The BBC has named former Google executive Matt Brittin as its new director general, as the public broadcaster faces challenges to its funding model, a lawsuit from US president Donald Trump over a misleading edit and a steady exodus of talent.
Brittin will take the role from May 18th with an annual salary of £565,000(€653,000), the BBC said in a statement on Wednesday, The post will be filled on an interim basis by Rhodri Talfan Davies, a BBC board member. Predecessor Tim Davie was in the post for about five years and resigned last November over a Panorama documentary that misrepresented Trump’s comments.
“Matt’s passion for the BBC, his understanding of the challenges facing the organisation, his commitment to its independence and his determination to maintain the BBC’s position as one of the country’s greatest national assets were critical factors in the Board’s decision to appoint him as the 18th Director-General,” said BBC chairman Samir Shah in the statement.
The expected appointment of Brittin (57) has been met with cautious optimism so far. Former Google colleagues describe him as a popular, savvy leader, while peers and industry figures have praised his understanding of both traditional and digital media.
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Still, hiring a long-time technology executive without significant experience either as a journalist or at the BBC signals a shift for the organisation, which is the oldest and biggest public service broadcaster in the world with a total audience of about half a billion people globally.
“He is level-headed and will choose his battles wisely,” Claire Enders, founder of research firm Enders Analysis and a British media veteran, said before the announcement, adding that Brittin would be “more respected” as an outsider.
Brittin will need to grapple with a number of pressing challenges.
The broadcaster is defending a lawsuit filed in Florida by Trump, after the makers of an episode of its flagship Panorama program spliced together separate parts of his speech on January 6th, 2021. Those edits gave the impression that the president called for violence before an attack on the US Capitol that day and resulted in Davie’s resignation and that of the BBC’s chief executive officer for news, Deborah Turness.
Shah apologised and said the edit “wrongly gave the impression of a direct call for violent action”.
Brittin will also need to bring in editorial leaders and stem an outflow of top talent. Anchors Amol Rajan, Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel are among those who have resigned from roles or shows in recent years.
And he will need to steer the BBC through likely changes to its funding model. The organisation is primarily funded by UK households paying a flat annual license fee, sometimes critically described as a tax. That model is laid out in a Royal Charter, a document issued by the monarch that cements the BBC’s mission to serve the public interest, due to expire in 2027.
Lawmakers are exploring options that would push the BBC to adopt strategies used by streaming services such as Netflix, including a “mixed funding model” that blends license-fee income with subscriptions and commercial revenue.
Brittin has some of the pedigree familiar to the BBC. He studied at the University of Cambridge and joined its famed rowing team, ultimately competing in the 1988 Seoul Olympics for Great Britain. He’s a big fan of Doctor Who, the much-loved BBC show. “Tried to save the newspaper industry,” he wrote on his LinkedIn about his years at the Trinity Mirror news brand, now Reach plc.
He spent a decade as Google’s most prominent executive in the UK, overseeing the search giant’s sprawling advertising and sales operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Soon after starting the job in London, he took on tough policy issues such as hate speech and terrorism videos. That mixed remit, rare for a commercial leader at Google, made Brittin a frequent punching bag of the powerful, often unpopular Silicon Valley titan.
Within the organisation, he was seen as a highly effective leader. “Google’s success in Europe was not predestined,” said DJ Collins, a former Google vice president who is now co-founder of the health-tech start-up Early.
“It was largely down to Matt’s leadership.” – Bloomberg
