The BBC’s vacant director-general job was described as a “poisoned chalice” with some of the U.K.’s top television contenders – including Apple’s creative director for Europe, Jay Hunt – reportedly turning it down.
Eventually it was longtime Google exec and one-time Olympic rower Matt Brittin who was both experienced and brave enough to take the role that has seen so many of its incumbents come a cropper.
Six and a half weeks in, on a baking hot summer day, the newly-installed BBC boss faced his first grilling this morning in front of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Made up of MPs from across the political spectrum, the committee is currently deliberating on the BBC’s future as it fights for the renewal of its Royal Charter and, more importantly, funding, which comes by way of a “licence fee” payable by anyone who watches live television, on any platform or device, and/or uses the BBC’s streaming service iPlayer.
Temperatures breached 80 degrees in the stuffy, wood-panelled room in the Palace of Westminster, with the only relief coming from a fan turned to face the wall (apparently it interferes with the committee’s microphones if facing the right way). As Brittin remarked at the conclusion of the meeting, “They told me it was going to be a hot seat. I didn’t realize it was literal.”
