A British broadcasting venture that has helped defend the BBC from the rise of Netflix has been left rudderless after its chief executive was poached by a major shareholder.
Susie Buckridge is understood to be leaving YouView to take up a new role as head of product services at the budget broadband provider TalkTalk.
It is the latest bout of turbulence to strike the internet-based TV service, which is backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, TalkTalk and BT.
The business offers set-top boxes that can record and rewind shows as well as displaying terrestrial channels, catch-up players and paid-for TV services such as BT Sport, and is seen as a crucial player in the fight against deep-pocketed US streaming services such as Disney and Netflix.
YouView has grappled with launch delays, boardroom bust-ups and wrangles over shareholder funding in the decade since it was created to support the future of UK broadcasting.
Arqiva dealt a blow to the service last year when the television mast monopoly pulled its investment from both YouView and Freeview, the main terrestrial broadcasting service.
The Telegraph understands that a new shareholder agreement has since been signed that has kept all six remaining investors on board.
Ms Buckridge has spent 12 years at YouView after joining the business from her role as head of strategy at the BBC.
The move will reunite her with Sir Charles Dunstone, the founder of TalkTalk who completed a stint as chairman of YouView in 2013 when Lord Alan Sugar quit the role following a boardroom row with the then Channel 5 owner Richard Desmond.
Lord Sugar was paid £500,000 a year to chair the business but left shortly after Mr Desmond allegedly taunted the BBC Apprentice star, shouting “you’re fired!” during an executive meeting.
BT and TalkTalk have shouldered a greater share of the funding commitment for YouView in recent years after successfully using the service to burnish their pay TV ambitions.
YouView’s revenues were flat at around £8.7m for the year to the end of March, while losses narrowed from £18.9m to £18.4m over the period.
YouView did not respond to requests for comment.
