More details leaking out in stories about AOL’s plans to offer its suites of services for free, expanding on its AOL.com open-Web access move:
— NYT: The company would no longer advertise its dial-up service on TV or mail software discs, activities that brought in hundreds of thousands of new customers a quarter. Under the plan being discussed, the company would cease having its employees try to “save” subscribers, by talking them into retaining their service. The AOL executive quoted in the story said cable and phone company partnerships had been negotiated and were likely to be announced in coming weeks.
— WaPo: The company is trying to determine which content offered to only subscribers should be available to everyone. Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang wrote in a memo released yesterday that he expects AOL to begin the transition this year, noting that the company has already taken steps to pull back from advertising its dial-up service. Wang also estimated that AOL could shed more than 80 percent of the company’s call-center staff.
— Fortune: Sound familiar? That’s Yahoo’s model, too. Yahoo is first and foremost a portal and aggregator of online content. It happens to derive a little subscription revenue from alliances with broadband providers such as AT&T, Verizon and BT in the U.K. Yahoo, like AOL, is essentially a media company. The companies even contemplated an alliance last year before AOL took on Google as an investor and partner.
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post