Tony Hall: Fighter pilot,enter stage left

Abstract

Interviewed by the editor, the former Head of News at the BBC and now executive director of the Royal Opera House, Tony Hall, talks for the first time about the events that led to Andrew Gilligan, Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke leaving the Corporation and says that crises in television "have helped concentrate minds wonderfully" but that broadcasters must work overtime regain public trust. And as a non-executive director of Channel 4, he comments: "I believe that as a public service broadcaster we can do something that will really have an impact on people's lives. We can stand for something and I think that is really important. The debate about Channel 4 now is actually about public service provision, and about plurality of public service provision. I think it is inevitable, inevitable, that the licence fee will be contested - part of it will be contested - and that in the next five or six years Channel 4 will have a pitch at the licence fee [to obtain a share of it]. The notion that there should be competition in the provision of public service broadcasting is absolutely fundamental - Channel 4 is there to add perspectives and an edge and to support new talent and new companies in a way that the BBC doesn't."