Arqiva is mid-way through a £700m, five year investment as part of the UK television industry’s Digital Switch Over project

UK communications infrastructure operator Arqiva this week appointed John Cresswell as CEO, effective January 17. Cresswell had been serving as interim CEO at broadcaster ITV, where he also held the position of chief operating officer.

Cresswell will take the reins as Arqiva is mid-way through a £700m, five year investment as part of the UK television industry’s Digital Switch Over project. The company is also bidding, in the SmartReach partnership with BT and Detica, to provide communications support for the UK government’s national Smart Metering initiative. Cresswell replaces Tom Bennie who is stepping down after 32 years with the organisation.

An executive shake up also took place at mobile data firm Acision on Tuesday, with the announcement of Ericsson veteran Jorgen Nilsson as chief operating officer. Nilsson until recently held the position of chief of Vodafone’s global customer unit at Ericsson. He will take over Acision’s worldwide sales and operations organisation.

There is no shortage of wish lists from industry executives, which vary considerably depending on which sector they come from. But one theme keeps popping up – the perennial question of what (if anything) should ITV be doing in pay television. It is a question that has taken on more importance thanks to the economic downturn (which has affected pay television far less than free-to-air commercial channels) and reports this week suggested that pay-TV options for the ITV digital channels were on the list of priorities for Crozier and new chairman Archie Norman. Frankly, it would be a surprise if they were not.

But turning a desire for steady pay-TV income into a paid-content strategy that plays to ITV’s strengths could prove to be more difficult. Crozier and Norman will rightly be expected to figure out what ITV wants to do with pay TV, even if the answer to this is ultimately “nothing”. If they decide that pay-TV is a must, it would probably take extensive toe-dipping into online pay options before they would consider launching pay-television channels, let alone taking an entire digital-channel portfolio to pay. The expensive failure of ITV Digital, the pay-DTT service, will remain as a cautionary tale as they make their deliberations.

Online video is likely to feature in any ITV pay-TV foray, so a strong online distribution partner could play an important role in moulding ITV’s pay-TV identity. One possible candidate to take on the role of mentor is Hulu, the US online-video service, which is understood to have offered ITV equity in return for exclusive content deals. Hulu is itself figuring out pay options and in News Corporation, NBC Universal and Disney it has some very experienced pay-TV players as shareholders.

After much buzz in early 2009, it all went rather quiet about a Hulu/ITV deal in the second half of the year. In part, this was because ITV was unlikely to commit to significant equity deals before a new chief executive and chairman were in place. ITV arguably has some catching up to do in terms of online innovation and its next Web moves – with or without Hulu – will be watched with great interest and seen as an indication of what Crozier’s promise of a business “transformation” might mean.

A final note on “grocers” and “postmen”. Despite much noise about ITV’s having been entrusted to two broadcasting ingénues, industry executives expressed little palpable concern about the lack of broadcasting experience of Crozier and Norman (the former chief executive of supermarket chain Asda). Leaving aside the occasional silly, snobbish remark (mostly tongue-in-cheek), there were many that saw the appeal of getting in some “fresh DNA” into ITV.

Michael Grade, the previous chairman, certainly had independent television running through his veins – as nephew of Lew Grade whose ATV was one of the original ITV franchise owners. Adam and Archie come from different stock but they could be just right for pay-TV. After all, there is little a grocer doesn’t know about selling packages and who better than a postman to handle a form of television that is addressable?

IPTV platform wins support from UK broadcasters

UK broadcaster Channel 4 and internet service provider Talk Talk are the latest companies to join Project Canvas, a joint venture dedicated to developing and running an IPTV platform.

Channel 4 and Talk Talk, the Carphone Warehouse-owned ISP, join founding members of the venture, the BBC, ITV, Five, and BT, giving the project a full complement of UK broadcasters.

The aim now is to develop a technical specification for IPTV-enabled devices in partnership with standards body the Digital Television Group (DTG), then to build the technology platform and create and market a relevant consumer brand.

According to the initiative’s backers, the platform created by Project Canvas would bring together linear TV and internet-based applications – creating an upgrade for the UK’s existing free-to-air TV platforms Freeview and Freesat, and giving TV audiences open access to a wide range of internet-based services.

What this means is consumers would be able to access a number of on demand media services over the internet, such as films and music, as well as popular web services such as YouTube, Twitter, and Google Mail, all through the TV.

The first Canvas-certified equipment, probably set top boxes, is to go on sale before Christmas 2010, because of the start of high definition terrestrial Freeview broadcasts. If consumers buy a new set top box to allow them to receive the HD Freeview content before Canvas boxes are on the market it is thought they will be less receptive to buying another new set top box -a Canvas-enabled one so soon after.

