Freeview Boss Quits As Sales Continue To Rise
The head of Freeview, Matthew Seaman, has quit the BBC-backed digital terrestrial service and is believed to be in talks to join a new pay-television operation due to be launched later this year.
Seaman was appointed general manager of Freeview a year ago and has overseen the dramatic growth of the platform, which has pushed the number of UK digital terrestrial viewers towards the 2.5 million mark (see Freeview Sales Soar In Run Up To Christmas).
The former BSkyB and ITV Digital executive handed in his notice earlier this week and is understood to be in talks to join a new digital terrestrial television venture planned by former Sky executives, David Chance and Ian West.
Reports suggest that Top-Up TV is proposing to offer Freeview customers the chance to upgrade to a range of between six and ten pay-television channels. The service would initially only be available to viewers with an old ITV Digital receiver, but add-on devices could enable anyone with Freeview to receive the channels.
The move will come as a blow to Freeview, which has been selling more than 100,000 set top boxes over the last few months and has put the Government back on track reach its target of switching off the analogue television signal by the end of this decade (see Digital TV Now In More Than Half Of UK Households).
Freeview launched back in October 2002 as a joint venture between the BBC, Crown Castle and BSkyB. It quickly rose out of the ashes of the now defunct ITV Digital and is rapidly entering the mainstream medium with its offering of thirty free-to-air channels including BBC 3, The Hits and Sky News.
Prior to joining Freeview, Seaman was product marketing director for NTL, where he managed the cable company’s television customer base of over two million subscribers. He was also director of interactivity at ITV Digital and has worked for BSkyB and for the Dixons Stores Group.
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