[2] Slater became the BBC's first female Director of Sport in April 2009, retiring from the role in March 2024 after overseeing fourteen different football World Cups and European Championships and seven Olympic Games.

She had previous experience in the TV industry starring in the 1977 BBC children's thriller series Out of Bounds, before working for ATV Sport.

[4] She eventually became head of sports production, and helped produce programmes for events such as The Open and Masters golf, the Commonwealth Games, the Grand National, Ascot and the Derby.

[6] Barbara also, in 2013, won back the broadcasting rights of the FA Cup, in a major coup, ensuring live first-class football was available to licence fee payers.

This is in addition the Grand National which saw Channel 4 gain the rights in March 2012; further dilution of the BBC sports portfolio (together with the loss of advert-free coverage) was announced by Slater in the guise of a sharing arrangement with ITV;[11] and in September 2015 she announced the imminent loss of yet more live coverage, this time of The Open Championship.

[15] In the 2024 Birthday Honours, Barbara Slater was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to sports broadcasting.