SES’s Urner succeeds Cohen as MX1 chief

SES has named Wilfried Urner as the new CEO of its media service unit MX1, replacing Avi Cohen.

SES said that Cohen, who joined MX1 predecessor company RR Media in 2012 and supported the merger of that outfit with SES Platform Services, had decided to leave the company.

Unrner led SES Platform Services for many years, building a portfolio of service acrivities for SES Video and for HD+, the German HD platform. He was a key driving fore behind the acquisition of RR Media and the creation of MX1 last year.

Urner will retain his current roles in the management team of SES Video as Head of Media Platforms and Product Development, and also continue to serve as CEO of HD+.

“With Wilfried succeeding Avi as CEO of MX1, the company will continue on its successful path to become the world’s first media globaliser,” said Ferdinand Kayser, CEO of SES Video.

“Avi has positioned MX1 as an infrastructure-independent provider of innovative digital video and media solutions for the broadcast and media industries across the globe. We would like to thank him for his contributions and wish him well for the future.”

Speaking at a press event at IBC in September, Urner, who is in charge of the emerging platform services business at SES, unveiled plans to develop further the satellite outfit’s consumer-facing businesses.

He said that SES would offer a more complete UHD TV platform for the US market that could involve a consumer-facing element, and highlighted the company’s plans to develop a video-on-demand offering that could be added to the HD+ platform and could also provide VOD to regions of the world that are underserved by fixed networks.