US West to Make Video Deal
Ultimate TV: TV Biz

Friday February 20, 1998
US West Communications will be working out a video content deal with Intertainer, a start-up movie and programming company. US West needs video entertainment content to feed its new high-speed Internet access service, which is scheduled to be available in 40 cities in the next year. This is the first new telephone company video content initiative, since the failure of the 1990s TeleTV and Americast attempts to provide video content for distribution over telephone wires. Intertainer has also demonstrated its technology to Bell Atlantic and GTE.

Cable-TV company Comcast is spending about $500 per home to provide Intertainer programing to its customers. US West says customers will pay $50 to $60 per month for basic high-speed Internet access. Then customers will have the option of paying an additional pay-per-view for Intertainer movies and programs.