Broadcast.com - A Broadband Technology Revolution

Broadcast.com, the Dallas, Texas-based ""Net"" broadcaster, is creating renewed confidence in the idea that the future of the Internet will be a multimedia one made possible by fast access to the home. Those believers see entertainment content as becoming just as important as information on the Web. That sense of the future is shared by Yahoo and other portals such as Excite and Go2Net which are embracing deals with cable Internet companies. Yahoo is reportedly merging with Broadcast.com. as part of the portalís preparation in the event that multimedia delivery will be here much sooner than later. Yahoo and other portals do not want to be irrelevant five years from now when broadband technologies are expected to become effective conduits for delivering full motion digital video and multichannel discrete digital surround into the home via the personal computer. Broadcast.com is one of those Internet audio and video start-ups that are succeeding as an online broadcaster. Reportedly, Yahoo will pay an estimated $5.7 billion in stock to buy Broadcast.com. The deal would add Broadcast.comís streaming media service, which allows audio and video to be broadcast over the Internet, to Yahooís popular information portal. Yahooís purchase of Broadcast.com will be one of the largest Internet deals ever and opens streaming media to a much broader audience, if not to the masses.AOLís President Bob Pittman, who once ran HBO, can be presumed to have an active interest in turning AOL into a full service Internet Network delivering online broadcasting services. Reportedly CMGI, the Internet investment company, recently hired Neil Braun, a former NBC television network chief to build a multimedia Internet service. The company is investing $100 million into the venture. Excite, whose recent merger partner is the cable Internet service @Home, believes that it will be necessary to deliver a fast-access service along with the portalís content. Go2Net has inked a partnership with two cable companies owned by billionaire investor Paul Allen. The presumption driving these convergence partnerships is that higher speed access to the Internet will bring more people onto the Internet and make them willing to spend more on access, commerce, and other services. But erasing technology speed bumps that make PCs and Net access a frustrating, if not difficult, proposition for many consumers is the key to reach critical mass in broadband access in the home. The combination of Yahoo and Broadcast.com or other similar partnerships will create new Web media entertainment companies well-positioned to take advantage of the expected increase in connection speeds that will eventually migrate into the home. Intertainer, which is developing an entertainment-on-demand system to be delivered via set-top box, sees itself as differentiated from the other ""brand name"" information portal services that deal largely in the same content ñ stock quotes, weather reports, site navigation ñ with no exclusivity. The company sees as its challenge personalizing multimedia navigation on a one-to-one basis and presenting it to the end user in a relatively simple way. This is a much greater challenge than locating specific textural information, which has been the business to date of the various portal services.Inevitably, when broadband multimedia delivery becomes a reality, the competition will be not just between Internet portals, but between portals and more traditional entertainment companies. Expect to see in the not too distant future Yahoo and Excite becoming global online TV Networks forging alliances with any one or all of the existing networks ñ NBC, CBS, ABC ñ or CNN, and as well Hollywood studios.