External bids for BBC’s top job throw the race wide open

The race to be BBC director-general is wide open with up to 10 candidates getting first-round interviews, senior broadcasting figures said today.

The BBC Trust will conduct second-round interviews with four or five candidates in the coming days. “External candidates have been very good at keeping their heads below the parapet,” said a source close to the process.

Ed Richards, chief executive of regulator Ofcom, is the only confirmed external candidate. Four internal BBC hopefuls have applied: head of vision George Entwistle; head of news Helen Boaden; head of audio and music Tim Davie; and chief operating officer Caroline Thomson.

It is thought there at least four external candidates, with reports of at least one surprise “international” contender, prolonging the interview process, which could now take until early July.

There is speculation that Lord Carter, Mr Richards’s predecessor at Ofcom and a former Labour minister, is in the race, though he has indicated he did not put his name forward. Another rumoured contender, ITN chief executive John Hardie, has ruled himself out. The BBC Trust did not comment.

Meanwhile BBC bosses have told reporters to come up with money-making ideas, raising fears over the future editorial independence of the corporation. Peter Horrocks, director of global news, emailed his 2,400 staff to say they must “exploit new commercial opportunities [and] maximise the value we create with our journalism”. His division includes the World Service, BBC World News channel and BBC.com.

Following budget cuts of 20 per cent over five years and the loss of 2,000 jobs, he asked journalists to present cash-generating schemes at their job appraisals. The email says appraisals will be partially based on ability to generate money.

It has led to fears that editorial standards will be compromised. John Tusa, former World Service head, called the development “appalling”. He told the Independent: “The notion that as a journalist you are having to think about how you can sell or turn your output into money is so wide of the mark. If [Horrocks] pushes it too far he can start to undermine the values of trust on which BBC news has existed.”

The BBC said: “Our public-service mission to provide impartial and independent news will always take precedence over wider commercial goals.”