Royal Opera chief gets top job at BBC

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Entwistle lasted just 54 days in the job, quitting after the BBC's flagship programme Newsnight wrongly claimed a senior Conservative politician had been involved in child sex abuse.

The broadcaster last week paid 185,000 pounds ($295,000) in settlement to Lord Alistair McAlpine, a former treasurer of Britain's Conservative party, who had faced public opprobrium on the heels of the Newsnight report.

Repercussions from the flawed programme have spread beyond the BBC. Commercial rival ITV agreed on Thursday to pay McAlpine 125,000 pounds after a chat show presenter showed a card with the names of alleged sex abusers during an interview with Prime Minister David Cameron.

McAlpine is also pursuing Twitter users who sent messages over the social network naming him.

Entwistle had been widely criticised for lacklustre leadership in dealing with disclosures on Savile and Newsnight's dropping of an investigation into the late presenter last year, shortly before the BBC broadcast programmes in tribute to him.

"The past eight weeks have been very traumatic for the BBC but this is a significant day ... (that) marks the beginning of a new phase," Patten said.

Hall's appointment was widely greeted as a sound choice, although there were some concerns at his limited experience outside the publicly-funded sector.

"I'm delighted. I think he's a very wise appointment," Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at London's City University.

"He's a rare combination: someone who rose very high at the BBC, but who's also done well outside it."

John Whittingdale, chairman of parliament's media committee, said the Trust had been sensible to move quickly in making a new appointment but he questioned whether Hall would be able to deal with reforming BBC bureaucracy.

"That, possibly, is an area where Tony Hall doesn't have experience and there might have been a case for somebody with more external management experience," Whittingdale told Reuters.