Post date: Apr 02, 2013 2:38:18 PM
The BBC's new boss says he is "proud to lead" the British broadcaster, as he begins his first day as director general.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (APRIL 2, 2013) (UK POOL) - The new BBC Director General Tony Hall took the helm at the British Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday (April 2) and spoke of the "enormous responsibility" he faces.
Lord Hall, a former director of BBC news, began his career at the BBC as a trainee 40 years ago.His immediate task will be to rebuild the confidence and image of a news organisation buffeted by the fallout from a scandal centred on former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, who died at 84 last year and has since been exposed as one of Britain's most prolific, predatory child abusers.
"It's exciting for me to be coming in to where I started my career in the BBC. It's an enormous responsibility being the sixteenth director general of the BBC. But it's also something I'm very excited about and feel very privileged about. I've spent a lot of time over the past weeks, especially over the past weekend, watching and listening to a huge number of programmes and services and content," he told reporters outside the corporation's headquarters, New Broadcasting House, in central London.
Hall is a former chief executive of Britain's Royal Opera House. He was offered the BBC job after the previous director general George Entwistle resigned after just 54 days in November after failing to get to grips with the scandal which threw the 90-year-old state-funded organisation into turmoil.
The new director general was head of BBC news and current affairs from 1996 to 2001.
His appointment to the top job last November was widely greeted as a sound choice, although there were some concerns at his limited experience outside the publicly-funded sector.