Radical change and reorganisation as Thompson arrives at BBC

The BBC's new Director-General Mark Thompson arrived for his first day at the corporation’s helm today with a clear message to staff of the need for real, radical change over the next few years.

Outlining a restructuring of the BBC's Executive Committee, Mr Thompson also announced reviews into its commercial businesses, production and commissioning, and how to increase efficiencies and control costs through self help.

"We are going in to this with a genuinely open mind but these are questions which are not going to go away. If we did not examine them thoroughly ourselves, others would do it for us," he told 28,000 BBC staff around the UK.

Mr Thompson paid tribute to his predecessors Greg Dyke and John Birt as “brilliant leaders in very different ways”.

Internal changes led by Greg Dyke had done the BBC good, he said, but it now needed to look at the outside world and address key concerns.

"Without great programmes, great content, we're nothing. Our task is going to be to change the BBC more rapidly and radically over the next three to five years than at any previous point in its history.

"We believe that over the next decade the BBC will have a bigger role than ever in building public value, creating a far more open, responsive, agile BBC and always putting our audiences first.

"The BBC is a kind of Noah's Ark in a digital world which otherwise might have too little space for creativity and conviction," said Mr Thompson.

One of his first moves will be to make the structure of the BBC simpler, more effective and more able to adapt and change by creating three new boards, covering the BBC's main activities.

Mr Thompson will chair a cross media Creative Board made up of all divisions that drive the BBC's creative work.

Alan Yentob, currently Director of Drama, Entertainment and Children's, will also become the BBC's Creative Director.

Deputy Director-General Mark Byford, in an enhanced role, will now lead all the BBC's journalism.

He will chair a new Journalism Board, bringing all the BBC's journalism at an international, UK, national, regional and local level together for the first time.

The board will also implement all the recommendations of the independent Neil Review, convened to identify lessons following Lord Hutton's Inquiry, which will be published in full tomorrow (Wednesday June 22).

Mr Thompson said the Governors had rightly rejected splitting the role of DG and Editor-in-Chief post-Hutton.

"Nonetheless I recognise that the BBC's journalism will require more continuous and concentrated editorial leadership at the top of the organisation as we go forward.

"I have asked Mark Byford to make journalism the centrepiece of his role as Deputy DG," said Mr Thompson.

Finance Director John Smith will chair the third board, covering the BBC's commercial businesses, giving greater strategic clarity and realising economic and creative potential.

He will also take on the new role of Chief Operating Officer (COO), taking charge of all the BBC's commercial and resourcing subsidiaries, as well as leading its Finance and Property departments.

A fourth major strand of work will be led by Caroline Thomson, currently Director of Policy and Legal, who becomes Director of Charter Renewal, reporting to both the Director-General and the BBC Chairman.

Mr Thompson said the creation of the three boards meant he could reduce the BBC's Executive Committee from 16 people to a tighter Executive Board of nine.

"The new structure remains flat. But the new Executive Board will be a real decision-making body with a strong sense of collective responsibility and accountability. I believe it is going to take decisions more quickly and will be more radical where necessary," he said.

Reviews will also be undertaken, reporting by the end of the year, into three main areas - commercial activities, production and commissioning and efficiencies and value for money.

(GB)