British Digital Broadcasting Plc’s long search for a new chief executive is finally over as the company yesterday announced the appointment of Stephen Grabiner, formerly an executive director of United News and Media Plc. The move comes after Flextech chief executive Roger Luard and BSkyB’s David Chance ruled themselves out of the race earlier this month (CI No 3,322). The company, jointly owned by Carlton Communications Plc and Granada Group Plc, says it’s still on track to launch its 15 channel digital terrestrial channel in the autumn but has not yet announced who has won the order for set-top boxes needed for receiving and decoding digital signals. A spokesperson for BDB commented: we are in advanced talks with a number of people and will be announcing a deal in the near future. Meanwhile, British Sky Broadcasting Plc, which is planning to launch a rival 200 channel digital satellite service in June, says it will be releasing further details of its offering along with its financial results early next week.
