Anthony Rose, previously the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at music-sharing Web site Kazaa has this week joined the world renowned British Broadcasting Corporation to lead the development team currently working on the next generation of the BBC’s upcoming iPlayer online media portal.
With the official title of Head of Digital Media Technology, Rose has been tasked with creating a unified embedded media experience throughout the BBC’s online properties while also assuming some of the responsibilities related to the open position of the head of Web 2.0 Projects. That job was vacated back in June of this year when its prior holder, Tom Loosemore, fled the historic corporation in order to accept a new role with communications industry regulator Ofcom (Office of Communications).
According to a report by the Guardian Unlimited , the securing of Rose as the head of digital media technology completes the BBC’s reorganisation of its future media and technology department, which was first instigated by group controller Erik Huggers who moved from American software giant Microsoft Corporation to the BBC back in May of this year.
The future media arm is separated into six operational groups: the digital distribution team, led by Richard Cooper; the Internet group, which is headed by Tony Ageh and charged with running bbc.co.uk; the mobile group fronted by Matthew Postgate; the TV platform department, which is run by Rahul Chakkara; and the user experience and design team headed up by Richard Titus.
Anthony Rose brings plenty of experience to his new position at the BBC, having amassed some six years of working on DRM, peer-to-peer networks, and social networking during his time at Kazaa . He has also occupied the role of vice president for technology at the Australian arm of Japanese videogame publisher SEGA.
The BBC's iPlayer, which will enable online users to watch catch-up TV services after their initial airing, is presently in its closed beta stage and is expected to be officially launched before the close of the year.
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