Following the departure of Pierre Danon as chief executive of BT Retail, the UK telecom company is forming a new Entertainment division to be headed by Andrew Burke.
Following the departure of Pierre Danon as chief executive of BT Retail, the UK telecom company is forming a new Entertainment division to be headed by Andrew Burke.
The current director of value added services at BT Retail, Andrew Burke is the chairman of both BT Rich Media and the online payment services venture BT Click & Buy.
The new division will be responsible for bringing together services to develop and deliver television and video services over broadband, including BT Rich Media, its digital media platform which provides flexible bandwidth over broadband.
The company has hired Dan Marks, UK president of Universal Studios Networks to help develop the division and “head up BT’s new video on demand strategy”. Although BT has been known to be looking at video on demand, this is the first public announcement of a formal strategy in this area.
Previously, Dan worked at Video Networks where he was Head of Programming. Video Networks provides broadband video services in the London area.
“The setting up of this division shows BT’s commitment to being at the leading edge of broadband developments in the UK and maximising the opportunities enabled within the home,” said Marks.
Pierre Danon, who will be leaving BT for Cap Gemini, added: “we are about to cross the chasm from an early adopter market to one which will fully embrace the full potential of broadband, a fledgling mass market”.