Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Monday 14 April 2008, 9:57 AM
BBC's digital supremo quits
Ashley Highfield, champion Birtspeaker and outgoing (now in multiple ways) chief of "future media and technology" for the Beeb, is heading off to the realms of Project Kangaroo.
Kangaroo is basically an aggregated platform for programmes from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 et al - in other words, it'll be like proper channel-hopping TV on your laptop screen. If anything spells the death of traditional telly in the UK, it's this project.
Of course, Kangaroo will also continue and exacerbate the scarily rapid impact of services like the iPlayer on the nation's broadband infrastructure (or, more accurately, the nation's broadband pricing models). Highfield has recently been at the forefront of the net neutrality flamefest between Auntie and the ISPs (notably Tiscali), so there's a red-hot baton waiting for his as-yet-unidentified successor.
Without wanting to sound too melodramatic about it, the BBC's future depends - at least in part - on how that successor navigates the net neutrality line. Trial by fire, indeed.
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