The BBCs Future Media Director, Ashley Highfield, is to leave the embrace of the public service arm of Aunty and move to the Commercial arm of Uncle BBC.
I’ve been working on this post since about 10am this morning (two hours ago) but, thanks to various interuptions and half an hour on the image – I’ve only just finished it.
Incidentally the Kangaroo photo was taken by Jon Wiley and has been released under a Creative Commons licence. See more from Jon Wiley on his Flickr stream.
Anyway to the article.
Since the start of his tenure at the head of the BBCs digital and interactive operations in 2000, Ashley Highfield has lead New Media Future Media to the heart of the Corporation.
If you looked at an organization chart of the BBC in 1999 you would see New Media on the fringes with departments approaching when it was needed.
An org chart today sees Future Media as the big circle in the middle with everything else surrounding it. Put basically – Ashley has taken New Media from being on the fringes, the little brother of the BBC to being right at the centre of everything that happens.
He’s also seen the launch of the iPlayer, a service that could easily be argued as the most important development in TV since the launch of colour.
According to an article on the Guardian website, Highfields job is 85% politics, 15% doing things and given that getting ANYTHING done in the BBC requires you to be the greatest politician in the worl, and given the massive shift he has been able to create within the BBC towards a New Media focus – I’d say he’s going to do brilliantly at Kangaroo.
So what is Kangaroo?
Kangaroo, at its most basic level is a collaboration on digital distrobution of video between Channel 4, the BBC and ITV.
At a more complex level it could take the form of a website/application that lets users around the world buy to own video content from the three broadcasters or pay to play those same videos or even subscribe to an iPlayer like service.
It will also allow the three broadcasters to work together when putting UK created content on services like iTunes, Amazon Unbox, You Tube and others.
So Highfield is moving to a position that will see him being one of the most infuential people in New Media in the UK (and possibly around the world) to having control of one of the most impressive libraries of video content in world.
The BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, another major reforming leader, said to BBC staff of Ashley Highfield “I’m sure you will join me in congratulating Ashley in taking up this fantastic opportunity to oversee the launch of an exciting new venture which is an important part of BBC Worldwide’s future commercial plans.”
“At the same time, I’d like to express my thanks to him for all the great work that he has done since he joined the BBC in 2000.
“He has been pivotal in transforming the BBC for the digital age and a champion on the Executive Board for investment in technology. As a result of his leadership, the BBC is being re-engineered and successfully positioned to take on the enormous challenges of the future.”
The person that replaces him at the BBC will have a pretty big job on his hands. As well as control of the iPlayer, he/she will also be responsible for BBC R&D, bbc.co.uk, BBCi, BBC Podcasts, BBCi and more. He will also be responsible for thousands of staff (including some of the best developers in the world) and something like a £400 million budget.
So who is the current front runner? There are a number of people in the UK that ‘could’ do the job, but as already mentioned – this job is as much about politics as it is about development ability.
The eventual replacement will not only have to be able to argue the case for new media and its role within the BBC, but will have to make decisions on new projects, take a considerable amount of flack for anything that doesn’t go right and represent the BBC at a number of top level New Media and Broadcasting tables BUT they will also have to be able to talk tech.
They will be quized about every project (example: iPlayer on Linux, iPlayer v ISPs) by new media and tech experts. They will be asked to justify any small change (example: BBC Homepage) to people that don’t know what’s going on and they will be expected to keep their head and continue smiling.
According to the Guardian Erik Huggers (ex Microsoft new Controller of BBC Future Media and Technology) isn’t being tipped to replace Highfield and has been groomed for the role by Highfield for a while now.
A quote in the Guardian article says of Hugger “He makes stuff happen and is very hands-on. He is a very accomplished public speaker, has a very broad knowledge and will knock heads together.”
Whoever takes over will be doing so at a REALLY important time within the BBC – a time when ALL content across the BBC (from whichever department) is being digitized, a time when the BBC Archive is close to release, a time when iPlayer radio is close to moving to flash, a time of embedding, sharing and BBC2.0.
It’s a time when the BBC will be moving closer and closer to being a Broadcast corporation with New Media first – a time when New Media will be the most used broadcast medium.
After all – more than 45 million videos have been viewed on iPlayer since its launch three months ago and that’s before it was made available on the iPhone and Wii.
Anyway – a few quotes from the Press Release to finish things off I think.
Ashley Highfield said: “This is a fantastic opportunity. Kangaroo is a historic partnership with a combination of innovative technology and terrific content and I’m looking forward to transforming the way audiences watch television.”
John Smith, Chief Executive, BBC Worldwide said: “I’m delighted we’ve appointed Ashley as the CEO of Kangaroo. His knowledge in the digital media field is world class and he’ll bring tremendous strategic and operational expertise to successfully take the venture forward.”
Michael Grade, ITV Executive Chairman said: “Kangaroo will be an important shop window for UK broadcaster content and is another component of ITV’s exciting online strategy. I am pleased we have appointed a CEO with Ashley’s experience and expertise.”
Andy Duncan, Chief Executive, Channel 4 said: “This is great news for Kangaroo and its founding partners. Ashley is one of the most influential players in digital media and emerging markets and the ideal CEO to drive this important and exciting project forward.
“On demand is already growing at a lightning rate, as can be seen in the figures for 4oD and more recently the BBC’s iPlayer, and Kangaroo’s launch will drive the market from strength to strength.
Ryan Morrison is a geek, journalist and someone obsess with media, technology and geek culture. He writes for the BBC in Jersey on any subject that falls on his desk and presents a show about the islands music scene. He has been blogging for six years.