Ashley Highfield is something of a revolutionary. The man behind the launch of the BBC iPlayer says that his ambition is to “bring about the end of broadcast media as we know it”.

Mr Highfield, 41, has stepped down as the corporation's director of future media and technology to become chief executive of a new video-on-demand service from the UK's three main terrestrial broadcasters.

He is joining Kangaroo, a joint online video platform from ITV, BBC Worldwide and Channel 4, which plans to launch later in the year.

In a unique pooling of resources, the broadcasters are hoping that a combined on-demand offering will achieve greater reach with audiences and advertisers.

Mr Highfield would seem to be an ideal candidate to lead such a service after overseeing the BBC iPlayer, from which more than 42 million programmes were watched or downloaded since it was launched on Christmas Day last year.

Mr Highfield first started to make waves at Flextech, the television company, where he began to establish websites for much of the TV industry.

He also launched The Doll's House, an online reality show for the Bravo channel.

He once explained: “It was a number of girls in a house under constant surveillance by webcam. It hit the headlines when, not surprisingly, a visiting boyfriend got caught in bed with one of the girls on webcam.”

Flextech grew from a one-man operation to have a staff of 100.

When it merged with Telewest, Mr Highfield was headhunted by the BBC.

He became responsible for the BBC's entire web presence.

Although a string of BBC websites were cut in 2004, “new media” was one of the beneficiaries of the cost-cutting programme, which allowed the BBC iPlayer to take off.

Now Mr Highfield wants to create a “freeview from the internet” with Kangaroo.

Analysts describe him as a man with “the vision thing”.

Traditional television broadcasters had better watch out.