52% of the public think George Entwistle's replacement should come from outside the BBC
According to a recent YouGov poll for the Sunday Times, 52% of the British public believe the next director general of the BBC should be appointed from outside the corporation, while only 20% say someone should be promoted from within the BBC and 28% say they don’t know.
The last DG, George Entwistle, was head of BBC Vision before being promoted to the top job, at which he served for only 54 days. An overwhelming 80% of the public believe the £450,000 payout Entwistle received following his resignation is “unacceptable”, according to the poll.
52% also believe that the role of director general should be split in two, with one person charged with running the corporation, and another person responsible for the editor-in-chief role of overseeing journalism at the BBC.
Chris Patten
The survey also found that 47% of people think that BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten should resign, while 29% think he should stay on in this role and 24% say they don’t know. A YouGov poll for the Sun – conducted at the end of October in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal – found that only 25% of the public thought that Patten should step down, whereas 38% said he should stay on as chairman and 37% weren’t sure.
Lord Patten currently works part-time for three or four days a week as chairman of the BBC Trust, and holds a number of other part-time positions including Chancellor of Oxford University, as well as serving on several company boards. But this latest poll found that 55% of the public think that the role of chairman of the BBC Trust should be a full time one.
For more information contact YouGov PR Executive Harris MacLeod
See the full original press release here
And click here for the full results of the poll
