(left) BBC Trust Chairman Chris Patten (right) Tony Hall, the next DG of the BBC

The BBC Trust, the governing body of the BBC, has appointed Tony Hall as the corporation’s next director general.

Chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, announced yesterday that Lord Hall of Birkenhead would take up his post in March 2013.

Acting director general Tim Davie will fill the post until then.

Lord Hall, 61, told a press conference yesterday evening that he was “looking forward to the task ahead immensely”.

Hall was formerly director of BBC News, and then a candidate for the director general position in 1999 when Greg Dyke secured the position.

He then left the BBC, a founding member of the EBU, to run the Royal Opera House for 11 years.