ITV promotes Bazalgette to chairman as Norman steps down

Bazalgette, who will take up the role after the FTSE 100 company's annual shareholder meeting on 12 May, has been a non-executive director of ITV since June 2013 and remains president of the Royal Television Society but last month resigned as Chair of Arts Council England.

Former chairman of Endemol UK, where under his chairmanship the TV producer trebled its value to over $3bn, Bazalgette is revered and reviled for his role in developing reality television and lifestyle TV programmes such as 'Big Brother', 'Ready Steady Cook' and 'Changing Rooms'.

A slick networker, Bazalgette, known as 'Baz' to friends and colleagues and to TV critic Quentin Letts as "one of the 10 worst Britons", has also been a non-executive director of Channel 4.

"As I have seen for myself over the last few years, ITV has gone through a remarkable resurgence during Archie's chairmanship and there is still so much more that we can achieve," he said.

"This is an incredibly exciting time for everyone in the media sector with change happening at an unprecedented rate."

Chief executive Adam Crozier, appointed by Norman in early 2010, added: "It's been great to have had Archie as part of the team over the last six years as we transformed the company into the international media business it is today."

"ITV is now clearly in a much stronger position creatively, commercially and financially than when we started out and we're in great shape to take on the many opportunities and challenges ahead. I'm really pleased that Peter, with his huge wealth of experience in television and the wider creative industries, will be with us as chairman as we continue to grow and strengthen the business in the UK and internationally."

Investors did not seem as impressed, with shares in ITV down 1% to 241p by 1000 GMT on Tuesday.