Lord Hall, former Director General of the BBC and incumbent president of the European Broadcasting Union, will step down from this position on December 31st.

For its 70th birthday, it seems the EBU has decided to write a new page by choosing, for the first time, a woman has its new leader from January 1st 2021.

Indeed, EBU deputy-president (since 2019) and president of France Télévision, Mrs Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, has been elected as Hall’s successor and will take office for a 2-year term.

Mrs Ernotte-Cunci has had a tremendously successful career in the field of telecommunications. From 1989 to 2015, she worked for famous telecommunications operator “Orange” (formerly known as France Télécom), climbing the ladder from financial analyst to the position of chief-executive for the French branch of the company. In 2015, she was nominated first female president of the French public broadcaster “France Télévisions”. Even though her first term was not exempt from criticism, she was renewed in the position last July for 5 more years.

The 54-year-old Basque lady defines herself as a feminist and had made gender equality one of the leit-motives of her presidency of France Télévisions. When she took office in 2015, she described her new company as “a broadcaster of white men aged 50 and over” and decided to start changing things. We will soon find out wether Mrs Ernotte-Cunci has the same ambitions for the European Broadcasting Union or not.

As the chairman of the French broadcaster, she has attended the Eurovision Song Contest several times (Lisbon, Tel Aviv) and she is the woman behind the come-back of France to the Junior contest. No doubt that as the new president of the EBU, she will take good care of the Eurovision family of events.

Let’s wish her “bonne chance” on this new adventure!

UPDATE: Also elected with the absolute majority during this first virtual Geneneral Assembly of the EBU, is Mr Petr Dvořák, incumbent president of Česká Televize, who will take the position of vice-president of the European organization.