The usual merry-go-round of top executives has gone into overdrive recently, fuelled by fundamental changes in the ways the BBC and ITV are shaping up for the future.
Last week new ITV director of television Kevin Lygo unveiled his key lieutenants in the drive for creative renewal. Following a changing of the guard that saw his heads of entertainment, factual and drama depart, his new top team includes Polly Hill, the BBC controller of drama commissioning he poached to become his head of drama – a coup for Lygo and a blow for the BBC.
It means that seven experienced executives have left the corporation over the last seven months: director of television Danny Cohen, controller of seasons and special projects Janice Hadlow, creative director Alan Yentob, BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw, BBC Studios director Peter Salmon, natural history unit head Wendy Darke and Hill.
Darke announced her departure on the same day as news of Hill leaked – to lose one good executive may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two on the same day looks like carelessness.
Seasoned BBC watchers cannot remember a time when there have been so many high-profile departures. With the multi-million pound cuts due to the previous licence fee settlement and the one agreed last summer, management has to slim down. But as one BBC insider puts it, it feels as if “a lot of the adults have left” the corporation.
Driving the low morale at the BBC is the question mark over the timing and implementation of director general Tony Hall’s two big master plans: the commercialisation of most BBC production through the creation of BBC Studios and a restructure of commissioning and programme-making based around genres and audiences that blurs the boundaries between radio, TV and online, details of which are unlikely to be unveiled until after the government produces its white paper (expected in late May) on the corporation’s future.
