Huggers quits the BBC
BBC Future Media and Technology (FM&T) chief Erik Huggers has quit the UK pubcaster for a job at Intel.
Huggers, who joined the BBC from Microsoft almost four years ago, has been named corporate VP and general manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group.
“Erik Huggers’ proven track record of managing a variety of digital media businesses will be an extraordinary asset to Intel’s digital home initiative,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini.
“Erik’s background and vision for delivering new platforms, interactive content and services to consumers are an outstanding fit for Intel, and I am thrilled to welcome such a talented person to drive this key strategic business.”
In a memo to BBC staff, director general Mark Thompson, who helped lure Huggers over to the UK from the US, credited him with driving exceptional growth of the BBC iPlayer and a “radical refocusing of BBC Online.”
Huggers will not be replaced and FM&T will be split into two, with chief technology officer John Linwood stepping up to head things on one side and Ralph Rivera taking the lead on the other. The changes will take place from March 1.
Huggers is exiting at a critical juncture, having drawn up part of the BBC’s ‘Putting Quality First’ strategic review, suggesting to governing body the BBC Trust that the corporation should slash a swathe of websites and cut its online spending by 25% over the next few years.
Huggers joined the BBC in May 2007 to fill the newly created role of group controller of FM&T, reporting to its director Ashley Highfield, and was widely tipped as his successor.
He quickly set about ensuring that the iPlayer, which struggled at launch, delivered on its promise, bringing in Kazaa exec Anthony Rose as chief technology officer.
When Highfield left to join the doomed Project Kangaroo, Huggers took over, winning a seat on the BBC executive board in the process.
But while he has been widely credited with getting the BBC’s FM&T division back on track, Huggers’ nine years at Microsoft, where he ended up senior director of entertainment business, inevitably didn’t ingratiate him with everyone.
Some within the BBC – particularly those on the Vision creative side of things – complained that this Microsoft heritage meant he was far too focused on the technology and gave short shrift to editorial.
Huggers highlighted the divisions within the organisation himself at a conference in Tel Aviv just before Christmas.
“Editorial and technology are not used to each other,” he said. “These are two different communities that speak a different language. They don’t work very well together and there are, under the BBC roof, many more editorial people than technology people.”
He encouraged the BBC to think in terms of ‘products’ rather than ‘programmes’ – something that was always going to be challenging – and while he continued to enjoy the support of the BBC board (surviving other departures such as Vision boss Jana Bennett), he sometimes tussled with the BBC Trust, though the governing body has now approved many of his reforms.
Huggers’ ultimate goal was ‘BBC Fabric’ – a grand vision of an entirely tapeless production process that ingests creative ideas from their conception and takes them all the way through development to realisation, spitting them out the other end as fully formed final products.
And while he also did much to rescue the BBC Archive and secure it for the future, his greatest legacy at the BBC will undoubtedly be the success of the iPlayer, which enjoyed another record month in December, achieving 145 million programme requests.
Of his appointment at Intel – a move that will see him relocate from London to Silicon Valley in California – Huggers said in a statement: “I look forward to joining one of the leading technology companies in the world. This is a tremendous opportunity to build a new business for silicon, software and services to unlock the potential of high-quality connected media experiences in the living room.”
