Three commercial TV broadcasters said Friday they have set up a joint company to distribute their programs via broadband Internet networks in cooperation with the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group.
The joint venture, Tresola Corp., will begin fee-based distribution of programs to personal computers via fiber-optic, digital subscriber line and other high-speed means starting beginning this summer, according to Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc., Fuji Television Network Inc. and Asahi National Broadcasting Co.
The three broadcasters each have an 18.5 percent equity stake in Tresola, which is capitalized at 200 million yen. The four NTT group companies of NTT Communications Corp., NTT Data Corp., NTT East Corp. and NTT West Corp. own a total of 17 percent of the venture.
The other 10 contributors include NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Sky Perfect Communications Inc. and Dentsu Inc. The venture will consider providing content to Internet service providers as well.
Though the service may compete with regular TV programs, executives of the three broadcasters said that broadcasting and Internet-based distribution of programs play different roles.
Two other major broadcasters, Nippon Television Network Corp. and Television Tokyo Channel 12 Ltd., have established similar units for distributing programs via Internet networks.