Sony Corp., Tokyu Corp., Kansai Electric Power Co. and Itochu Corp. said Tuesday they have agreed to begin content-distribution services on a commercial basis via broadband Webcasting.
A joint venture mainly run by the four, called All Planning Co., will be reorganized and renamed All Inc. on Wednesday. From the end of January, it will Webcast video news, weather forecasts, live sports and other programming. It will also offer chat rooms, movie previews and electronic books for downloading, the four companies said.
When it was founded in April, All Planning set up Japan's first cable TV-based content-distribution network. The company has since been conducting field tests of the system.
All Inc. hopes to reach 1 million homes through 100 cable TV stations by the end of March 2002. Its capital will gradually be raised from the current 150 million yen to 3 billion yen.
The reorganized venture will be owned 51 percent by Sony, 20 percent by Tokyu, 10 percent by Kansai Electric Power, and 8 percent by Itochu.
Other shareholders will include Kinki Nippon Railway Co., ITX Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Kyushu Telecommunication Network Co.