High-Profile Interactive TV Industry Figure, Mike Bloxham, Leaves Ball State for Private Sector

Mike Bloxham, a familiar figure on the US interactive TV scene, is leaving his post as director of Insight & Research at Ball State University's Center for Media Design, to join what he described in an email to friends and colleagues as "a start-up company focused on research and consulting in integrated marketing, including email, social media, mobile and other emerging media." He will be replaced by associate director and lead researcher, Dr. Michael Holmes, who Bloxham says has already begun assuming many of his day-to-day management duties.

Holmes "along with other members of the team, will maintain the extensive industry connections central to the success of Insight & Research," Bloxham wrote in his email. "Moving forward, I plan to preserve my relationship with the CMD and Ball State as a member of the Emerging Media National Advisory Board and look forward to my continuing association with the new Viewing+ initiative." (Note: Ball State bills Viewing+ as "a formal program of research that will explore consumer attitudes and behaviors in the emerging domain of interactive television." According to the university, the initiative will address four areas key to interactive TV development: interactivity and programming, interactivity and advertising, interactivity in search and navigation, and the evolution of tcommerce. A core component of Viewing+ is an advisory board that is expected to "gather industry experts to help direct the project's research agenda and lend intellectual capital to the initiative." The board's first members are CBS and OEDN. According to Ball State, the formation of Viewing+ stems from the university's involvement in the OEDN Academic Outreach Program, which it says "for two years gave students, faculty and researchers special access to EBIF development tools, facilitating the development of interactive TV applications including [a] C-SPAN test application produced by faculty and students in spring, 2010.")

Said Bloxham's former boss, the Center for Media Design's executive director, Dave Ferguson: "When Mike Bloxham first landed on our shores in 2002 to help launch the research arm of the Center for Media Design, we all were taking a risk that university media research could take a leap forward by closing the gap between industry and university. Since launching CMD Insight & Research (I&R) in 2003, the outcomes have exceeded anyone's expectations. The artful blend of solid research methodology and industry-driven insights crafted by Mike and I&R associate director, Michael Holmes, has recalibrated our take on media's impact on consumers. We are excited that Mike will get a chance to express his entrepreneurial roots in his next endeavor. And with the team Mike has put in place, Insight & Research is well positioned to continue delivering meaningful insights to industry. But just as importantly, we are looking forward to continuing our association with Mike as we move forward. He will continue to serve on CMD's National Advisory Board, and we expect to be working on selected projects together going forward."