Richard Halton to be Project Canvas chief executive

Richard Halton, the project director of Project Canvas, has been appointed to the role of chief executive, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal. Project Canvas, the BBC-backed venture to bring on-demand TV to Freeview and Freesat, now has a full complement of senior executives and will focus firmly on launching the seven partner venture in the first quarter of next year. Halton, who as programme director of IPTV for the BBC has been instrumental in developing Project Canvas to date, has been appointed with the approval of chairman Kip Meek. Meek, the former chief policy partner at Ofcom who MediaGuardian.co.uk revealed was joining the venture in July , is expected to announce Halton's appointment today. Project Canvas, which counts Channel 4, ITV, BT, TalkTalk, Arqiva and Richard Desmond's Channel 5 as partners, is facing mounting pressure from a number of companies and groups that argue the venture is an anti-competitive cartel. A number of companies, including Virgin Media, have lodged official complaints with the media regulator Ofcom . In March Anthony Rose, the BBC executive who gave the iPlayer a wholesale revamp that made it a hit with consumers, was appointed as technology chief and Tim Hunt, the Freeview marketing director, was hired in the same role. According to the BBC, Project Canvas will have a marketing budget of £48.4m in its first four years . • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".