Close Up: Nizar Allibhoy, ICTV’s ActiveMedia Group

Cable and Internet entertainment veteran Nizar Allibhoy has linked up with ICTV, signing on as senior vice president and general manager of the company’s newest branch, ActiveMedia Group. The Los Angeles-based group is dedicated to Web-created, TV-delivered programming.

“There are two principal areas that I’m going to be focused on,” said Allibhoy. “One is developing new programming services that will work on ActiveVideo.” Those services will cross platforms from Internet to mobile technologies to traditional television, he said.

“The other part of the mandate from my group is to work very closely with programmers and help them develop product and new programming,” he said. ActiveVideo delivers Web-driven programming in MPEG format, in real time and on demand.

Allibhoy was most recently CEO of ClickStar, which he left prior to the commercial launch. Asked if he left to pursue the ICTV development, Allibhoy said no: “That was actually to pursue the development of my third child.” He has also worked for Time Warner Cable, Sony Pictures Digital and, most recently, ClickStar, the online film distribution company cofounded by actor Morgan Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment and Intel.

Though too early to disclose some of ActiveMedia’s content partners, Allibhoy confirmed it is working with AccuWeather and Reuters to create Web-driven television channels. “Our technology allows them to take [their] stuff and make it work on the television screen,” he said.

He said to look for other announcements in early summer.