Peter Bazalgette

He was a consultant to two of Sony’s television divisions in the UK, and was non-executive director of Base79. He is currently on the board of ITV, YouGov and Nutopia and also a member of BBH’s Advisory Board. In early 2017 he was tasked with leading the new independent review of the creative industries for BEIS and DCMS. He is a former board member of Channel 4 and former Deputy Chairman of the National Film & Television School where he helped put up an £8million new teaching building. He was Chairman of English National Opera and was a Trustee of Debate Mate.

In September 2012 it was announced that he would succeed Dame Elizabeth Forgan as Chair of the Arts Council England. during his tenure implementing deep and controversial cuts to public arts spending which particularly damaged regional theatres. In February 2016 Bazalgette was named as the Chairman of ITV, effective from 12 May 2016, and In September 2016, it was announced that Sir Nicholas Serota would replace him at the Arts Council.

Bazalgette has been awarded fellowships by BAFTA and the Royal Television Society, and is President of the Royal Television Society. He was as a non-executive director of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In September 2012 he was appointed chairman of Arts Council England, and began his 4-year term on 31 January 2013.

In January 2005 Bazalgette became Chairman of Endemol UK and Creative Director of Endemol Group worldwide. He was responsible for shows including Big Brother and Deal or No Deal which were hits around the world, and led Endemol's digital entertainment strategy. Although Big Brother was an adaption of an existing series in the Netherlands, Bazalgette is credited with popularising the format around the world thanks to the adaptations he built into the UK version. During Bazalgette's time on the global board, Endemol grew strongly and in 2005 it was launched on the Dutch stock exchange. Over the next eighteen months it trebled in value and was sold in 2007 for €3.2 billion. In September 2007 it was announced that Bazalgette was standing down as Chairman and would assume the role of advisor.

Peter Bazalgette is the great-great-grandson of Victorian civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. A third cousin is Edward Bazalgette who directed and produced the 2003 documentary The Sewer King which charted Sir Joseph Bazalgette's design and engineering of the London sewers. Peter Bazalgette presented a later television show for Five, called The Great Stink, and chaired the Crossness Engines Trust raising £4.5 million to restore the magnificent Victorian pumping station built by his ancestor. An old joke is that where Joseph Bazalgette was responsible for removing ordure from London's homes, his grandson has reversed the process.

Bazalgette joined the BBC News graduate news training scheme, and was subsequently picked by Esther Rantzen as a researcher on That's Life! from 1977. While a reporter at the BBC for Man Alive, he joined Eric Parsloe's video production company Epic. The BBC put him in charge of producing the programme Food and Drink, where he claims to have created the celebrity chef. He continued producing by forming his own production company Bazal, which created hits for British TV including Ready Steady Cook, Changing Rooms and Ground Force. In 1990, Bazal was acquired by Broadcast Communications, which itself was absorbed by Endemol.

Sir Peter Lytton Bazalgette (/ˈ b æ z əl dʒ ɛ t / ; born 22 May 1953) is a British television executive. He was elected President of the Royal Television Society and Deputy Chairman of the National Film School. He was knighted in the New Year Honours for 2012 for services to broadcasting. He has been a benefactor to the arts and Chairman of English National Opera. He was Chair of Arts Council England from 2012 until 2016. He is now Non-Executive Chairman of ITV. He is also Chair of LoveCrafts, the online Retail and a Non-Executive Board member of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). He also serves on the Advisory Boards of BBH and YouGov. In January 2017, The Empathy Instinct was published.