BBC chief quits to launch online video service
Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of future media and technology, is leaving the corporation to launch a joint online video platform for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 which the broadcasters hope will be "a Freeview for the internet".
Mr Highfield's move, expected to be announced today, will create a vacancy for the most senior position in the UK's digital media industry. The post controls a budget of £400m, or one eighth of the annual £3.2bn licence fee funding.
His appointment as chief executive of the on-demand service, codenamed Kangaroo, is likely to encourage the commercial broadcasters and their advertisers, who believe it could repeat the success of the Freeview digital terrestrial television service, now in more than 15m homes.
