YouView hires top marketer ahead of expected autumn launch

Last October YouView made its entire marketing and communications redundant. It has now hired Conway who will report to Richard Halton, chief executive.

Conway was previously brand marketing director at price comparison company Kelkoo.

YouView's initial launch was scheduled for the summer of 2011 but has been delayed by technical difficulties. It is understood it will now launch in autumn.

Stakeholders include BBC, TalkTalk, BT, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Arqiva, while Sky has begun to express an interest in YouView after initially disassociating itself from the joint venture. 

Last year YouView brought in 'Apprentice' star Alan Sugar, an acquaitance of Channel 5 owner Richard Desmond, as chairman in order to whip the project into shape by leveraging his set top box expertise.

The YouView service uses a web-connected set-top box to bundle linear and catch-up services.

A YouView spokesman said the joint venture has been "deliberately very quiet for the last few months" in order to concentrate on the launch and reveals that in the coming months an alpha trial will be rolled out to hundreds of people before a beta trial involving thousands of users.

The service is currently being trialled in a small number of homes.

Prior to joining Kelkoo Conway held senior marketing roles at Premier Inn, the BBC, Discovery Channel and Danone.

Follow Matthew Chapman at @mattchapmanUK

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk