March 19, 2012 - 19:35 AMT
BBC chief Mark Thompson steps down late 2012

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson is stepping down after eight years at the helm, The Sun reported.

Mr Thompson announced the move in an email to staff today March 19 after a meeting with BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten.

His tenure as the longest Director-General since the 1970s has seen the BBC suffer scandals including the Sachsgate affair and a series of budget cuts and staff redundancies.

He said: "This morning I told Lord Patten that I believe that an appropriate time for me to hand over to a successor and to step down as Director-General of the BBC would be the autumn of this year, once the Olympics and the rest of the amazing summer of 2012 are over.

"Trust and approval are at record highs, our services are in brilliant creative form and we've demonstrated beyond contradiction that the BBC can be just as much of a leader and innovator in the digital age as we once were in the analogue one."

The 54-year-old told staff he wanted his successor to "have time to really get their feet under the table" before the next review of the BBC charter which will take place before the end of 2016.

The corporation had "weathered a series of lively storms" and was "so much stronger than the BBC I inherited back in 2004", he added.

He joined the BBC as a trainee in 1979 and worked on programmes including Watchdog, Newsnight and Panorama before leaving the corporation to become chief executive of Channel 4 from 2002 to 2004.