Marty Roberts, the co-CEO and long-time exec of Comcast-owned online video thePlatform, has left the company, it was confirmed.
GeekWire first reported of Roberts’s departure on Monday.
Roberts and Jamie Miller were named co-CEOs of thePlatform in May 2014, a move that came after Ian Blaine, thePlatform’s co-founder and former CEO, stepped down and took on a temporary role of strategic advisor.
Miller will continue to be responsible for thePlatform, which is now aligned under Matt McConnell, SVP and GM of Comcast Wholesale, the Colorado-based unit that operates a content delivery network, supports multiscreen video services, and recently introduced a live streaming service.
Seattle-based thePlatform was founded in 2000. Comcast acquired the company in 2006 for what’s believed to be about $100 million.
The leadership changes enter play as thePlatform becomes more tightly aligned with Comcast Wholesale.
“In mid-2015, thePlatform aligned with Comcast Wholesale to build market-leading products to serve the worldwide video industry,” thePlatform said, in a statement. “After early successes with customers it became clear that an even tighter alignment across the two organizations would allow for a more rapid expansion and optimization of the combined portfolios to meet the ever-expanding needs of customers.
“The leadership team,” the company added, “recognized the need to have a central point of leadership at thePlatform, and a common vision, to support a tighter alignment of the organization and build forward-thinking technology products. As such, thePlatform will continue to be aligned under Matt McConnell, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Comcast Wholesale. Jamie Miller will continue to report to Matt and be responsible for thePlatform. Marty Roberts, who previously served as co-CEO of thePlatform, will be leaving the company.”
Roberts joined thePlatform in 2006 and, before being named co-CEO, served as the company’s SVP of worldwide sales and marketing. During his tenure, thePlatform saw its customer base grow to the bulk of the top 50 most-watched cable networks, including USA Network, History, Channel, A+E and E!. thePlatform also works with several major MVPDs, such as Liberty Global, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision Systems Corp., Cox Communications, Rogers Communication, Telstra and corporate cousins Comcast and NBCUniversal, and has recently inked strategic deals with partners such as Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, and Verizon Digital Media Services. Examples of OTT/SVOD partners include shomi, Stan, Viaplay, and Starz Play Arabia.
In June, thePlatform launched a cloud-based Unified Ingest Service aimed at simplifying the the management of how video and its associated metadata is ingested and managed for a wide range of device types, including older set-tops that use QAM/MPEG-2 transport as well as IP-capable tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles and streaming players.
