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To: IceShark who wrote (33844)	1/9/1999 7:50:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

The Internet Capitalist SG Cowen Internet Research 12 participants had already logged on to Disney's Fiesta Bowl Web site and that those who couldn't get online should try sometime during the second half. The capacity problems created ancillary issues, even for those folks who actually were able to log onto the site: game stats were delayed advertising messages were slow to download during commercial breaks (will Disney be giving these advertisers make goods?) Again, we're not making any of this up. Interestingly enough, the purpose of the “enhanced TV” Web tie-in was to keep viewers from abandoning the TV for the Internet during these kind of big sporting events for which Disney has paid millions for the rights. Disney's hope is that they can stop the Internet from being a threat by embracing it and making it part of the television experience. Of course, in order to de-fang the Internet as a threat to TV, one must actually get people online, and we have no doubts that Disney and their Infoseek brethren will be working hard to do just that over the coming months But from where we sit, we still can't help wondering if all this hoped-for media synergy (between Disney, ESPN, ABC, Infoseek/Go and their .com cousins) isn't just some powerpoint strategy that Disney can't effectively execute on due to their relative unfamiliarity with this (interactive) medium. We'll just have to wait and see, we suppose, though Disney's Red Queen approach of denying the obvious seems slightly anachronistic: "We don't see [the rise in Internet viewership] as a problem," said Kevin Mayer, Disney's senior VP of strategic planning. Will The Real Broadband Portal Please Stand Up? We met the news, out this week, that Comcast is introducing a broadband portal site, at onbroadband.com, with a healthy level of curiosity. The new site is aimed at some 1 million ISDN, xDSL, leased line, wireless/satellite, cable modem, and high-speed data-over-cable (@Home) subscribers and will carry bandwidth-intensive content and advertising messages. Remembering that @Home just announced last week a bandwidth intensive advertising strategy with their acquisition of Narrative Communications (see the last edition of The Internet Capitalist), we remain a bit puzzled about the relationship between the two entities. After all, since Comcast owns a nice chunk of @Home, and @Home is being thought of (and valued as) a broadband “portal” sort of like AOL is thought of (and valued as) a narrowband “portal”, we thought to ourselves, whose going to “own” the consumer, @Home or Comcast? Who is going to become the best broadband partner to advertise with, Comcast or @Home? What does this suggest about their partnership? Publicly, @Home suggests that the market is immature enough to support two providers of broadband content and that anything that builds broadband is good for @Home, but for our part, we are a bit less sanguine; at these valuation levels (for @Home anyhow), investors need to be thinking about @Home's potential a few years out; anything that hints of conflict (implied or real) with their cable partners could upset that balance. A perhaps more interesting corollary thought here, however, is that Comcast is attempting to do what Broadcast.com (BCST) has done for the narrowband world; provide audio and video content for consumers and thus become the rich media portal, a term that is practically synonymous with broadband portal. Time will tell if Comcast will be successful, but for our part, we never underestimate how difficult it is to build a loyal consumer base; Broadcast.com has it and (right now) Comcast doesn't.