Seven poaches Clive Dickens from Southern Cross to lead HBBTV drive
Clive Dickens
Seven West Media has named Southern Cross Austereo digital director Clive Dickens as its chief digital officer to drive forward new forms of content delivery, including HBBTV.
He will join Seven in early 2015 and report to Seven chief executive Tim Worner.
“Clive is well-known to the market as a champion of new and emerging digital platforms, and as an identifier of new opportunities for growth,” Worner said.
“He joins us at an exciting time. Seven West Media has some of the most successful brands and franchises in the country. We are focused on the delivery of our market-leading content anywhere, anytime to the biggest audiences possible. Our drive into new forms of delivery represents an important cornerstone in our strategy and Clive will lead that push with passion.”
Dickens joined SCA as director of digital and innovation in March 2013 with responsibility for all strategic and operational aspects of its digital content and revenues.
Southern Cross Austereo chief executive Rhys Holleran, said: “We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to Clive for his remarkable impact on the SCA business broadly, and for his leadership of SCA’s digital success since he joined the company in early 2013.
“The search for SCA’s new Director of Digital and Innovation is already underway and we will make an announcement about a successor in the coming months.”
Dickens said: “I am thrilled to be joining Seven West Media and really look forward to working with some of the world’s most compelling brands and channels. Seven creates more premium content than any other Australian media company and I can’t wait to further extend its consumption via more connected devices to even larger audiences.”
Dickens is also a non-executive director at Digital Radio Broadcasting and an HbbTV Steering Committee member at Freeview Australia.
Prior to joining Southern Cross Austereo, Dickens was a co-founder and non-executive director of Radioplayer, a joint venture between the BBC and UK commercial broadcasters, and Co-Founder and COO at Absolute Radio. He has also been an adviser to the founders of Shazam and numerous other digital start-ups.
HbbTV is obsolete already. Better open source platforms out there that are already operating and gaining plenty of viewers even in Australia.
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This is not about HbbTV. Is it the beginning of the end for Yahoo! In Australia? Don’t think so, more like the nail in the coffin… Yahoo!7 audience decline, board dysfunction and talent drain has been evident over the past 12 months. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
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