Briefs
Staff -- Multichannel News, 9/9/2001 8:00:00 PM
New York — The latest Arbitron Corp./Edison Media Research survey of Internet streaming-media users found that about one in five would pay for online content.
The survey found that 27 percent of audio-stream listeners would be "very interested" in paying a small subscription fee to listen to songs or albums from their favorite artists. Another 24 percent of audio streamers and 19 percent of video streamers said they would pay for online concerts.
Sports content also drew some interest. Some 18 percent of streamers said they were "somewhat or very interested" in paying a small fee to listen to Major League Baseball games over the Internet. RealNetworks counts 300,000 subscribers for its $9.95 a month GoldPass subscription service that includes MLB audio Webcasts.
Larry Rosin, president of Edison Media Research, said in a statement the study "reinforces that consumers believe advertising is a fair trade for free online content," adding also that "we also see evidence that supports streaming subscription models."
The study was based on a July 2001 random telephone survey of 2,507 Internet users.
Mountain View, Calif. — More than one-third of EchoStar Communications Corp.'s 6 million Dish Network subscribers can now get some form of interactivity, as OpenTV Corp. said it has passed the 2-million-home mark among Dish subscribers.
The main application available is localized weather information through Dish Instant Weather.
OpenTV has been largely stymied on the cable-operator front in the U.S., with only one deployment at USA Media Corp.'s Half Moon Bay, Calif., system. OpenTV is deployed in more than 18 million set-tops worldwide through a mix of cable and DBS operators including British Sky Broadcasting Corp. in the U.K.
OpenTV said EchoStar's entire subscriber base could download is interactive software once middleware integration is completed.
San Francisco — RespondTV Inc. is living up to its name by altering its lineup in the face of a changing interactive-TV market.
Specifically, slowing ITV development in the U.S. has prompted the company to cut employees and expenses related to its deployment of ITV set-top boxes.
The ITV technology provider has hired Peter Woods to head up its European digital infrastructure development, and promoted Prasad Panchangam to chief technical officer. Jay Weber will move over to become founding CTO, and David How was elevated to executive vice president of product development.
Paris — Canal Plus Technologies Inc. is putting a Texan in charge of its North American operations as part of a company executive shuffle.
The interactive-television software arm of Canal Plus Technologies S.A. is bumping up David Moss from senior vice president of sales to CEO of North American operations. He will replace Jean-Marc Racine, who heads back to France to take over as executive vice president of marketing for Canal Plus. Michael Balduzzi takes over Moss's sales position will be Michael Balduzzi.
Cupertino, Calif. — Broadband wireless-network equipment maker Vyyo last week slashed its work force in the face of weak business conditions in its markets. The company reduced its job rolls by about 75 percent — to less than 50 people — to preserve cash and cut operating expenses.
Though a number of broadband fixed-wireless access networks have been deployed in a variety of second- and third tier markets, in competition with telcos and cable operators, Vyyo says the outlook for service-provider capital spending has continued to deteriorate.
Westlake Village, Calif. — The founders of ISP NetZero Inc. have embarked on a new venture to build national network infrastructure to support broadband services.
The group, led by former CEO Ronald Burr, has created Layer2 networks, which it says plans to build a national layer 2 network connecting the network edge to the Internet backbone. Initial targeted customers are ISPs in the nation's top 20 markets.
Burr said a long-standing bottleneck in layer 2 — which provides a critical data link between local and long-haul networks — had hindered the deployment of broadband services.
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