IP: Technology & Health: Visa and Sony, in a (fwd)

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

02:15 WJ HT Wall Street Journal
Technology & Health: Visa and Sony, in an Ambitious Effort, Plan an Internet 
Entertainment Service ----
11/16/95 02:15
  Visa International and Sony Corp. are expected to announce today a 
partnership
to create one of the most ambitious entertainment services on the Internet.


  The service, targeted for the multimedia portion of the Internet known as 
the
World Wide Web, would be filled with information and games born from Sony's 
vast
array of movies, music and entertainment. The on-line fare could be 
purchased
with Visa credit cards, 400 million of which are used world-wide. Dubbed 
Sony
Station, the site would include new programming produced for the on-line
environment when it launches in April.


  "It would be wrong to think of this as an alternative delivery system," 
said
Michael P. Schulhof, president and chief executive officer of Sony Corp. of
America. "We will develop a host of new services drawing from all of the
creative talent from all of our operating units," which include Sony 
Television
Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment, he
said.


  The move underscores the intention of big media companies to cut out the
middlemen of commercial on-line services and take control of their own
electronic services on the Internet's World Wide Web. America Online Inc., 
the
largest commercial on-line service, reaches four million users, while the 
Web,
according to a recent survey, has 24 million users in North America. A 
Web-based
service, said Sony's Mr. Schulhof, "reaches a much larger audience."


  Sony executives shied away from details, but they said the site would be
rendered in three-dimensional "space." Users could "enter" various 
"pavilions"
to play, for example, an on-line game of "Wheel of Fortune" or "Jeopardy!"
Winners might use their Visa cards to purchase their discounted prizes. 
Users
also may be able to tap into behind-the-scenes information about "Seinfeld" 
and
soap operas such as "The Young and the Restless," or "chat" on-line with 
stars
of a new on-line soap opera that might be offered on a pay-per-view basis. 
They
may eventually be able to download new songs from unreleased albums from the
likes of Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand.


  But marketing a Web site amid the flood of new Web sites is increasingly
difficult. Sony and Visa face fierce competition from major media concerns 
and
individual users who already offer their own database of anything relating 
to
"Seinfeld," for example. Moreover, the companies have to overcome the
overwhelming fear in the marketplace that the Internet is no place for 
passing
credit-card data.


  People "don't have to worry about some hacker coming in and ripping off 
their
credit-card number," vowed Todd Chaffee, a senior vice president at Visa, 
which
is leading one of the biggest industry efforts to develop secure on-line 
payment
systems for the Internet.


  Industry watchers said the two companies, with their consumer and 
financial
expertise, could significantly step up the consumer realm of electronic
commerce. Consumers are "looking for familiar names that they trust, and 
Sony
and Visa are names that fall into that category," said Gary Arlen, president 
of
research firm Arlen Communications Inc.


  Executives close to the companies said that Visa and Sony are investing 
more
than $20 million in the service in the next "several years."