Digital TV company Open sets up in-house team

Open, the digital interactive television service created by British Interactive Broadcasting (BIB), has set up its own in-house legal team.
Senior solicitor Jonathan Kembery, joins from Arnheim Tite & Lewis, the associate law firm of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and will become head of legal.
Kembery is a specialist in telecommunications, information technology and broadcasting law.
Open is also recruiting Sophie Jackson to the role of legal manager. She joins from Allen & Overy where she was an associate in the technology and communications group of the corporate department.
Director of business affairs, Joan Gillman, says that Open is building a technical infrastructure and claims it will be the largest interactive service platform in the country.
An in-house team is needed, she says, to cope with the massive increase in the volume of contract work that is being generated.
The service does not go live until the autumn, but has already been valued by City analysts Investec at £1.4bn.
Gillman anticipates that the in-house team will expand, but the company will continue to instruct its external advisers Olswang and Slaughter and May.
BIB is owned by BT, BSkyB, Midland Bank and Matsushita. It plans to offer home shopping and home banking, e-mail and Internet access, via the television set, later this year.