Will Tim Davie protect BBC's role as Britain's public broadcaster?

When applications to be the BBC director general opened at the start of the year, it was seen by some potential candidates within the media industry as something of a poisoned chalice.

The victorious candidate would inherit a sprawling broadcaster facing a hostile government intent on cutting it down to size, an organisation required to impose further financial cuts even as it struggles to compete in a global media marketplace, and a media business built on the principle of universal appeal trying to attract younger audiences who don’t feel the same natural affinity to its services.

Then the coronavirus pandemic happened, the commercial media industry took a financial hammering, and the BBC saw surging audience figures and growing public trust as people turned to the national broadcaster in a time of national crisis.

All of the underlying problems remain but Tim Davie – a longterm BBC commercial executive who has never made a programme – inherits an organisation that has, by chance, earned a brief period of breathing space and a chance to reset its relationship with ministers.

Davie’s background in marketing is often mentioned dismissively by journalists within the organisation, who note that before joining the BBC one of his most notable actions was helping to rebrand Pepsi’s packaging to blue in the 1990s.

What’s been rarely noticed is his stint during the same era as the deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative party – experience that could come in handy for what is an intensely political role.

The first issue he will have to deal with is placating a government that, powered by the anti-media fury of the prime minister’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, spent the start of the year proposing to cut the BBC down to size – boycotting key political programmes and launching a still-ongoing consultation on decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee.

Since then the corporation has won plaudits from ministers for its provision of accurate health information and educational programming, with the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, often effusive in his praise.

But as the coronavirus infection rate starts to recede, so relations between ministers and the BBC have become increasingly strained. Emily Maitlis’s monologue criticising Cummings on Newsnight has not helped matters, with signs that the government is once again willing to confront the corporation’s news arm.

There is a growing acceptance that the concept of the licence fee being charged on possession of a television, currently guaranteed until 2027, is starting to appear outdated. Even the BBC is tentatively suggesting an eventual shift to a Scandinavian-style model where the public are directly taxed to support public service broadcasting. Davie – who specialised in raising funds for the BBC through non-licence fee operations by selling formats around the world – will play a key role in shaping any new funding model, while also having to spend years imposing endless cuts.

The BBC chairman, David Clementi, who led the appointment process, will also have been well aware that his own term on the corporation’s board runs out at the start of 2021. He will have been well aware that if the board appointed a left-field candidate then, in less than a year, ministers could appoint a new BBC chairman with the instruction to sack the director general.

Some of these political attacks are made possible by the shakiness of some of the audience figures for the corporation’s output. In absolute terms, the BBC remains dominant in the British media world: its news website has far more readers than any other outlet, it still accounts for half of all radio listening, and the vast majority of the population use it in some way every week. But there is a small but growing number of people – mainly younger, more diverse audiences – who do not consume any BBC content, undermining the concept of a universal licence fee providing a universal service.

Then there is the growing issue of trust in the corporation’s news output, which remains high among the general population but is fraying around the edges, following years of criticism of apparent bias in its political output from both the left and right of politics.

That’s before taking into account the growing anger from many BBC staff, powered by their own social media channels, over the corporation’s commitment to presenting different sides of the debate on issues such as race and LGBT rights. With the corporation increasingly finding itself in the middle of an ongoing culture war, it won’t be long until Davie becomes embroiled in a row similar to the debate over Naga Munchetty’s comments on Donald Trump.

But ultimately, as the man who will lead the BBC through its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2022, Davie’s stint in charge will be judged on one thing alone: will he manage to ensure that when he steps down, the UK still has a financially sustainable public service broadcaster that enjoys the support of majority of the public?