Ashley Highfield is to quit the troubled web TV service Kangaroo to head up Microsoft’s UK operations. The former head of the BBC’s Future Media division is leaving the BBC-ITV-Channel 4 venture after just four months, leaving the company looking for a third boss before the project has even launched.
In the short term, former Channel 4 and NTL executive Rod Henwood will take the reigns while the search for a successor gets underway.
The future of Kangaroo remains in the balance while the Competition Commission investigates potential market dominance. The inquiry is not expected to complete until early in 2009.
Kangaroo’s first CEO, former Sky director of channels Lesley McKenzie left to work for former Sky managing director Ian West at online TV venture 123web.