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MTV interactive tv channel..part 1
by: EDVIRTUAL (38/M) 14021 of 14031
MTV eyes online spinoff
By Martin Peers and Richard Katz
NEW YORK (Variety) - Viacom's MTV Networks will spin off its online music venture into a separate publicly traded company in the next nine to 15 months, MTV chairman Tom Freston revealed Thursday, in the wake of an Internet music alliance struck between MTV and John Malone's Liberty Media.
A key element in the music alliance will be an e-commerce-oriented interactive music channel, highlighting Liberty's broader plans to become a major player in e-commerce via interactive television, Liberty executives told an investment conference Thursday.
As expected, Liberty's TCI Music confirmed it would sell its music Web site operator SonicNet to MTV in exchange for a 10% stake in MTV Online, the company to be spun off in the next year.
''We're taking Liberty on as a partner in the online music business, which will be a separate public enterprise,'' Freston told Daily Variety. ''This is a move to increase our market share and reach.''
Freston added the new 'Net music company will actively look to acquire other music-related Web sites.
The MTV chief said Gotham-based SonicNet - which owns six different music-oriented online sites - will benefit from on-air promotion from MTV's channels around the globe. MTV previously announced it will commit $250 million to promote its Web sites.
Freston said a key part of the Liberty deal was an agreement to develop an interactive music channel available to cable subscribers who pay for new digital set-top boxes to be deployed later this year.
This new channel will essentially serve as a home-shopping web where viewers can order music CDs at the push of a button.
Music is the ''next really big frontier'' on the Internet, TCI Music CEO Lee Masters told the investment conference, adding that ''we believe we can exploit music downloading capabilities'' through deals like that struck with MTV.
MTV's Web sites generate much more traffic than other music-oriented sites, giving it more leverage with companies to negotiate revenue-sharing terms, Masters said.
Liberty said several weeks ago that it plans to channel all its Internet and interactive TV efforts through TCI Music, which will be renamed Liberty Digital. And Masters' plans for home shopping via interactive TV go far beyond music, as he revealed Thursday that TCI Music had registered a company called TV Portals that will develop ''impulse e-commerce'' sites for interactive television.
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Posted: 05/21/99, 8:27AM EDT as a reply to: Msg 14020 by no_where_to_go_but_up
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