The chief executive of the Royal Opera House and the BBC's former director of news, Tony Hall, has been appointed the corporation's new director general, BBC News reported.

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten said Lord Hall was "the right person to lead the BBC out of its current crisis". His journalism experience would be "invaluable as the BBC looks to rebuild its reputation", Lord Patten said.

The appointment follows the resignation of George Entwistle earlier this month after just 54 days in the job.

Entwistle quit on 10 November, saying that as editor-in chief he had to take "ultimate responsibility" for a Newsnight report that had led to Lord McAlpine being wrongly accused of child abuse.

Tony Hall is due to take over role - currently occupied by acting director general Tim Davie - in early March, on a salary of £450,000 a year.

The BBC needed "to take a long, hard look at the way it operates and put in place the changes required to ensure it lives up to the standards that the public expects", Lord Patten said. "Tony Hall is the right person to lead this."

He went on: "Tony Hall has been an insider and is a currently an outsider. As an ex-BBC man he understands how the corporation's culture and behavior make it, at its best, the greatest broadcaster in the world. And from his vantage point outside the BBC, he understands the sometimes justified criticisms of the corporation - that it can be inward-looking and on occasions too institutional. But perhaps most importantly, given where we now find ourselves, his background in news will prove invaluable as the BBC looks to rebuild both its reputation in this area and the trust of audiences."