Fairfax Digital has appointed former Daily Telegraph managing director of online, Ricky Sutton, to the new role of head of video to help drive the media company’s video content.
Sutton will be responsible for integrating, developing and streamlining online video to connect advertisers with consumers through work, home and mobile devices.
He recently worked at Ninemsn as head of entertainment and video, launching its entertainment site, The Fix. He has since been running his own media consultancy business, Epiphany. Sutton comes from the UK where he was news editor at News Corp’s The News of the World.
Sutton told Mumbrella: “We expect to see video streams double and advertising revenue to rise more than 50 per cent a year for the next few years, so I feel very lucky to be taking up this role. Web video will be the fastest growing advertising segment – not just in digital but in the market as a whole.”
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His appointment comes at time of growing demand for online video content. AIMIA – the Australian Interactive Media Association – for the first time included a video category in its awards this year, while Yahoo!7 for its part has signed up to be the official online broadcaster for the 2010 Australian Open Tennis Championships.
Leigh Terry, OMD managing partner, has previously warned however that TV networks have been slow to anticipate the demand for video, with inventory not meeting growing demand from advertisers.
In November, Fairfax Digital rebranded its online video advertising products under the umbrella brand of FDTV. Fairfax Digital recently won Online Publisher of the Year in the Frost & Sullivan Best Practice Awards in Australia.
Sutton added: “It’s an exciting time for online video in Australia, particularly with the upcoming national broadband network set to widen access to content‐rich services throughout the country.”