Staff, Brand Republic, 14 April 2008, 08:45am

Highfield to leave BBC for CEO role at Kangaroo

LONDON - Ashley Highfield, the BBC's online chief, is leaving the company to take up the role of chief executive at the planned on-demand service from BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV, codenamed Kangaroo.

Highfield, who is director of future media and technology and a member of the BBC executive board, is to take over at Kangaroo from interim chief executive Leslie MacKenzie, the BBC has now confirmed.

Highfield will leave the BBC basking in the glow of the successful launch of the iPlayer, which has become so popular that ISPs are complaining that it is using up too much bandwidth and hitting their revenues.

Under his watch, the number of adult visitors to BBC.co.uk is in the region of 14m every month.

The commercial broadcasters behind Kangaroo will be looking to Highfield to replicate this success when its service launches later this year.

It is designed to complement existing online media initiatives, including the BBC iPlayer, Channel 4's 4OD and ITV.com. It will house more than 10,000 hours of content, focusing on catch-up TV and archive programmes.

Revenue will come from advertising and from consumers, who pay to "rent" or permanently download some content, while other content will be free.

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 of 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."

Highfield joined the BBC in 2000. Prior to that he was managing director of Flextech Interactive, the new media arm of Flextech TV. After Flextech merged with Telewest, he took over responsibility for Telewest's broadband content service Blueyonder.

Prior to this, he was head of IT and new media for the European arm of NBC.

A veteran of the dotcom business world, Highfield has invested in and been a non-executive director at businesses including Multimap.com and the online ticketing company WayAheadGroup.