Amid record growth, Beamly promotes US MD Jason Forbes to global CEO; Anthony Rose to head new B2B unit

NEW YORK, LONDON and SYDNEY, Aug. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Beamly, the award-winning social & content network for TV, today announced the promotion of Jason Forbes to the role of global CEO. Forbes was previously managing director of the company's successful US business. At the same time, Beamly's co-founder Anthony Rose becomes President of a separate B2B unit, dedicated to serving industry partners.  Beamly's current CEO and co-founder, Ernesto Schmitt, steps up to non-executive President of the group and board member.

The change happens at a time of record growth for the company, which has seen its active user number quadruple since relaunching under the Beamly brand in April this year. Said Forbes: "We are on a solid trajectory: July saw Beamly hit a run rate of over 4M monthly active users, up 51% on June - which in turn was up 53% on May. Overall our monthly active users have grown 350% since our April relaunch, and on current pace, we're setting our sights on 10M MAUs for 2015. It's a privilege to be asked to lead the team at such an exciting time."

Said Schmitt: "Jason has done a terrific job leading our business in the US, and I'm pleased to hand him responsibility for the global company at this juncture. In my role as non-exec President I will work actively with the team on achieving our ambitious growth targets, as well as continue to engage with the industry and our partners."

The change capitalizes on Beamly's successful growth as a consumer product. In that context, Simon Miller, who in his role as Chief Product Officer has been responsible for driving the company's consumer-led development approach, also takes on the additional responsibility of UK Managing Director.

Said Miller: "A lot of hard work has gone into building the winning proposition that Beamly now offers consumers. Our focus is about continuing the momentum in adoption, and on reaping the substantial opportunity for monetization through native synchronized TV/mobile advertising that our platform provides."

As part of the change, co-founder and board member Anthony Rose also becomes President of a newly-created business dedicated to responding to the many inbound requests from device makers, providers and publishers for integrating Beamly's technology. 

Said Rose: "Beamly leads the world in the cross-over between the television, mobile devices and content. This opens up entirely new forms of interaction between the three, and it is little surprise that a stream of companies are knocking on our door, looking for ways to partner. It made sense to create a separate business unit dedicated to this task." 

With Beamly, TV fans have a single 24/7 destination where they can:

• follow the shows and stars they love to get personalized news and social feeds – updated live
• find and follow other fans to connect with around shared passions
• chat and share in TV Rooms – Beamly's unique social spaces for television, hosted by TV influencers, celebrities and passionate superfans
• discover what to watch with Beamly's super-smart personalized guide
• interact live with their favorite shows via custom playalong games, contextual votes and more, all synched live to what's on screen

Beamly is available free from Google Play for Android, the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and on the web at http://beamly.com

Notes To Editors:

About Beamly
Beamly is the world's leading content and social network for TV. Beamly was founded in 2011 by former iPlayer CTO Anthony Rose and EMI executive Ernesto Schmitt.  The company is based in London, New York and Sydney, and is backed by Comcast, NBCUniversal, Viacom, BskyB and Network TEN.

Beamly press enquiries:
[email protected]

SOURCE Beamly