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BBC Director General George Entwistle: ''These are awful allegations''
The BBC has promised a "comprehensive examination" of allegations the late Sir Jimmy Savile sexually abused girls while working for the corporation.
Director General George Entwistle said all "outstanding questions" would be addressed - but only after "police had finished everything they have to do".
He also apologised to women involved "for what they've had to endure here".
A growing number of women have come forward to say they were victims of the presenter.
Some have also spoken of a broader BBC culture which tolerated sexual harassment in the 1980s.
On Sunday, Prime Minister David Cameron described the Savile claims as "truly shocking", and called for the allegations to be "properly investigated" by the corporation.
'Enormous obligation'George Entwistle's announcement that the BBC will address "all outstanding questions" once the police have considered the criminal allegations has been welcomed by those calling for an inquiry.
The Tory MP Rob Wilson said the issues went much wider than criminality - they were about "a pretty rotten culture".
What's not clear is how quickly any such inquiry could start.
Dozens more people have come forward in the past few days with their own allegations against the Jim'll Fix It presenter, and other broadcasters and producers - some still living.
These must be assessed by the Metropolitan Police, which will then decide how to proceed and whether any prosecutions should follow.
It could be a long time.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Entwistle said: "The women involved here have gone through something awful, and something I deeply regret they should have had to go through, and I would like to apologise on behalf of the organisation to each and every one of them for what they've had to endure here.
"We need a comprehensive examination of what went on." But not before a full police investigation, he insisted.
Mr Entwistle denied he was kicking an inquiry into the long grass.
"When the police have finished everything they have to do, and when they give me the assurance there is no danger of us in any way compromising or contaminating an investigation, I will take it further and ensure that any outstanding questions are answered properly," he said.
Particularly, the organisation would look at "the broad question of what was going on and whether anybody around Jimmy Savile knew what was going on".
"Jimmy Savile was regarded by a great many people as odd - a bit peculiar," said Mr Entwistle.
However, if anyone actually knew what was happening, "then there was an enormous obligation on them to have done something about it".
"It's very important people don't think the BBC of today is anything like in character managed the way it was at the time," he added.
The Metropolitan Police said last week it would be assessing allegations against Sir Jimmy but had not yet launched an investigation.
'Serious sexual assaults'Sir Jimmy died in October 2011, at the age of 84.
The face of Top of the Pops in the 1960s, he hosted TV favourite Jim'll Fix It on BBC 1 in the 1970s and 1980s and was knighted in 1990 for his charity work.
But over the past week allegations have emerged about serious sexual assaults upon under-age girls at the height of his fame.
Some of the allegations - publicised in an ITV documentary - refer to incidents on BBC premises.
Mr Entwistle, formerly head of BBC Vision - which oversees TV production and commissioning, was asked whether a similar Newsnight report had been dropped because it was embarrassing to the BBC and would clash with a tribute to Sir Jimmy broadcast in Christmas 2011.
He said he had been told about the report in December because of "possible implications for programming and scheduling decisions in Vision".
He also denied the Newsnight editor had been influenced over the matter, adding he supported his judgement.
"He was not brought under any pressure from anybody in the management chain in his own division or elsewhere to make a different judgement than the one he made."
'Regularly fondled'The corporation also faces questions about whether senior staff turned a blind eye to the wider harassment of women at work.
On Saturday, former BBC Radio 1 DJ Liz Kershaw said she had been regularly fondled in the 1980s by another colleague, who she did not name.
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And on Sunday, comedian Sandi Toksvig says she was groped by a "famous individual" while she was broadcasting in the 1980s.
Ms Toksvig, 54, did not indicate where she was working at the time but said when she told staff "everybody thought it was amusing".
"For women working in [the showbusiness] industry, sexual harassment was something you just had to ignore every day of your working life," said journalist and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter, writing in the Daily Mail.
Conservative MP for Reading, Rob Wilson - who has written to BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten about the matter - called for the BBC probe to be "much wider" than one into criminal claims.
"A pretty rotten culture... allowed young girls to be molested and worse and presenters to be fondled by other celebrities. This is an incredible situation and needs to be investigated fully."
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust is considering changing its name.
And a footpath sign commemorating him in Scarborough has been taken down by the council.
The Sun newspaper is also campaigning to have his knighthood stripped, so he would no longer be referred to as Sir Jimmy.
But a Cabinet Office spokesman explained that honours no longer apply after a person died and it was technically unnecessary to refer to the entertainer in that way.
"The Order of the British Empire is a living Order, and individuals cease to be a member when they die."
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