Tim Davie: the marketing man who became the BBC’s director general

Tim Davie has been one of the BBC’s longest-serving executives. After leaving his role as vice-president of marketing and franchise at PepsiCo, Davie became director of the BBC’s marketing, communications and audiences division in 2005. In 2008, he took on the role of director of the audio and music division. This involved running a variety of radio stations, including Radio 1, 2, 3, and 4. It was during this time that Davie led the plans to scrap 6 Music and the Asian Network, saying the corporation had too many stations and needed to invest in “unique, high-quality radio”. The BBC backed down on closing both stations after a huge public campaign. Also in 2008, Davie had to address controversy surrounding a prank call made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to the actor Andrew Sachs on Radio 2. In 2012, Davie took on the role of chief executive of the corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. In November of that year he became acting director general of the BBC after the resignation of George Entwistle, amid the Jimmy Savile crisis. Davie’s stint, which lasted a matter of months until the arrival of Tony Hall, was brief but eventful. He dealt with the fallout from a Newsnight report that wrongly accused the Tory peer Lord McAlpine of child sexual abuse. Davie’s return came just after the corporation ended its disastrous and highly criticised ownership of the travel publisher Lonely Planet, selling it for an £80m loss, in March 2013. In 2018, Davie oversaw the merger of BBC Worldwide with the corporation’s production arm. This led to the formation of BBC Studios, the corporation’s main commercial subsidiary. He was the BBC’s highest-paid executive, making £642,000 in 2019 – considerably more than Hall’s £475,000. Davie turned down an offer to become head of the Premier League in 2019, before being named the BBC’s new director general in June 2020 and taking on the role in September of that year. Davie said he was “honoured” to be appointed, adding that he had a “deep commitment to content of the highest quality and impartiality”. Sir David Clementi, the then-chair of the BBC board, hailed Davie as “one of the most respected names in the industry”, adding: “His leadership and experience, both outside the BBC and within, will ensure that we are well placed to meet the opportunities and challenges of the coming years.” Davie had to tighten his belt in taking the top role, agreeing to Hall’s salary until mid-2021, when it rose to £525,000. He was also chair of Comic Relief, a role he relinquished before becoming director general. His time as BBC director general was marked by several high-profile controversies including the brief suspension of Match of the Day host Gary Lineker in 2023. The former England footballer was suspended after posting a tweet comparing the language used to launch a new government asylum seeker policy with 1930s Germany. Davie faced pressure after a host of sports presenters and pundits pulled out of BBC shows over the suspension, but defended the decision. Upon Lineker’s return, Davie announced there would be an independent review into the BBC’s social media guidelines and apologised for a “difficult period for staff, contributors, presenters, and most importantly, our audiences”. In recent months, the BBC has faced numerous controversies including the livestreaming of Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury where the punk rappers led chants of “death, death to the IDF” [Israel Defense Forces], as well as misconduct allegations surrounding the former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace. Last month, the communications watchdog Ofcom imposed sanctions on the BBC for breaching the broadcasting code over its Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone documentary after the corporation failed to disclose a narrator’s links to Hamas. Davie joined the BBC from Pepsi, where he was responsible for European marketing, including the decision to colour a Concorde and the Daily Mirror Pepsi blue for a campaign. Davie joined Pepsi in 1993 after cutting his teeth as a marketer at Procter & Gamble, which hired him while he was studying English at Cambridge. Born in 1967, he was privately educated at Whitgift school in South Croydon, which he attended after winning a scholarship. Davie also served as an executive board member of the European Broadcasting Union, the world’s leading alliance of public service media organisations. He was also trustee of both the Tate and the Royal Television Society, as well as a former co-chair of the Creative Industries Council. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2018 for services to international trade.