British Telecommunications Plc and United News & Media Plc have announced a 12m pound ($19m) injection of cash into their LineOne UK free ISP joint venture, two weeks after third shareholder News International jumped ship.
The cash will be used to provide re-branded ISPs for the owner’s subsidiaries, such as the Daily Express newspaper and a number of local television stations. This is a tactic used frequently of late – retail groups and media organizations, partnered with service providers, repackaging the same ISP across their various subsidiaries. LineOne will also offer this ISP-in-a-box service to non-affiliated companies.
News International, which had owned a third of LineOne’s equity, was bought out by the remaining two partners last month, as its flagship UK paper, The Sun, launched its own internet service, CurrantBun.com. LineOne claims to have 150,000 subscribers, up 10,000 since it dropped its subscription charges last month.
