Time Warner Inc.'s America Online Internet unit started an online television network showing classic Warner Bros. TV series including ``Growing Pains'' and ``Chico and The Man'' to lure broadband users.
The In2TV channel on AOL.com, announced in November, begins today with 30 series including ``Eight is Enough,'' AOL and Warner Bros., also a Time Warner unit, said in a statement.
AOL, based in Dulles, Virginia, wants to tap the fast- growing $1 billion market for online video ads by attracting viewers and listeners with exclusive content that can differentiate it from rivals such as Yahoo! Inc. Warner Bros., the producer of ``ER'' and ``Friends,'' seeks to squeeze more money out of discontinued shows as U.S. DVD sales slow.
In2TV offers shows for free to anyone with high-speed Web access and will get revenue from advertising, Kevin Conroy, executive vice president of AOL Media Networks, said in an interview in November. Among advertisers on the site today are Intel Corp., promoting its Viiv home entertainment products, and Kia Motors Corp. with an ad for its Sedona minivan.
Video on demand services are offered by cable and satellite television companies as well as Apple Computer Inc. Last November, Apple began selling a video iPod and TV shows from Walt Disney Co.'s ABC unit, including ``Desperate Housewives.'' Comcast Corp. and DirecTV Corp., the U.S. No. 1 cable- and satellite-TV companies respectively, also unveiled services that let users watch TV shows on demand and skip the ads.
Shares in Time Warner, which also owns cable TV's HBO channels and People magazine, fell 7 cents to $17.2 at 10:49 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares had fallen 1 percent this year before today.
The new AOL Web channel is the brainchild of Eric Frankel, 47, Warner's president of domestic cable distribution.
Frankel four years ago sought ways to make more money out of 800 of the studio's old TV series. He brought his ideas to AOL's Conroy two years later.
Under the deal between the two divisions of Time Warner, Warner Bros. gets an undisclosed license fee and a share of advertising revenue.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-060315aoltv-story,1,6155941.story?track=rss
The In2TV channel on AOL.com, announced in November, begins today with 30 series including ``Eight is Enough,'' AOL and Warner Bros., also a Time Warner unit, said in a statement.
AOL, based in Dulles, Virginia, wants to tap the fast- growing $1 billion market for online video ads by attracting viewers and listeners with exclusive content that can differentiate it from rivals such as Yahoo! Inc. Warner Bros., the producer of ``ER'' and ``Friends,'' seeks to squeeze more money out of discontinued shows as U.S. DVD sales slow.
In2TV offers shows for free to anyone with high-speed Web access and will get revenue from advertising, Kevin Conroy, executive vice president of AOL Media Networks, said in an interview in November. Among advertisers on the site today are Intel Corp., promoting its Viiv home entertainment products, and Kia Motors Corp. with an ad for its Sedona minivan.
Video on demand services are offered by cable and satellite television companies as well as Apple Computer Inc. Last November, Apple began selling a video iPod and TV shows from Walt Disney Co.'s ABC unit, including ``Desperate Housewives.'' Comcast Corp. and DirecTV Corp., the U.S. No. 1 cable- and satellite-TV companies respectively, also unveiled services that let users watch TV shows on demand and skip the ads.
Shares in Time Warner, which also owns cable TV's HBO channels and People magazine, fell 7 cents to $17.2 at 10:49 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares had fallen 1 percent this year before today.
The new AOL Web channel is the brainchild of Eric Frankel, 47, Warner's president of domestic cable distribution.
Frankel four years ago sought ways to make more money out of 800 of the studio's old TV series. He brought his ideas to AOL's Conroy two years later.
Under the deal between the two divisions of Time Warner, Warner Bros. gets an undisclosed license fee and a share of advertising revenue.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-060315aoltv-story,1,6155941.story?track=rss
