—PRS For Music: The royalty collector, which last year nearly halved its online streaming rate, has picked ex-Sony (NYSE: SNE) mobile SVP Robert Ashcroft to replace Steve Porter as CEO. Porter quit in July. PRS did deals with YouTube, Spotify, MySpace and Sky over the last year.

SEE ALSO: Industry Moves: TalkTalk CEO; BBC PR, NatMags MD; Adify

—TalkTalk: John Allwood, formerly the head of Orange UK, is joining Carphone Warehouse’s ISP as a non-executive director ahead of its demerger, expected March (via WSJ). Allwood has been out of telecoms for a few years, leaving Orange in 2004 and most recently working as the finance chief for publisher Mecom.

—Edinburgh Interactive Festival: The annual games conference and event has announced new appointments. David Yarnton, MD of Nintendo UK; and Mark Phillips, a senior partner from law firm Harbottle & Lewis, have joined the executive committee, with Yarnton also becoming vice chairman of the festival. EIGF, the organisers, have also created a new board that includes Andy Payne, Jeffrey Meak and Simon Harvey as directors. Release

—Independent: Simon Kelner, currently MD and editor in chief of The Independent, is reportedly being lined up for a new “key executive role” at the company should the sale go through to Alexander Lebedev, owner of the Evening Standard, writes MediaWeek.

—BSkyB Movement in News Corp.‘s European TV group - Sky Italia sports VP Andrew Zappia is being pulled over to be Sky’s UK customer MD, replacing Brian Sullivan, who has become Sky Deutschland’s deputy CEO.

—Phorm: Financier Stefan Allesch-Taylor is the troubled ad company’s latest exit - he’s stepping down frmo the board of directors. A year ago, Phorm said goodbye to its UK CEO, CFO, COO and general counsel, it swapped its board membership for a new one and the UK MD left in November.