Word: bertelsmann
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Call it video Napster. The elusive goal of film and television producers has long been a marriage between the Internet and video programming, a single pipeline that would allow consumers to order up entertainment and information from a buffet of sources. So when German media giant Bertelsmann last week took control of RTL, Europe's biggest TV company, interactive programming suddenly looked a lot closer. "We are significantly pushing ahead on the interactive TV front," says Thomas Hesse, ceo of the newly formed RTL NEWMEDIA group. The firm hopes to roll out its interactive service in Germany by summer...
...Moving fast has become a necessity for Bertelsmann in its quest to survive the global media wars. Ever since two giant mergers last year-AOL's takeover of Time Warner and the purchase of Universal Studios by French media company Vivendi-Bertelsmann has been under pressure to bulk up. Not only has the group acquired control of RTL, which has TV and radio properties in 11 countries, but it is also bidding for the record company EMI and forging a global alliance between Bertelsmann music subsidiary BMG and Napster, the controversial Internet site where people can exchange music for free...
...Bertelsmann gains a new currency to make acquisitions: its own shares. The 166-year-old company, owner of Random House publishers in the U.S., book clubs in Europe and a stable of newspapers and magazines worldwide, has always been privately owned by the reclusive Mohn family. Under the terms of the latest deal, however, Bertelsmann is acquiring 30% of RTL's shares-it already owns 37%-from Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, a Belgian investment firm owned by billionaires Albert Fr?re and Paul Desmarais. Instead of cash, GBL agreed to take 25.1% of Bertelsmann shares. More importantly, the deal allows...
...Lately Bertelsmann has been reorganizing its online assets. This month the company sold its Broadband Group to RTL for $12 million. RTL is already established on the Net; now it gets Bertelsmann's programming heft as well.?"It doesn't matter whether consumers access over mobile phones, their car, their home stereos, television or their personal computers," says Andreas Schmidt, Bertelsmann eCommerce chief. "We want to be able to offer our full catalog anytime anywhere...
...That strategy helps explain why Bertelsmann is teaming with Napster, angering other established record companies that have taken the Internet service to court for copyright infringement. While details haven't been finalized, Bertelsmann is close to announcing a technical solution that will allow Napster to charge a monthly subscription fee in exchange for legal access to record company music. Similar solutions will have to be worked out for content transferred to set-top boxes and mobile phones, as well. "What we have to realize is that it is easier to steal intellectual property than it is to get legal access...