You could almost feel jaws dropping when it was announced last month that the pioneering Deborah Turness had been appointed the new head of BBC News. Turness, 54, had only recently got her feet under the table as ITN’s third CEO in as many years. Why would she give up this plum position – ideally suited to her skills at the company where she originally made her name – to take on the multiple challenges of running BBC News?
If the surprise appointment of the new culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, an outspoken critic of the BBC, had ruined Tim Davie’s day, he wasn’t letting on during what was his first RTS Cambridge appearance since succeeding Tony Hall as Director-General a year previously.
Throughout a 30-minute grilling by ITN’s newish CEO, Deborah Turness, the former head of BBC Studios presented a glass-half-full view of life running an institution that often appears embattled as it is attacked by the Daily Mail or Westminster.
BBC Director General Tim Davie looks back on his first year in post and at what the future holds in conversation with new ITN CEO Deborah Turness.
There is already something of a buzz around Richard Sharp, the new BBC Chair, and about what he and Director-General Tim Davie might achieve together as they navigate the corporation towards what we all hope is a post-Covid world.
Inevitably, not everyone at the BBC was pleased that another money man was chosen as successor to Sir David Clementi – himself a former deputy governor of the Bank of England. But many across the TV sector were relieved that a more controversial candidate was not appointed.
The Chair of Welsh–language broadcaster S4C, who has been in post for six months, was talking to BBC Cymru Wales’ media and arts correspondent Huw Thomas.
“The sector is full of creative people… with bold ideas. I want to see S4C being a home for those ideas,” said Williams. “We want to work with large stable companies who can provide that certainty to us with regards to programming, but we also want to work with smaller companies and even people who haven’t produced for anybody in the past.”
To say that Tim Davie has hit the ground running is an understatement. In his first week as the BBC’s 17th Director-General he delivered a remarkably candid speech setting out clearly his values and agenda. A fortnight later, he was the first speaker at the RTS’s Digital Convention 2020, when he was interviewed by the Society’s CEO, Theresa Wise.
In a tough stance reflecting sentiments articulated in his maiden speech as DG to the BBC on September 3, Davie told that RTS that “talk is cheap,” and that actions on greater representation of those from minority ethnic groups in the BBC workforce was essential.
“There’s been incredible progress on screen but internally – and senior leadership is critical to this – progress and the speed of change has been slow,” he said.
Watch Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director-General, in conversation with Theresa Wise, RTS CEO.
This is Tim's first interview since being appointed the 17th Director-General of the BBC.
Covering areas from audiences, diversity and inclusion, to the BBC internationally and online development, this is a comprehensive and exciting exploration of Tim’s vision for the future of the BBC.
The session is part of a number of online events from leading industry figures for RTS Digital Convention 2020, sponsored by YouTube.
Some BBC director-generals are a reaction to their predecessor. After the remorseless strategising of the John Birt years, Greg Dyke was chosen to bring the human touch to staff who felt unloved. When Dyke turned out to be a little too populist and freewheeling for some, the governors opted for a more cerebral traditionalist in the form of Mark Thompson.
