Former broadcaster and Conservative peer Michael Grade has been named as the UK government’s preferred candidate to lead media regulator Ofcom.
“I am delighted to announce that Lord Grade is the government’s preferred candidate to be the new chair of Ofcom,” Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said in a statement.
“Lord Grade’s experience at the highest level of a number of broadcasters and his expert knowledge of the British media landscape makes him an ideal candidate for this role.
“Going forward, Ofcom has an even more important role to play as the UK’s communications regulator.”
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph in February it emerged that Lord Grade had initially applied for the £142,000, three-day-a-week role last November.
It followed the rejection of former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre for not fulfilling the required criteria set by the interview board.
Lord Grade, who comes from a showbiz family, has spent time at the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. His father was the theatrical agent Leslie Grade and his uncles were the impresarios Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont. Lew Grade was one of the founders of the ITV network and was behind ITC, which produced transatlantic hits The Saint and The Persuaders in the 1960s and 1970s.
As controller of BBC One Lord Grade’s showbiz instinct led to a swap in timeslots for Neighbours that moved the Australian daytime soap to nightly viewing. He became chief executive of Channel 4 in 1986, returning to the BBC as chairman in 2004, leaving two years later to become chairman of ITV.
