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To: Jan Crawley who wrote (61438)	6/9/1999 1:54:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Bertelsmann to start broadband cable services-magazine BERLIN, June 9 (Reuters) - German media giant Bertelsmann AG <BTGGga.F> plans to break into the broadband cable market with a range of multimedia services aimed at rivalling pay-television, a German magazine reported on Wednesday. Bertelsmann executive Werner Lauff told media industry magazine Text Intern that the group would put broadband cable services, including TV programming, online shopping and its Internet service AOL Europe <AOL.N> on show in Hamburg from July to September. Lauff heads the new Bertelsmann Broadband Group, a division set up earlier this year to explore the capabilities of broadband cable lines, which can transmit interactive audio, video and graphics with greater speed and sharpness. He said that every Bertelsmann unit would have access to its broadband cable network, which is to be offered to consumers in test regions in early 2000 at the earliest. Bertelsmann would not charge extra for access to the service, Lauff said, but would charge for specific services such as video on demand, the profits from which he said would be shared with cable operators. He said other plans included an online cooking show in which viewer can select recipes and follow steps at their own pace and special interest channels in which films can be combined with interactive elements on screen and "chats" with other viewers. Lauff described the move as in keeping with Bertelsmann's shift away from pay-TV following the sale of its stake in pay-TV service Premiere to media tycoon Leo Kirch earlier this year and toward linking television with personal computers. Bertelsmann Chairman Thomas Middelhoff said in a speech in Berlin last month that the group had to increase the distribution channels of the group's media content to ensure their profitability. He confirmed at that time that Bertelsmann was in talks with U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> to jointly acquire part of Deutsche Telekom's <DTEG.F> cable network as an outlet for its content. Lauff told the magazine that interactive media were essential to making such a venture profitable. "If one can buy the cable at an acceptable price and develop its technological capabilities, then it will be an extremely exciting economic sector in a few years, no question about it," he said. "But only if there is content like we are planning."