BBC HD boss Danielle Nagler quits

Danielle Nagler, the BBC's head of HD and 3D, is reportedly leaving the corporation along with two members of her team.

Nagler will leave in September to join City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, with BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow due to take overall responsibility for HD at the BBC, according to Broadcast. Someone to oversee the 3D elements of Nagler's role will be announced shortly.

Nagler's team members Ian Potts and Umme Ali will also depart the corporation at the end of the year, although it is unclear where they are going next.

Roly Keating, the BBC's director of archived content, paid tribute to Nagler for her "tremendous" work at the BBC.

"Danielle has always played a very active role within the BBC, bringing to all her jobs a sharp strategic focus, a beady sense of humour and a can-do approach," he said.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Danielle for the exceptional contribution she has made to the BBC, and to Vision in particular: her passion, intellect, energy and drive have made remarkable things happen here, and she'll be much missed."

Nagler joined the BBC as a journalist in 1996, moving to production arm BBC Vision in July 2008, overseeing the launch of BBC HD and BBC One HD.

Earlier this month, she also handled the first live broadcast of Wimbledon in 3D to Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media for the men's and women's finals.

However, Nagler has faced criticism from some viewers for her handling of the picture quality controversy that engulfed the BBC HD channel on satellite television in 2009.

Broadcast also claims that after Nagler leaves, the BBC HD channel will be transitioned to a HD simulcast of BBC Two, although it will stop short of being a full BBC Two HD channel. A proposal on this has not yet been put forward to the BBC Trust, but it could feature as part of the Delivering Quality First efficiency drive.

In an interview with Digital Spy last year, Nagler said that the launch of BBC Two HD was "not impossible" but there would be the question of what to do with HD content from digital channels BBC Three and BBC Four.

"It's not impossible that there will be a BBC Two HD in future but we would have to have a lot more programming in HD for that to feel like the right tradeoff," she said.

"If, as expected, we only get two HD channels [on Freeview], we would have to figure what we do with BBC Three, BBC Four and Children's HD content that currently has a home on BBC HD. So it's not now and it's not next year, but it's possible that it will happen. But there are tradeoffs."