BBC’s former COO has been appointed new chair of Digital UK

Caroline Thomson, who represented the BBC on the Digital UK board from 2006-2012, has been appointed to chair  Digital UK and will take up her post on 1 January, 2013.

January 2013 will also see Digital UK merge with DMOL, the company which runs the Freeview on-screen TV guide. The combined company will operate under the name Digital UK. It will provide day-to-day technical management of the Freeview Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), manage the launch of new channels onto the platform and allocate channel numbers. Digital UK will continue its work in co-ordinating changes to TV signals ahead of the roll-out of 4G mobile broadband services next year.

David Scott, Chief Executive of Digital UK, said: ‘Caroline has been a huge supporter of Digital UK since the company was founded, so I am delighted she has now agreed to be our chair as we take on new challenges.’

Caroline Thomson said: ‘Digital UK’s talented team has a strong track record of delivering results and with switchover complete, working with the new board we can now address the strategic challenges of ensuring the free to air platform is well managed and that viewers are well served.’

Digital UK led the five-year switchover programme which completed on 24 October 2012, extending Freeview coverage to 98.5 per cent of UK homes. The company is now managing the clearance of TV signals from parts of the 800MHz band of spectrum, which will be used for 4G services.