Newspaper Article

Lifetime BBC man to be new head of Channel 4

Louise Jury and David Lister

2001

Overview

MARK THOMPSON, the director of television at the BBC, is to be the new chief executive of Channel 4. The appointment to the pounds 400,000- plus post was to be announced last night; but Mr Thompson was said to be locked in last-minute talks with the BBC over the exact timing and terms of his departure. Channel 4 will almost certainly announce the appointment today and introduce Mr Thompson at a press conference. Mr Thompson, who has three children, is tall, amiable and has a bookish manner, with none of the slick, Armani-suited chic that epitomised the John Birt regime. Yet after cutting his teeth on Watchdog, the launch of BBC Breakfast News in 1982 and Newsnight, it was Mr Birt (made Lord Birt after he left the BBC, to be replaced by Mr Dyke) who picked him, aged 30, to become editor of the Nine O'Clock News. He was promptly given the task of steering through the BBC's plans for its new digital services, the two children's channels and BBC3 (from the old BBC Choice) and BBC4 (from BBC Knowledge).

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media