Incoming BBC Director General Tony Hall Gets Start Date

LONDON — The BBC has given Tony Hall his start date as the public broadcaster’s director general.

Hall will begin his duties April 2 this year, avoiding April Fool’s Day on the first of the month.

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Currently the CEO of the Royal Opera House and deputy chairman of Channel 4, Hall was expected to start in early March, with interim head Tim Davie remaining acting director general until then.

The BBC will be hoping that setting a start date for Hall will help put a line under the fallout from the shocking resignation of George Entwistle on Nov. 10, after just 54 days in the top job at the U.K. public broadcaster.

Entwistle’s exit was fueled by the growing crisis engulfing the broadcaster following allegations of sexual abuse against late former BBC host Jimmy Savile and a mistaken news report that forced the BBC to issue a retraction.

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The report on flagship news show Newsnight wrongly accused a veteran politician of being involved in a child abuse scandal.

Davie occupied the role of head of BBC News and Current Affairs from 1996 to 2001.

While in that post, he oversaw the launch of BBC News Online, as well as Radio 5 Live, BBC News 24 and BBC Parliament.

Hall’s start date was a tweeted statement by Davie.