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To: rupert1 who wrote (60137)	4/30/1999 6:56:00 AM
From: hlpinout	Respond to of 97611

A bit more. FOCUS-Mirror weighs into free Internet war April 30, 1999 06:18 AM (Adds background, comment, share price) By Elizabeth Fullerton LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - British newspaper publisher Mirror Group Plc on Friday upped the stakes in the escalating battle to capture Internet market share with the launch of its free Net access service ic24. The previously flagged move follows hot on the heels of top selling rival tabloid The Sun, which last month launched a free Net service called Currantbun.com after its nickname in London Cockney rhyming slang. The Sun is owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp . Mirror said it had hooked up with Books on Line, German media company Bertelsmann 's new electronic commerce venture, in a two-year deal to create a new on-line books channel. "ic24 is an exciting and influential development for Mirror Group which builds on our existing position as the fifth most popular Internet destination in the UK," said Mirror Chief Executive John Allwood in a statement. At 0945 GMT Mirror shares were up 1.6 percent at 223-1/2 pence in slim volume. Mirror said it had 50,000 pre-registered subscribers for the service, which like Currantbun.com, is as yet only accessible via CD-Rom. Mirror has committed over one million pounds of advertising revenue ahead of the project's launch and the UK's second largest telecoms company Cable & Wireless has invested an initial 15 million. Microsoft Corp MSFT will provide the operating platform and Compaq CPQ the hardware support. Electricals firm Dixons Group blazed a trail last autumn with the launch of Freeserve, which rapidly became the UK's top Net service provider and nearly tripled Dixons share price. Since then a string of British firms including bookseller WH Smith , supermarket Tesco and British Telecom have hopped on the bandwagon. Just this week, retailer Kingfisher linked up with France's Group Arnault to launch the first pan-European free Internet access service. Dixons is now mulling a partial flotation of Freeserve, valued at an estimated two to four billion pounds. Mirror said the package included a new portal site combining news, sport, entertainment, TV listings and online shopping. Anthony Larringa, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said the most interesting aspect of the Mirror free Net access launch was its online betting service, not mentioned in the statement. "There are so many of these Internet free providers -- the question is if you have a unique selling proposition. The betting side as a business model looks far more attracive than the Internet free offerings," he said. The Mirror is due to launch Totalbet, its new joint venture betting service with government-owned bookmaker the Tote, in June. Spokesman Nick Fullagar said the service was already seeing monthly growth rates of 20-25 percent. Its existing web sites currently attract 22 million page accesses a month, Mirror said. ((London newsroom +44 171 542 4017, fax 44 171 583 3769, uk.equities.news@reuters.com)) REUTERS