Matt Kossatz bows out of Accedo after 15 years building its APAC empire

GREATER SYDNEY: After more than 15 years, Matt Kossatz has called time on his run at Accedo, the Swedish-rooted OTT applications specialist, in a LinkedIn post that reads part farewell letter, part victory lap. “The time has finally arrived,” he wrote, describing his exit as embracing “the great unknown” after a decade and a half spent building the company’s Asia Pacific business from scratch. For an executive who has quietly shaped how millions of Australians and New Zealanders watch television, it is a moment worth pausing on.

Kossatz joined Accedo in February 2011 as vice-president, Australia and New Zealand, at a time, by his own account, when talking about “apps on Smart TVs” drew blank stares across the industry. He leaves as senior vice-president, Asia Pacific, having spent the last seven years running the entire regional business: five offices across Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Delhi and Auckland, roughly 140 people at points, and full P&L responsibility. He reported directly to the chief executive and sat on the global management team, advising on everything from pricing strategy to market entry.

The client list he built is, frankly, the who’s who of video in the region: Telstra, Foxtel, Sky, ABC, SBS, Tata Sky, StarHub, Kayo, TVNZ and Discovery, alongside platform partners such as Samsung, LG, Sony, Roku and Microsoft. His fingerprints sit on an unusually long list of launches, among them ABC iView, SBS On Demand, Telstra TV, Sky Go, Spark Sport, Foxtel Play, Kayo, Optus Sport, Astro Go, Sony Liv, Airtel Wynk and Paramount+, a roll call that doubles as a potted history of OTT video’s rise across Asia Pacific over the past decade and a half.

Before Accedo, Kossatz spent over five years at IceTV, an Australian pioneer of electronic programme guides for digital free-to-air television, rising from business development and marketing manager to general manager. It was there, helping IceTV grow into New Zealand while fending off far larger rivals, that he cut his teeth on the operational grind of scaling a technology business with limited resources, a grounding that clearly served him well at Accedo.

Kossatz’s departure leaves him, by his own admission, without a fixed next step, describing it as the fun part of free agency. He remains busy regardless: he sits as a non-executive director at Grassrootz, a digital fundraising platform, is a director at Patagorang Foundation, an Australian discretionary investment trust supporting charities, and continues as VP coaching and a committee member at Manly Bombers Junior AFL Club, where he has coached grassroots football since 2020. He also remains the founder of Connected TV Downunder, the Sydney-based industry networking group he started back in 2011, the same year he joined Accedo, and a former vice-president Asia-Pacific at the Connected TV Marketing Association. Whatever comes next, Kossatz has made clear he wants it to sit at the crossroads of sport, technology and community, the same instincts that have defined his career so far.