Liberty Global poaches Tivo CEO Enrique Rodriguez to be CTO

Enrique Rodriguez, who only joined DVR company Tivo as CEO last November, has been poached by Liberty Global to be its CTO.

“Enrique is a seasoned executive who will hit the ground running on day one,” said Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global. “In today’s technology environment the best CTOs have worked across sectors, platforms and geographies. Enrique has C-level experience as an engineer, software developer and operator.

“He has managed multi-billion dollar businesses for companies like AT&T, Microsoft, Cisco and Thomson, and has a long history in digital television as well as the European broadband sector. As head of Microsoft’s Connected TV business, he launched IPTV solutions for telecommunication companies around the world, including many of our competitors. More recently, at AT&T, he was responsible for the teams that developed and launched DIRECTV’s successful OTT service, DIRECTV Now.

“I’m particularly excited to tap into Enrique’s knowledge of video products and platforms as we ramp up innovation in our TV business. He’s the right leader at the right time for Liberty Global.”

“This is an exciting time to join Liberty Global,” said Rodriguez. “It is one of the few companies in our sector with international scale, a long-term commitment to technology leadership, and a track record of consistent growth and value creation. Mike and his team are first class operators and I look forward to accelerating product innovation and building the network capacity that European consumers want and demand.”

Analyst Paolo Pescatore reckons this is a good move for Liberty. “Beyond the wealth of experience he brings to Liberty Global he will be able to help the group launch new services,” he said. “He joins at a time when the company is struggling to be truly successful in convergence. With this in mind, Liberty is placing a lot of focus on efficiency and is seeking to make better use of data by investing in software and the cloud. Unsurprising expect a particular focus on TV and the integration of online video services within the new TV platform.”

Rodriguez certainly seems to have good tech credentials, having worked at DIRECTV, radio streaming company Sirius XM, Cisco’s service provider video technology group and the TV and Xbox bits of Microsoft. Consumer entertainment tech is clearly his thing and it heralds some promising innovation from Liberty Global in future.