After a multi-billion dollar failed experiment, Time Warner has made moves to rid itself of the still profitable, but quickly dying AOL dial-up internet division.
The company plans to keep AOL’s Web-portal and advertising sectors and only sell its dial up internet access division which has been losing subscribers at an exponential rate. Time Warner’s new CEO Jeff Bewkes had this to say at a recent conference call. “This should significantly increase AOL’s strategic options,” he said. It is notable to mention that at its peak in 2002 AOL had 30 million paying subscribers. It now has 10 million.
AOL has now been ramping up its advertising business but it still lagging behind the industry. For the Q4 2007, ad revenue for the company grew 18 percent while the industry averaged propelled ahead by 25 percent.
The separation of AOL from Time Warner’s growing content business should allow the company to focus on stronger, more profitable businesses. A rival executive noted that Time Warner has wasted billions of dollars trying to find the Right business model for AOL. “Follow the money. Platforms, not content businesses, are where the money has been made on the internet,” he added.
I’m sure Time Warner share holders can vouch for that last statement.
Result for: aol
Sony BMG has announced that it had signed a deal with Thumplay that will add another 7000 pieces of content to the growing mobile media service.
Currently the service offers 80000 ringtones, games, music videos, and wallpapers among its other content. The new content will be from artists and will be in many of the before mentioned categories.
“This deal reinforces Thumbplay’s position as the leading U.S. provider of mobile content to consumers who are looking to discover and manage their personalized mobile entertainment experience,” CEOI Are Traasdahl said in a statement.
Thumbplay is distributed through sites such as Qloud, MSN Mobile, and AOL and there are about 2000 different devices compatible with the service.
The service already has deals with EMI, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, and Universal Music Group accounting for most of its 80000 pieces of content.
Result for: aol
NBCU first announced the venture back in October of 2007, and now Hulu is finally set to launch tomorrow. For those unfamiliar, the service is a join venture between NBCU and News Corp and will offer free ad-supported TV shows and motion pictures.
The site will offer thousands of free videos from Fox, NBC, and 50 other content providers. Hulu is also in talks with Lionsgate and Warner Bros. to add more content to the Hulu library with those partnerships expected to be announced soon. Notably however, the service has not reached deals yet with CBS or ABC, two major broadcasters.
Hulu went into beta testing in October of last year and has been described as a rival to the much larger YouTube video sharing site. Besides its TV content deals the site also has video licensing deals with the NBA and NHL and will have its content also appear on AOL, MSN, Comcast, MySpace and Yahoo.
