Video intelligence business Digital i appoints new managing director

Published by

Peter Davison

Global subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) insight and data expert Digital i has promoted Matt Ross to managing director.

Matt Ross has been with Bristol-based Digital i since 2015 and has held several senior positions in the business including his most recent role as product director of SoDA, Digital i's global SVOD measurement and analytics platform.

Instrumental in developing the SoDA measurement system from the ground up, Matt has presented the unique insights gleaned from Digital i's product at the well-respected Advertising Seminars International conference, the Advertising Research Foundation's Audience X Science conference in New York, and the UK-based Media Research Group conference.

During Matt's time as product director, SoDA won several prestigious MRG research awards and Mediatel Research awards. As managing director, he will now oversee the further expansion and rollout of Digital i’s industry-leading SVOD audience measurement system.

“I am thrilled to be taking on the role of managing director for such an ambitious and forward-thinking business," said Matt.

"Digital i has been making waves across the industry for some time now, working alongside many household name clients to provide them with valuable insight and analysis and assisting with innovative SVOD strategies.

“As a management team we have set out ambitious growth plans and it is a very exciting time to be leading the business.”

Interim managing director Emma Shelton said: "I am delighted to be handing over this role to Matt Ross as I take a step back from daily operations to concentrate on chairing the board of directors.

"The fall-out of the pandemic was felt across the length and breadth of the media industry, and it is a testament to his leadership that our SoDA product was able to grow, leading to further expansion of our team and operations, during a time of global economic uncertainty."

Digital i founder and CEO Ali Vahdati said: “During his time with the business Matt has been integral to our success contributing to our business growth over the past eight years.

"Matt’s extensive experience within the media industry and understanding of data and its role in global SVOD strategies reflect the ethos of the business and our commitment to growth.”
Matt’s appointment to managing director comes as part of Digital i’s ambitious continued global growth strategy for 2023 which has already seen the UK-based business expand its reach throughout EMEA and LATAM regions.

Digital i has recently added the capability to measure HBO Max viewing data and have expanded their measurement to cover Latin America, with further expansion plans later this year to cover Disney + and expand into North America and APAC.

Its industry-leading data and analysis are used by many well-known streaming and content production companies worldwide.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.