“Internet-connectivity is going to have a transformational effect on TV. By seamlessly converging broadband and broadcast content, project canvas can help secure the future of free-to-air broadcasting and create an open platform that gives online services a route to the TV set,” said Project canvas programme director Richard Halton.

“The potential for innovation goes far beyond bringing video-on-demand to the TV set and there’s a huge opportunity for a wide range of new commercial models to thrive. We always wanted all the UK’s public service broadcasters and at least two ISPs to be involved in the venture at launch, so we’re delighted that Channel 4 and Talk Talk have joined the project.”

UK broadcaster BSkyB has been told to offload the majority of its holding in rival ITV, on recommendation from the Competition Commission.

John Hutton, secretary of state for business and enterprise, said Sky must reduce its stake in ITV from 17.9 per cent to less than 7.5 per cent, and must not sell the shares to anyone associated with Sky.

Sky bought the stake last year, just days after cable giant NTL, now known as Virgin Media, approached ITV with a merger offer of its own. Ofcom subsequently investigated and the authorities seem agreed that the move poses some competitive problems.

Alan Flitcroft, head of media and entertainment at Ernst & Young, said: “John Hutton’s decision to follow the recommendations of the Competition Commission is unsurprising.  What will be interesting is to see if BSkyB challenge this ruling. It has been reported that as far as BSkyB were concerned, their ownership stake was less than the 20 per cent limit set by the Communications Act, so the decision must be very frustrating for them.”

BSkyB has one month to lodge an appeal.

ITV said it rejected the deal, which could have been worth around £4.7bn, on the grounds that the “offer materially undervalues ITV” and there was little benefit to be gained by the broadcaster undertaking such a move.

“Whereas there is obvious appeal to NTL in gaining control of ITV’s substantial and successful business,” the company said in a statement.

The rejection will likely irk Richard Branson further, who is already crying foul over BSkyB’s acquisition of a 17.9 per cent stake in ITV last week, just days after NTL approached the broadcast company with its offer.

Branson’s Virgin Group is the largest shareholder in NTL, with a 10.5 per cent stake acquired when Virgin Mobile merged with the cable company earlier this year. Branson has labelled BSkyB’s move as an attempt to stifle competition and called for a regulatory review.

In response, Ofcom said on Tuesday that it “has invited ITV and BSkyB to comment on whether BSkyB’s acquisition of shares in ITV represents a change of control of one or more of the licences held by ITV.”

Ofcom’s definition of a change of control includes factors encompassing levels of shareholding, voting rights, management controls and funding arrangements and will conduct a deeper review if such a change is considered to have taken place.

Ofcom will also be liaising with the Office of Fair Trading on its assessment of any merger that results out of the deal and said that in the event of a merger the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry may ask Ofcom to consider whether there are any broadcasting and cross-media public interest considerations.

As chief of the mobile division, Goodwin will lead ITV’s mobile strategy with a focus on mobile TV, user generated content and mobile advertising.

Last month, ITV and 3G mobile operator 3 UK joined forces in an exclusive deal to stream TV content to mobile handsets in the UK.

The deal will enable the 3.5 million customers on 3 to watch ITV’s flagship channel, ITV1 and ITV Play – ITV’s participation channel – live on their mobile phone.

Available from this autumn, ITV claims the service will be the UK’s first live streamed terrestrial mobile channel, reaching more than 89 per cent of the UK population.

Under the partnership, ITV has granted an exclusive 3G mobile licence to 3 for six months.

The ITV1 channel will be available on the 3 network for £0.99 per day, while the ITV Play channel will be available for £0.49 per day. An all you can eat subscription to 18 channels costs £5 per month.

But ITV, which in the terrestrial TV space is funded by advertising revenues, has been forced to remove ads from its streamed mobile TV service after a regulatory slip up.

The UK’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) recently revealed that broadcasters have to obtain separate rights to broadcast TV ads on other digital channels. Channel 4 recently encountered a similar problem when streaming its content over the internet.

Daren Siddall, principal research analyst at Gartner said that “advertising will play an important role in increasing the use of mobile media services, so this problem will prove a blow to the fledgling mobile ad market.”

The news is also likely to bring further complications and uncertainties to the business model for simulcast TV services on the mobile phone, Siddall said.

The deal will enable the 3.5 million customers on 3 to watch ITV’s flagship channel, ITV1 and ITV Play – ITV’s participation channel – live on their mobile phone.

Available from this autumn, ITV claims the service will be the UK’s first live streamed terrestrial mobile channel, reaching more than 89 per cent of the UK population.

Under the partnership, ITV has granted an exclusive 3G mobile licence to 3 for six months.