Red Bee Media Forms New On Demand Division

Red Bee Media (note: the company was originally a BBC business unit,
called BBC Broadcast, that was sold off by the corporation) has formed
a new division, called On Demand, which it says will focus on
providing services related to metadata, media management, digital
publishing and emerging platforms, and has been designed to exploit
the "growing market for delivering content to new platforms." The new
division is headed up by Adam Poulter, Red Bee's executive
commercial director. Martin Harvey, who was previously head of sales,
marketing and international development for Red Bee's Metadata
division, has been promoted to managing director of metadata for the
new On Demand division. He will be tasked with managing Red Bee's
metadata operation in Ealing, West London, which the company says
provides listings in over 23 languages for over 1,450 TV and radio
channels, and supplies data to 14 EPG's across Europe. Ben Schofield,
meanwhile, who was previously head of technology in the Metadata
division, has been promoted to head of on demand, and, according to
Red Bee, will be responsible for "the technology interaction between
the division and the customer." He will be the "technical front man,"
Red Bee says, for all the new division's projects, including its work on
the BBC iPlayer and the Orange Digital TV service (note: the latter is
scheduled to launch later this year). "Metadata is at the core of
delivering successful VOD propositions," Red Bee's Adam Poulter said
in a prepared statement. "This new structure puts our talent in this field
at the center of our business. Both Ben and Martin have in-depth
knowledge of this market and will be instrumental in Red Bee Media's
growth."