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TalkTalk bigwig parks knighted-rear in cursed YouView chair
Temporary move for Sir Charles after Lord Sugar legs it
Retail genius Sir Charles Dunstone will chair the YouView consortium until a permanent appointment can be made. Sir Charlie co-founded The Carphone Warehouse and is chairman of budget ISP TalkTalk.
TalkTalk has been a YouView member since 2009. The ISP offers a free YouView box and claims to be adding 10,000 punters a week - despite slipping to fourth-most-popular UK internet provider. YouView set-top boxes combine a digital video recorder with Freeview received over the air and internet-delivered catch-up services from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
YouView's previous chairman Lord Alan Sugar left the consortium on Friday.
"YouView will now begin a search for a permanent non-executive chairman," the consortium announced in a terse 43-word statement.
One rare misstep by Carphone was its partnership with Best Buy on both sides of the Pond. Sir Charles had envisaged 200 big-box out-of-town stores in the UK that would give Dixons a run for its money. But just 11 were opened before the plug was pulled.
But perhaps it just got out in time: Comet smashed into the ground just before Christmas. And Carphone Warehouse pocketed $1.3bn (£838m at the time) after Best Buy bought out their joint US mobile retail venture. ®