The final five candidates from inside and outside the BBC have been interviewed and governors say they all argued that the corporation has too many middle managers who stifle creativity. The new DG must 'strip out an entire layer of bureaucracy', governors have concluded.
One senior source told The Observer: 'The one theme that has emerged is that the BBC is not coming up with the quality of programmes that it needs to compete with commercial and digital broadcasters. If you speak to any of the creatives in the organisation, they complain that it takes forever to get decisions made and to sign off programmes.
'The entire process must be streamlined. That means drastic surgery.'
Among the programmes DG candidates have criticised is Vanessa, the BBC 1 chatshow, axed last week. Saturday schedules have been condemned as 'lame'.
The criticism of BBC programming is likely to harm Alan Yentob's chances of becoming DG. The director of BBC Television has been criticised for introducing 'lightweight' and 'dull' output. It is also bad news for Tony Hall, the head of current affairs.
Governors agree that pruning is needed but are split over whether the next DG, who will implement the restructuring, should be one of the internal candidates - Yentob, Hall and Mark Byford, head of BBC World Service - or one of the external hopefuls - Greg Dyke, chairman of Pearson Television and Richard Eyre, head of ITV.
One faction, led by governors with experience of the private sector, say it must be an outsider. 'I know what it's like when you have to change an organisation as much as the BBC needs changing,' one senior figure said. 'Someone who has worked there all their professional life, who has close friends in every area, tends to lack the ruthlessness required. There is no place for sentimentality.'
Governors who back an external candidate, including the chairman, Sir Christopher Bland, say Greg Dyke is the best man for the job. They insist that the bitter campaign waged against him by Rupert Murdoch's Times has served to strengthen, rather than weaken, his case.
Others say that BBC internals will best manage change. 'The BBC is a very complicated organisation,' one backer of Tony Hall said. 'It needs someone who understands it and has a good track record in managing a big department, like news and current affairs, to do it.' John Birt, the outgoing DG, is backing Byford.
