Comcast Corp. marketing executive Andy Addis has decided to leave the top U.S. MSO, effective Friday, to pursue other opportunities, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Two current marketing executives will see their responsibilities increase, and the MSO is still looking for an overall marketing chief following executive vice president David Watson’s promotion last summer.
Addis, as senior VP of marketing and new products, was a frequent speaker at industry conferences, spreading Comcast’s gospel of robust free-video-on-demand offerings to entice and keep digital-video customers. HDTV, digital-video recorders and other digital-TV services also came under his wing.
He joined Comcast in 1996, according to a conference biography.
Addis said in an e-mail Wednesday, “The changes at the company presented me with the opportunity to choose to either stay or pursue opportunities outside of the company. I’ve chosen to leave. While the [eight] years I’ve been with Comcast have been the most rewarding of my career, I am truly thrilled by the possibilities going forward.”
He added that his “ideal situation would be to work for a start-up with a disruptive technology that creates significant value as the media industry careens toward an on-demand world.”
Terry Yu, a marketing senior VP, will step up to manage the cable video-products business, and Page Thompson, VP of new-products marketing, will see his role expand to become VP and general manager of Comcast’s VOD business.
Comcast also wants to hire a new head of marketing across all product lines. Last summer, Watson -- who had been executive VP of sales, marketing and customer service -- was promoted to executive VP of operations at Comcast.
When asked whether he left because he didn’t get that top marketing job, Addis said it was a “fair question,” but “it really didn’t factor into my decision.”
