The BBC has always kept a keen eye on competitive threats. This is the organisation that, in 1955, killed a much-loved character in The Archers as a distraction on the night that ITV was launched. In my years as a senior executive at the corporation (I joined in 1980 and made my way up through the ranks to editor of Today, then head of BBC television news, then director of sport and, finally, editorial director of the organisation, which I left in May 2013), we spent many awaydays in country-house hotels contemplating the challenges ahead: the launch of satellite television with its hundreds of channels, the expansion of commercial radio, and the rise of the internet with its potential to bring anarchy to the