Davie at the UK pubcaster.
Big names being discussed in media circles include former Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon, ex-BBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore, All3Media boss Jane Turton and Apple’s creative director of worldwide video Jay Hunt.
Mahon is currently CEO at live entertainment group Superstruct Entertainment having left C4 earlier this year while Moore became CEO of Left Bank Pictures and exec VP, creative director at its parent company Sony Pictures Television’s international production group.
Turton, CEO of All3Media, has long been viewed as a potential DG, given her deep understanding and experience of international broadcasting and production, combining business acumen and creative skills.
Former BBC One controller Hunt has been at Apple for almost a decade and has a track record when it comes to commissioning hit shows, having greenlit the likes of Gogglebox, Luther, Black Mirror, Derry Girls and Slow Horses during her career.
However, the DG role encompasses far more than the programming the BBC produces, given the organisation’s unique position in UK culture and the influence of its news arm, which means it is constantly in the political crosshairs of critics on both the left and the right.
In recent decades, several DGs have like Davie been undone by crises of one kind or another, from George Entwistle’s brief 2012 tenure during the Jimmy Savile fallout to Greg Dyke’s 2004 resignation in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry.
The next DG will need to be steeled to handle intense political and regulatory scrutiny, given the looming charter renewal, while being viewed as a both a safe pair of hands and someone willing to be bold in the face of monumental technological change.
Anne Bulford was the first woman and last person to hold the position of deputy DG, a role often seen as a stepping stone to the top job, between 2016 and 2019, when she left the BBC. Since then, the BBC’s former MD of finance and operations has held various non-executive roles at organisations including Reach and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Carolyn McCall, currently chief executive of ITV, may soon be leaving the commercial broadcaster should its potential takeover by Comcast-owned Sky, news of which broke late last week, go through.
BBC Studios boss Tom Fussell will also be among the names in the frame, given that was the role Davie held prior to his appointment atop the BBC in 2020.
James Purnell, the former Labour politician who became the BBC’s director of radio and education in 2016, was the bookmakers’ favourite to take on the role in 2020 when Tony Hall stepped down, before Davie was appointed. Purnell is currently global CEO at consultancy firm Flint.
As well as Bulford, Mahon, Moore and Hunt, those also in the frame last time around were Fran Unsworth, then the BBC’s director of news and current affairs, who left the organisation in 2022.
Former Ofcom chief Sharon White and Gail Rebuck, chair of Penguin Random House UK, were also said to be in contention back in 2020 and could well be in the frame again.
The BBC board’s nominations committee, led by BBC chairman, Samir Shah, will handle the appointment of Davie’s successor, which is expected in the coming months to allow them time to shape the upcoming Royal Charter review, which is due before the current one expires in 2027.
