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To: art slott who wrote (5477)	7/12/1999 7:56:00 PM
From: Eqmx	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13157

Our day is coming: " Murdoch's Digital Plans By Alan Breznick Despite a relatively late start, News Corp. plans to make a name for itself in interactive media by focusing on such key strengths as news, sports, health and Fox Television programming. In an exclusive interview with Cable World, James Murdoch, president of News America Digital Publishing and son of News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, spelled out the company's Internet and interactive TV strategy. He said News Corp. will concentrate on developing and investing in Web sites and interactive TV ventures that extend the company's existing brands in news, sports, health and entertainment. "For us, it's really about building our core businesses," said the younger Murdoch, who will make his first major appearance at a cable industry conference when he speaks at the CTAM Summit confab in San Francisco next week. "Our strategy is building different services around our core affinities." This strategy means that News Corp. will likely try to craft a comprehensive Web site to complement the overhauled health network that it plans to launch on cable and satellite TV later this month. This new Web site would compete against the enormous new health site launched earlier this month by Discovery Communications Inc. and such leading online health players as Drkoop.com Inc. and America Online Inc.'s health channel. News Corp. has already taken a step in that direction by purchasing a minority stake in PlanetRx, a Web health site. "Health will be critical," Murdoch said. Murdoch's "digital media" strategy also means that News Corp. will spin off Web sites and interactive TV services tied to popular Fox prime-time programs, starting this summer. While Murdoch declined to provide details, he said the company is working with its "programming partners" to create the interactive services. "Certainly that's (TV is) the end game," he said. "We don't see Web sites as an end game in themselves." Furthermore, it means that News Corp. will pour more resources into developing and distributing its growing Fox News Online and Fox Sports Online Web sites. In recent months, the company has positioned both sites as leading broadband content players by striking distribution deals with Excite@Home and Road Runner, the cable industry's two leading high-speed data services. "We think broadband services are just going to be huge," said Murdoch, whose company reportedly shelled out an unprecedented $10 million for Fox News Online's most favored nation status on Excite@Home. "We're big believers in it (broadband)." Without naming other possible partners, Murdoch said he's now working on similar broadband distribution pacts with regional telephone companies and satellite TV operators. "Certainly we're talking to a lot of different players there," he said. Unlike such other major traditional media companies as Walt Disney Co., NBC and USA Networks Inc., News Corp. is not seeking to create, buy or cobble together a Web portal service that combines many different Internet features. Dismissing the "portal mania" of recent months, Murdoch said he's "not sure portals really create value" by acting as centralized "conglomerates" of different sites. "I don't understand portals that throw everything at you," he said. "We're much more interested in rounded out vertical categories. That's better than trying to be all things to all people." Instead of Web portals, Murdoch, whose company owns 50% of TV Guide Inc., is intrigued by electronic program guides for digital cable and interactive TV. He sees these guides becoming "a portal of sorts" for TV viewers in the future. Less than three months ago, News Corp. formed a new venture, e-partners, to invest $300 million in Internet, interactive TV and wireless communications firms. Using that fund, Murdoch said the company will continue selectively taking minority stakes in Web and interactive TV content developers, much as it's done over the past six months. Besides its PlanetRx holding, News Corp. now holds a minority stake in TheStreet.com, a financial news Web site. In addition, it has bought chunks of Juno and, most recently, the sixdegrees.com community site. "We're feeling like we put in the initial building blocks now," he said. "It's a question of topping it off." But, unlike NBC and Disney, News Corp. probably won't try to take over other Web sites. Noting the company's success with Juno and TheStreet.com, Murdoch said he's quite content with investments that give him smaller yet influential stakes in key sites. "It depends on what you can get," he said. "It's not necessary to control companies." (July 12, 1999) More Cable World"