Arqiva Said to Have Hired Pierre-Jean Sebert to Head its Planned Online VOD Venture

[itvt] reported last week (see article published on itvt.com, July 27th) that broadcast transmission company, Arqiva (note: the company owns and operates two of the UK's six digital terrestrial TV multiplexes, and is currently in the running to acquire a third), had agreed to acquire the platform assets of Project Kangaroo, the VOD platform developed by UKVOD, a joint venture between the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and terrestrial broadcasters, ITV and Channel 4, for a price believed to be in the £8 million range (note: Project Kangaroo was believed to be close to launch, when it was nixed in February by the Competition Commission, an independent public body that investigates mergers, markets and regulated industries at the UK government's behest). When it announced the acquisition, Arqiva said that it plans to use the Project Kangaroo platform assets to launch a new, Web-based, consumer-facing VOD service to UK consumers in the coming months, that will offer both free and paid content, including "top-end quality content from leading broadcasters and independent content providers."

According to a report in the UK newspaper, The Guardian, Friday, the company has now hired Pierre-Jean Sebert, the former managing director of British Eurosport, to head up the new VOD venture that it is planning. Sebert's resume also includes stints at UKTV and at Reel Enterprises, a rights negotiation company. The Guardian also reported that Arqiva had been in discussions with Kangaroo CEO, Rod Henwood, and CFO, Christine Mulling, about joining the new venture, but that they had decided against doing so. Whether three other senior Kangaroo executives--CTO, Lee Morgenroth; commercial director, Cosmo Lush; and product director, Richard Dines--who were also believed to be in discussions with Arqiva about joining the new venture will do so remains unclear.

The new venture will be launching in an increasingly crowded market: Hulu, the broadband video service co-owned by NBC, Fox and Disney-ABC, is expected to launch in the UK this fall, and Microsoft has just beta-launched an MSN Video Player service, featuring a range of long-tail full-length programming from BBC Worldwide and All3Media (see article published on itvt.com, July 30th).