BBC director-general says he was not aware of 'severity' of cuts needed

BBC director‑general Richard Brittin spoke with Kirsty Wark about the corporation’s current pressures, saying he had been 'impressed' by the 'creativity and talent' at the BBC but added 'every media organisation is struggling with rapidly changing user behaviour and the powerfulness of the AI revolution'. He warned that the broadcaster faces 'very large critics, many of whom are the commercial rivals of the corporation and you've got governmental pressure on everything that you do journalistically'. Describing the organisation as 'inward looking', he criticised it for leading to 'an aversion to risk'. Brittin, who previously worked at Google, took over from Tim Davie earlier this year and is the first director‑general since Greg Dyke in 2000 to assume the role without having been a former BBC employee. He said he wanted to use his tech background to 'move faster through experimenting and learning' at the BBC and to work with colleagues to 'find a way to the future together'. He also stressed the BBC's need to 'defend its integrity' as it contests a defamation case brought by Donald Trump. The US president is seeking $10bn (£7.4bn) in damages in a Florida court over the editing of a Panorama documentary from 2024 that covered the Capitol riots. BBC lawyers are seeking to have the suit dismissed, and the corporation has previously apologised for an 'error of judgement' in the editing of the programme. During the discussion Brittin remarked, 'We moved to disregard the lawsuit on the grounds of jurisdiction that nobody in the US really saw the show with the terrible