Lord Hall appointed as Channel 4 deputy chairman

Royal Opera House chief executive Tony Hall will succeed Lord Puttnam as deputy chairman of Channel 4. It will be a case of one lord replacing another: the former BBC News boss was ennobled as Lord Hall of Birkenhead last year. Media regulator Ofcom, which announced the appointment on Wednesday, also said that Channel 4 chairman Lord Burns would remain in the role for a second three-year term until 2016. The regulator also announced three new non-executive directors of the Channel 4 board: former Press Association chief executive Paul Potts; MT Rainey, best known as co-founder of WPP-owned ad agency RKCR; and Josie Rourke, who will join the Donmar Warehouse as artistic director next month. Lord Puttnam, Martha Lane Fox, the lastminute.com founder who is now the UK's "digital champion", and private investment company boss Stephen Hill will leave the Channel 4 board. Director of BBC news for 11 years and a one-time candidate for the job of BBC director general, Hall left to left the corporation to join the Royal Opera House in 2001 . Already a non-executive member of the Channel 4 board, Hall was also one of the key figures in the launch of BBC Radio 5 Live and was editor of BBC1's Nine O'Clock News. Burns said: "I would also like to express my thanks to the support I have received from the departing members of the board and to welcome the three new appointments. "I very much look forward to working with them over the next few years. I am also pleased that Tony Hall is to become my deputy chairman; he brings many years' experience of the broadcasting and arts industries and has been a source of wise counsel on the Channel 4." • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook .