{"id":409354,"date":"2026-02-05T13:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409354\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T13:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:36:08","slug":"apple-tvs-europe-boss-jay-hunt-approached-about-bbc-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409354\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple TV’s Europe Boss Jay Hunt Approached About BBC Role"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Apple TV<\/a> executive Jay Hunt<\/a> has been sounded out about becoming the next director general of the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadline understands that Hunt, the European creative director at Apple TV, has been approached about succeeding Tim Davie<\/a>, who dramatically resigned in November amid a scandal over a Panorama documentary about Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\n\tSources have consistently told Deadline<\/a> that Hunt is among the frontrunners for the most powerful job in British media, and we now hear that conversations have taken place. It is not clear if Hunt will participate in formal interviews in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe BBC declined to comment on speculation regarding the recruitment process, which is being overseen by chair Samir Shah alongside headhunters at Egon Zehnder. Hunt did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavie will step down on April 2, with nations chief Rhodri Talfan Davies becoming interim DG<\/a> until a permanent successor is appointed. Davie is embarking on a farewell tour, telling employees he will be \u201cout and about meeting teams across the UK.\u201d Davie will preside over a town hall next week, during which he intends to brief staff on \u201cthe next stage of our strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMany consider Hunt to be the most well-rounded candidate, given her credentials as a former journalist, her familiarity with the BBC, track record of backing hits like Slow Horses and Sherlock, and her experience at one of the world\u2019s most influential tech companies.<\/p>\n

\n\tHunt has worked at Apple for the past eight years, her longest spell in an executive post throughout her career. In the past two years, she has balanced this with chairing the British Film Institute. <\/p>\n

\n\tHunt was previously Channel 4\u2019s chief creative officer for six years, while her other roles have included running BBC1 and heading up content at Channel 5, the Paramount-owned network. Her spell as a journalist included editing BBC News at Six and senior roles on Newsnight and Panorama.<\/p>\n

\n\tHunt is one of three female frontrunners, with former BBC content boss Charlotte Moore, and ex-Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon, also considered to be serious contenders. The BBC has never had a female director general, so appointing a woman would be a historic moment for the national broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\n\tMoore only left the BBC last year to become CEO of The Crown producer Left Bank Pictures, but many at the UK national broadcaster would welcome her back with open arms. Several people close to Moore said she had ruled herself out, but there is a feeling that she has not completely shut the door on a return to the BBC.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for Mahon, sources have said she is \u201cserious\u201d about the director general vacancy, despite only recently leaving Channel 4 to become the boss at Superstruct Entertainment, the festival company backed by private equity giant KKR. There is a view among some at the BBC that she could be the candidate to beat.<\/p>\n

\n\tOthers are not ruling out a dark horse contender. Other names linked to the BBC job include Jane Turton, boss of The Traitors producer All3Media; Patrick Holland, the Banijay UK chief and former BBC2 boss; Anna Mallett, the former ITN CEO who is now Netflix\u2019s vice president of production in Europe; and James Harding, the former BBC News boss now running Tortoise Media, which publishes The Observer.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Guardian reported last week that CNN boss Mark Thompson had been sounded out about a shock return to the BBC, but had made clear he was committed to the U.S. news network. Another potential candidate, Kevin Bakhurst, director general of Ireland\u2019s RT\u00c9 and a former BBC News journalist, told Irish lawmakers in December that he had not applied for the BBC vacancy.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavie\u2019s successor will inherit an organization wrestling with its place in a media ecosystem dominated by overseas tech giants, as well as battling enemies closer to home, with conservative politicians and media proprietors wishing to see the BBC diminished during charter renewal. There is also the small matter of a looming legal fight with the U.S. president over the botched\u00a0Panorama\u00a0edit that triggered Davie\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV executive Jay Hunt has been sounded out about becoming the next director general of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[9265,243,96,138390,25977,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-409354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-apple-tv","9":"tag-bbc","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jay-hunt","12":"tag-tim-davie","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}