Seaman, who was appointed a year ago, handed in his resignation on Monday and is now understood to be in talks to join Top Up TV, a new venture planned by former Sky executives David Chance and Ian West.
The service, currently described as "pay-TV lite" is proposing to offer Freeview customers the chance to upgrade to a suite of six to 10 pay-TV channels such as E4, UK Gold and Discovery for around £8-£10 a month.
According to reports only viewers with old ITV Digital boxes would be able to receive such a new pay service initially. However, the company is planning to launch an upgrade to the set-top boxes or alternatively an add-on device that would enable anyone with Freeview to pick up their channels.
Andy Duncan, chairman of Freeview, and BBC director of marketing, communications and audiences, said: "Matt has done a good job as part of the team that has made Freeview the success that it is today. We will now look to appoint a new general manager, and in the meantime Freeview will continue to offer audiences a broad range of free television, radio and interactive services."
He added: "The BBC is absolutely committed to the digital world now. We're on record as saying that there will be no more new channel launches and our top priority now is to increase the number of people with access to these services."
Freeview, a joint venture between the BBC, BSkyB and Crown Castle, offers 30 free digital TV channels including BBC News 24, BBC Three, BBC Four, Sky Travel and Sky Sports News, and more than 20 digital radio stations.
Since its launch on October 31 2002, industry estimates show that Freeview will be in 3 homes by the end of the month and that figure looks set to rise at a steady rate.
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