THE BROADBAND REVOLUTION
Profiles - 20 Top Players in the Broadband

By Margot Carmichael Lester,
Los Angeles Business Journal, August, 1999
Jonathan Taplin Co-Chairman, Co-CEO, Co-Founder Intertainer Inc. Santa Monica
Americans spend billions of dollars to buy movies, music and video games to take home and enjoy whenever they like.

Jonathan Taplin is convinced that will change with the advent of broadband, which will let consumers directly access movies, music and other entertainment through their TVs and computers.

"We want what we want when we want it," says Taplin. "With broadband technology, there's no reason we can't get (entertainment) on demand."

With that in mind, Taplin co-founded Intertainer Inc. in 1996 to begin assembling the massive entertainment libraries that will be necessary to satisfy what's expected to be a huge demand. He already has agreements that will supply content from media giants like MGM, Disney, PBS, ESPN, Universal Studios and Dreamworks SKG.

And in recent months, Intertainer has assembled selections of films and music videos that were used as part of broadband trials in Manhattan, Philadelphia and Denver.

After becoming convinced that broadband will revolutionize the delivery of home entertainment, Taplin formed Intertainer with Richard Baskin and Jeremiah Chechik.

It was a logical step for the 52-year-old Taplin, who graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in English literature and who has been part of the entertainment industry for a quarter century. He has done everything from work as a tour manager for Bob Dylan to produce the film "Mean Streets" for director Martin Scorsese.

He also spent 10 years with Disney helping develop entertainment offerings.