The chairman of the BBC, Michael Grade, has resigned to take the top job at ITV, the public service broadcaster's main commercial competitor, both companies announced on November 28.
ITV informed the London Stock Exchange while the BBC were forced to make the announcement overnight after details of Grade's appointment as executive chairman appeared in a national newspaper.
Grade, 63, became the BBC's chairman in 2004, taking over from Gavyn Davies who resigned after the publication of a government-commissioned report that faulted the state-funded broadcaster on its coverage of the Iraq war.
"It's been a tough decision to leave the BBC but it was an opportunity I could not resist, given my family's history in the founding of ITV and my own background at ITV subsidiary London Weekend Television," he said.