ViewCall’s Internet On-TV Adds More Content

WebTV Inks PBS As Content Partner

WebTV’s Best Target: Homes With PCs

WebTV: New Alternative for the Masses?

The ad campaigns for WebTV have begun. The theory behind the product is that more people watch TV than use computers. By adding set top boxes that allow viewers to go on the Internet, WebTV executives think they’ll break through the technophobic barriers that keep the Net from becoming a mainstream channel. Will it attract substantial numbers of customers? Analysts think not. Meanwhile the race for strategic alliances that configure the most compelling service has begun.

This month MWT profiles the offerings of two WebTV networks followed by what the pundits believe the future holds:

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ViewCall’s Internet On-TV Adds More Content

On-TV is an Internet TV channel that provides content, e-mail, and general Web access over Internet-TVs, Internet set top boxes, Network Computers, and Internet appliances. On-TV is available through Mitsubishi’s DiamondWeb TV, Sega’s Net Link, and Boca Research’s Set-Top Device.

On-TV will offer content from Reuters, SportsTicker, TVData, Telescan, Menus Online, InfoSpace, The Mountain Zone and Lane & Lenge’s flowers.net. NTN Communications and Interactive Imaginations have been signed up to provide interactive entertainment.

TVData is a unique feature that will provide national and local TV listings and cable system channel lineups on On-TV’s electronic program guide. This will give On-TV’s viewers localized TV listings up to a week in advance.

Telescan will provide in-depth personal investment and portfolio management information, research, and personal finance tools within the On-TV Finance Channel.

The Mountain Zone offers On-TV viewers direct access to information about mountain sports and related activities. Lane & Lenge’s flowers.net will provide a way to order flowers, and Menus Online will present menus and other restaurant information with the ability to make online reservations.

Previous content agreements for On-TV included a partnership with Yahoo!, and USA Today.

Beginning January 27, On-TV will be available on the Sega Saturn Net Link free for the first 30 days and $39.95 annually thereafter. The On-TV service will be featured within Sega’s 3D Net Link city, The Net Link city is "home base" for Sega’s Saturn Net Link users, allowing point and click access to "neighborhoods" of choice, to explore informative and commercial Web.

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WebTV Inks PBS As Content Partner

WebTV Networks has announced it is allying with the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) to provide WebTV subscribers with customized World Wide Web pages.

The Web pages, taken from the PBS Online site, will initially be targeted at children via WebTV’s Kid-Friendly Home Page. A PBS Web site will also be featured weekly, officials said.

When a family is watching a PBS television series, like "Arthur," they can immediately log on to the WebTV Network, access the Kid-Friendly Home Page, and surf the site’s educational activities — all while never leaving their TV sets, officials said.

WebTV Networks will also prominently display PBS Online on its regular WebTV Home Page, providing convenient access to the wide range of PBS Online offerings such as NOVA Online, the Online NewsHour, and Frontline Online.

A PBS spokesperson said that the WebTV agreement is unique and a first for his company. He also said that PBS has arrangements with technology firms like VDOnet, when it comes to providing Net viewing and helper technologies to Web surfers.

The PBS/WebTV deal is not an exclusive one, the spokesperson added.

WebTV and News Corp.’s TV Guide said TV Guide is providing WebTV customers with television listings and other features. TV Guide recently relaunched its TV Guide Entertainment Network (TVGEN) Web site, known in its former life as iGuide. TVGEN, at http://www.tvguide.com, offers four "channels" focusing on distinct areas of entertainment including national and local TV programming listings, customized viewing schedules and e-mail notification about favorite programs based on user preference data, extensive TV and film databases, interactive features and games, and original content updated daily.

WebTV’s Web site is at http://www.webtv.net. PBS’s site is at http://www.pbs.org .

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WebTV’s Best Target: Homes With PCs

WebTV Networks should shift its marketing emphasis if it is to succeed in the dog-eat-dog world of Internet access, according to a new survey from Yankee Group.

The group’s latest Interactive Consumer Survey found that WebTV should concentrate on selling its wares into the existing PC and online home market. Yankee’s Household Technology Index (HTI), a measure of a household’s acceptance to new technology, shows that online homes score four times higher than non-PC homes and 30 percent higher than PC-equipped homes when it comes to embracing new technology.

"Over the next year or so, WebTV can lose in the ‘couch potato’ (non-PC home) market and still be quite successful," said Yankee Group Research Director Gregory Wester.

Wester compared WebTV to what he called the "most successful consumer electronic product launch," direct broadcast satellite (DBS). "Two years ago, analysts thought that DBS would be most popular with homes that didn’t have access to, or didn’t subscribe to, cable TV. As it turned out, DBS is quite popular with cable subscribers, many of whom continue to pay for cable service after adding DBS."

WebTV recently signed PSINet as an Internet service provider (ISP) for WebTV subscribers. Unlimited access to the Net is available through PSINet with a WebTV set-top box for a flat monthly rate of $19.95, officials said. WebTV customers can dial into PSINet’s T3 Internet backbone using PSINet’s more than 240 points-of-presence (POPs) throughout the US.

Yankee Group’s Wester called an additional $20 per month for Internet access a "little steep," and he said Web access systems must work with ISPs to develop a "pricing and marketing plan that entices existing Internet users to "add a TV display to their Internet experience."

(Contacts: Andrew W. Dod, Director, ViewCall, 770-729-2929; Marcy Dockery, WebTV Networks Inc., 415-614-5546; Kevin Dando, PBS, 703-739-5073; Joelle Snow, The Yankee Group, 617-367-1000)

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