BBC boss hits back at Murdochs I think that looks a bit rich now. James Murdoch made the comments about the BBC at the 2009 MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. In his speech he accused the BBC of being overly-dominant and "state sponsored." Ms Thomson, who has an annual pay package totalling £350,000, is one of the BBC" most powerful executives. As well as running great swathes of the corporation she has been deputising for the director general since the retirement of Mark Byford last March. In what is likely to be seen as a pitch for the top job, Ms Thomson said that becoming director general would be "enormously exciting." Mr Thompson confirmed last week that he would be stepping down from the role this autumn. Asked whether she would like to become the BBC's first female director general, Ms Thomson said: "It's an enormous job. Mark Thompson once described it as like skateboarding downstairs holding a Ming vase. If you've been as close to it as I have, you find the prospect that you might do it a bit awesome. You stop and think, my goodness, this would be big. On the other hand it would be enormously exciting and very challenging. So, we shall see. Ms Thomson, 57, said that the BBC is right to freeze the licence fee. "I don't think we've a right to ask people for continual licence fee increases when they're having their salaries cut and losing their jobs," she said. Ms Thomson joined the BBC as a journalism trainee in 1975 before leaving in the early 1980s to work for MP and SDP leader Roy Jenkins. She then joined Channel 4 before rejoining the BBC in 1996. She is married to Roger Liddle, Tony Blair's former advisor. As chief operating officer, Ms Thomson has responsibility for the BBC's policy and strategy, and its marketing and communications. She also overseas its legal department, its editorial policy and its business operations. She is also the director accountable for big projects such as digital switchover, the recent move to Salford and the redevelopment of the BBC's two main sites in London.