Intertainer Deploys On Broadwing's DSL
By MATT STUMP -- Multichannel News, 4/2/2001
Four years after its formation, on-demand entertainment provider Intertainer Inc. has landed its first full-scale deployment.
The 40,000 subscribers to Broadwing Inc.'s ZoomTown digital subscriber line service in Cincinnati will have access to 500 hours of programming from Intertainer, starting tomorrow (April 3).
"Broadwing's ZoomTown is one of the most progressive DSL platforms around, because they are giving their customers the kind of futuristic, cutting-edge entertainment service that other people are just talking about," Intertainer CEO Jonathan Taplin said. "We think cable and IP (Internet protocol)-based systems will be deployed fairly widely (this year)."
Added ZoomTown.com president Mike O'Brien in a statement, "The launch of Intertainer's revolutionary service is an exciting example of the applications that will propel the use and acceptance of consumer broadband."
The deal is believed to be the first system-wide video-on-demand deployment via DSL. The companies will use Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows Media Video 8 platform, which includes digital rights management technology and data rates as low as 500 kilobits per second.
ZoomTown subscribers will gain access to streaming full-screen, high-resolution video with full VCR functionality. An Intertainer icon resides on the ZoomTown home page. Through that icon, subscribers can set up their account and access Intertainer content.
Users can create separate accounts and passwords for several household members and set up their own spending limits and age-appropriate restrictions on content.
First-run movies will cost subscribers $3.99, library titles will cost $2.99, made-for-TV movies $1.99, one-hour TV shows and concerts 99 cents and half-hour TV shows and children's programming 75 cents.
Intertainer has the rights to telecast first-run movies in the traditional pay-per-view window (30 to 60 days after home video), with traditional PPV splits from Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks SKG and Sony Pictures Entertainment, Taplin said. That leaves out The Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista Television and Paramount Pictures.
Music videos are free, but are tied to an electronic- commerce function that generates revenue for Intertainer and Broadwing, Taplin said. Subscribers also can order a $9.99 value package that includes two hit movies, three TV shows, three concerts, three "Living Well" programs and five children's shows.
Although most subscribers will view content on their PCs, some 500 subscribers will be able to access Intertainer on their TV sets through a Uniview DSL set-top box, Taplin said. TV subscribers would see the same ZoomTown opening screen and Intertainer icon as would appear on their PC.
Taplin, an IP-delivery evangelist, said Qwest Communications International Inc. will launch Intertainer in six cities over the next month. Combined with ZoomTown, that will give Intertainer access to 220,000 DSL subscribers, he said.
And Comcast Corp., which joined Sony Corp., Intel Corp., General Electric Co. and Microsoft as investors in Intertainer, plans to expand its test of Intertainer into a third market next month using Motorola Broadband Communications Sector's DCT-2000 set-top, Taplin said. That will put Intertainer in front of thousands of Comcast subscribers, Taplin said.
