Terra Lycos launches fee-based game service
Web surfers will have to pay to play at Terra Lycos. The internet branch of the Spain-based media company has launched a service, called Lycos Gamesville, in which users pay to play computer games without having to actually buy the software. Games in the Terra Lycos library include Centipede and Roller Coaster Tycoon. It costs $8 a month to access five games and about $14 a month for access to 20 different games. The gaming service is aimed at the half of Terra Lycos users that have high-speed internet connections. The company says that some 47 million consumers play games online each month, representing a large and potentially lucrative user base. While other portals offer online gaming, Terra Lycos is the first to start charging to play games on the web.

Sweeps: Coming soon to the internet
Ah, sweeps, broadcast TV's quarterly romp in rating-generating programming stunts. Soon the internet will have its own sweeps of sorts. In May, Nielsen//NetRatings and the International Academy of Arts and Sciences plan to initiate the first Internet Sweeps Month. The incentives for entering: Webby Awards in three new categories, namely Rising Star, Top U.S. Property and Top Global Property. The Rising Star Award will go to the site the grows the most in May when compared to January through April. The Top U.S. Property and Top Global Property awards will go to the sites that get the most traffic during the month. The Webby Awards organization and NetRatings say the awards are a good way to highlight what’s popular online and a way to honor sites for their size as well as their quality. It will be useful to note how web sites drive traffic that month.

Merriam-Webster puts dictionary online for a fee
Encyclopedia Britannica found that it couldn’t afford to offer its reference material online for free, so after dabbling in free content offerings the company began charging for material at its web sites. Recognizing the danger within offering everything gratis, dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster will begin offering its dictionary via the web, unabridged, for the price of $29.95 a year. The unabridged print edition typically costs about $100. For the $29.95 fee, wired consumers will be able to peruse the dictionary’s 470,000 entries in full. The publisher already offers its Collegiate Dictionary and Collegiate Thesaurus online at no charge. Merriam-Webster is luring potential subscribers by offering a two-week free trial of the unabridged dictionary.

CNN: You now have to pay for streaming videos
People who log on to CNN.com searching for free re-broadcasts of news programs won’t find them there any more. As of this week the news site is getting rid of free news, sports and business webcasts on its sites. CNN will charge $4.95 a month or $39.95 for a year’s worth of access. People also have the option of signing up via RealNetworks for $9.95 a month SuperPass package, which also gives users access to video content from ABC News, Fox Sports, NASCAR, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. CNN is not alone in putting the kibosh on free online video clips. ABC News just made a similar move. Media companies were losing at least tens of millions and maybe hundreds of millions of dollars by offering such costly features for free. Additionally, observers note that interest in such services increased in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, straining news sites’ resources further still.

AOL’s growth slows, and freebe subs mount
No. 1 internet service provider America Online last week announced that its user base had grown to a record 34 million subscribers. But investors didn’t jump for joy at the news. For starters, the figure represents a slowdown in growth. It took the ISP over two months to add 1 million more users, twice the time it used to take to add that many new subscribers. Also, it appears a number of subscribers are getting the service for free, in addition to many who have been enrolled under various promotions that have reduced the effective price they're paying to well below the standard $23.90 monthly access fee. How many are getting the service for free or are not paying the full rate is not known outside of AOL, but it appears to be a considerable number. Analysts figure that the ISP brings in less than $18 a month per subscriber.

March 20, 2002 © 2002 Media Life


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