Davies defended the BBC governors' role and said that, while the government's proposed watchdog Ofcom could criticise the BBC, it could not implement structural changes at the organisation in the same way as its governors -- who were also there, he said, to be held accountable should problems arise.
Davies criticised the commercial sector for putting pressure on the BBC to be controlled by Ofcom. He said that, in his mind, the commercial sector "wants a smaller BBC" that is less of a threat to their business.
Davies' appointment and five-year tenure coincides with the second half of the BBC's current Royal Charter, which he wants to ensure is renewed in its current format in 2006.
He said he would be focusing on two priorities over this period, which will run in parallel. His first will be to ensure that the extra £450m the BBC is generating through cost cutting and a licence-fee increase will be spent wisely and on programming that is not available on commercial television.
His other priority will be to successfully launch the corporation's new digital services, one of which -- youth channel BBC3 -- was rejected by the government last week. The government had been critical of the station's current format. Davies said, "We will seek to convince the secretary of state of BBC3's importance."
Davies' appointment has been criticised by the Conservative Party. This afernoon, shadow culture secretary Tim Yeo said, "The fact that both the director general and the chairman of the BBC are overt supporters of the same political party is a break with all previous precedents [and] will make life difficult for the BBC itself."
Davies refuted claims of cronyism, however, by pointing out that the last political party he worked for was the Tories. He said, "It is outrageous to call me a crony."
Davies today resigned from the Labour Party and said he hoped that he would be involved in the selection of the vice-chairman of the BBC. He added that he hopes the appointment would follow the BBC's tradition of having a mixture of political views in its top three jobs. He has also resigned from his position of chief economist at Goldman Sachs.
He defended his appointment by adding that the BBC governors and executive committee represent a broad mixture of political views and have a large hand in the running of the BBC. This, he said, would make sure that impartiality was "every bit as important to the BBC".
Davies takes over from outgoing chairman Sir Christopher Bland, who leaves at the end of the month to run troubled telecoms giant BT.
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