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Alan Breznick
Striving to become a cyberspace giant, NBC launched its publicly traded Internet spinoff, struck an online marketing deal with Clear Channel Communications Inc. and invested in a major sports Web site last week.
NBCi, which combines the Snap.com Internet portal, the community services and direct electronic-commerce company XOOM.com Inc., and select Peacock Internet properties, launched Nov. 30 to a cool reception on Wall Street with the price sliding to $76, down $12.50 from its initial offering price of $88.50.
Known as NBCi, the spinoff doesn't include such other major NBC online properties as MSNBC.com, which the broadcaster jointly owns with Microsoft Corp., and most of its investment in CNBC.com. Nor does the new company cover NBC's minority stakes in a number of other Web publishers, including CNET Inc., Talk City, iVillage, Golf.com and its latest sports investment, Total Sports Inc.
NBCi CEO Chris Kitze, the former chairman of Xoom.com, said his new company's properties give it a combined, unduplicated reach greater than all but six other Web publishers. Still, he said, more growth is planned.
"I think we need to be at 50% reach," he said, noting that this would put NBCi at the same level as the combined Web properties of Yahoo! Inc., America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Lycos Inc. "Right now we're at 25% reach."
To enhance awareness of NBCi's offerings, the company will pay Clear Channel $20 million over three years to promote its services on the company's 425 radio stations and corresponding Web sites. NBCi will also integrate its Internet community and search services into the radio broad-caster's Web sites and the two companies will share advertising and electronic commerce revenues.
At the same time, parent company NBC is taking an unspecified minority stake in Total Sports, a grouping of more than 100 Web sites that specialize in live sports coverage. NBC Sports will also provide on-air promotion for Total sports..
A recent report indicates worldwide ADSL modem shipments grew faster than their cable modem siblings, but overall volume still favored cable.
Cahners In-State Group found world ADSL modem shipments grew 74% in the third quarter of 1999 compared to 27% growth in cable modems. But overall, cable modems still maintained the numbers lead by a two-to-one margin.
ADSL modems will reach the 1.2 million units shipped mark by the end of the year, according to the report.
Also significant were the changes in top modem makers' market shares. The study found Alcatel, and Cisco Systems Inc., which once took up 55% of the ADSL modem market in 1998, now claim only 36%.
In cable modems, top guns Motorola Inc. and Nortel Networks Corp. still lead the pack with 42% market share, but that is down from a combined 68% mark last year, according to the report.
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