New BBC boss in desperate campaign push to save broadcaster

Matt Brittin takes the helm at the BBC today as its 18th director-general in a desperate campaign push to save the national broadcaster.

The former Google executive arrived as the annual licence fee stands at £180, with a consultation currently examining how the corporation should be financed when its charter comes up for renewal next year.

These circumstances mirror those faced by the BBC four decades ago, when the fee was £58.

Margaret Thatcher's Government established a committee to consider whether advertising or subscription might replace it.

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Sources close to Mr Brittin suggest he intends to rally public backing for the broadcaster ahead of pivotal government negotiations.

The corporation is preparing to resurrect a celebrated 1985 advertising campaign to demonstrate its continued worth to viewers.

Romesh Ranganathan, the comedian who hosts The Weakest Link, will pose the question "What has the BBC ever given us?" in a deliberate echo of John Cleese's original performance.

In that 1985 advert, Mr Cleese parodied the famous Monty Python sketch about Roman achievements, listing BBC offerings from drama to Radio 4 while remaining stubbornly unimpressed.

The updated version is expected to feature Claudia Winkelman, presenter of The Traitors, alongside newsreader Clive Myrie, attempting to persuade Mr Ranganathan of the broadcaster's value.

The handling of trans rights is anticipated to prove a thorny challenge for the new director-general, with sources indicating pressure groups will seek to revisit the matter despite last year's Supreme Court ruling on gender.

One source told the Times: "He will have to deal with it. It's not over."

They noted that some will attempt to relitigate the issue given Mr Brittin's background at what they described as the "happy clappy" end of the technology sector.

Fran Unsworth, former BBC director of news, told Unherd this weekend that she had been forced from her role in 2022 by "dealing with the progressive editorial issues and the bullying around them all".

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She said: "It was incredibly difficult. Actually, it was quite miserable dealing with this hard pounding in the trenches."

Ms Unsworth alleged that "the world went mad" regarding progressive politics while she led the department, and that the corporation "went a bit mad with it".

The former news chief revealed that employees would exert pressure on journalists "if they felt the editorial direction of the story was not supporting their particular point of view."

During Trans Awareness Week in 2023, Mr Brittin said on LinkedIn that making Google's products inclusive for everyone was essential.

He added: "We recently added a non-binary gender option to our user profiles, and we're committed to providing accurate and respectful representation of transgender people in our content."

John Shield, who previously served as BBC director of communications, has counselled Mr Brittin to move swiftly and boldly, likening the position to that of the Prime Minister.

"There is a window of maximum authority. That is usually the first 12 to 18 months in the job," Shield wrote in Letters to Matt Brittin, a book by John Mair.

Mr Brittin will communicate with staff through a video message and email today, followed by an address from the BBC's Salford headquarters tomorrow.

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