Former Vodafone boss tipped as frontrunner to chair BBC

Sir Christopher Gent, former chief executive of Vodafone, is being seen as a frontrunner to become chairman of the governors of the BBC, according to senior sources.

Although labelled a "fat cat", with a pay package of around £2.5m a year before his retirement, he is regarded as one of Britain's most successful businessmen, having played a key role in turning the mobile phone company into a global player.

A major donor to the Conservative Party, Sir Christopher had been thought to be among the favourites for the job as the new ITV chairman. But it became clear last week that his party political connections mean that he is unlikely to be given the role of running the newly merged operation.

However, with ministers still smarting from public reaction to the Hutton report, which deemed the BBC to have been too harshly judged compared with the Government, those connections are just what make him attractive to succeed Gavyn Davies, who resigned following the publication of the report. Ministers are now said to be desperate to prove they support an independent BBC.

"The Hutton whitewash means that the Government is going to have bend over backwards to avoid a row over the charter," said one. At the same time, many senior BBC staff regard the departure of the former director-general, Greg Dyke, as a boost to charter renewal, despite the initial protests over his going. "The problem was that although Greg's style was loved by the staff, it had a habit of getting up the noses of politicians," said a senior source.

Ministers are keen to appoint a chairman of the governors soon. The charter is due for renewal in 2006, but the process will begin much earlier. Supporters of the former Tory minister Michael Portillo have suggested he might be a candidate as chairman, but it is felt that he has not had enough management experience to do the job.

There is increasing evidence, too, that the Government is pulling back from radical reforms such as scrapping the licence fee.

Although a review of the BBC being carried out by Lord Burns, a former Treasury mandarin, is looking at alternative methods of funding, there is little political appetite for change.

An aide to Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, said: "She has yet to see a viable alternative that will deliver a strong and independent BBC." The option of giving a proportion of fee revenue to commercial television for public service broadcasting - known as "top-slicing" - is not "a frontrunner", according to officials.

Although the climate has shifted in the BBC's favour in recent weeks, one figure close to government thinking on the corporation warned it not to be complacent. The issue of the governors, the poor reach of digital television and the future of BBC3 and BBC4 will all be hotly debated in the coming months, he predicted.

The responses made so far to the government consultation on the future of the broadcaster will also give BBC chiefs food for thought. The Independent on Sunday has analysed the 498 responses made public by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for the consultation, which closes at the end of next month.

Of those who answered the question, "Does the BBC deliver value for money?" some 74 per cent said it did not. Asked: "Does the licence fee remain the best way to pay for the BBC's public services?", 46 per cent said it should be scrapped. Most said that the BBC should generate revenues by showing advertisements.

Additional reporting by Tim Webb and Katherine Thomas