Freesat Makes Senior Appointments

Freesat, the BBC and ITV backed free to view satellite service, has made key senior appointments ahead of its launch.

Simon Winder takes up the finance director role after joining from Chrysalis, where he was group finance manager, and will be responsible for the finance, HR, IT and company secretary departments.

Joining him is the Digital Television Group’s director general, Richard Lindsay-Davies, who will become commercial development director, and Will Abbott who joins as brand marketing and communications director.

Finally, James Atkins joins as marketing manager with responsibility for the retail marketing budget, manufacturer and channel marketing.

Lindsay-Davies, Abbott and Winder will report into Freesat managing director, Emma Scott, while Atkins will report into both Lindsay-Davies and Abbott.

Earlier this year, the BBC Trust gave the BBC approval to go ahead with the launch of the nationally available platform.

Freesat, a joint venture with ITV, has an anticipated launch date of Spring 2008 and will offer up to 200 channels plus digital satellite interactivity and high definition capability.

Michael Grade, ITV executive chairman, said: “Freesat will build on the success of Freeview by offering viewers a simple and cost effective way of upgrading to digital TV.

“By filling in the current gaps in Freeview coverage, Freesat will ensure that a free-to-air, no strings attached option for accessing digital TV is available to the whole of the UK ahead of digital switchover (see

Freesat Gets BBC Trust Approval

Freesat Gets BBC Trust Approval Digital Switchover Begins Today).

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com