Napster to announce 'partnership' with NTL?

Quakester2000

May 20, 2004

GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that the
Napster music service is likely announce a tie in with UK cable company NTL
according to a well placed industry source. The arrangement could be made
public as early as this week or possible even tomorrow when Napster will reveal
its plan for launching in the UK . The deal remains unclear but its follows the pattern of Napster, as they recently signed an agreement with high street retailer Dixon 's, the deal will probably centre on marketing campaign by the two companies. The deal will also help NTL promote its various broadband packages that it has to offer. NTL currently offers a music zone site that directly links to the HMV website so users can buy various cds from the HMV site. Napster may want to partner with NTL but it may also want to partner with other ISP's as well because NTL broadband is only available in certain areas of the country. The Napster service is due to launch late this Summer.

Napster is to announce a tie-in with UK cableco NTL, a well-placed industry source has claimed.The arrangement could be made public this week, possibly as early as tomorrow when Napster will reveal the precise timeframe for its UK launch.Details of the NTL deal remain unclear, but if it follows the pattern of the online music service"s recent agreement with high street retailer Dixons, it"s likely to centre on a joint marketing programme.There"s a clear synergy between NTL and Napster - the latter"s download service is an ideal application to promote broadband Internet connectivity, as provided by NTL.

NTL currently offers a music channel, MusicZone, on its ntlworld.com web site. MZ is currently connected to music retailer HMV"s online service, allowing punters to buy CDs but not song downloads. Napster could provide that function.The Dixons deal is an exclusive one, but with NTL"s coverage limited to specific geographical areas, Napster would almost certainly want to partner with other ISPs who can sell broadband to customers in the locations NTL cannot.To date, Napster has said it will launch its download service in the UK "later this summer", but tomorrow will mark the start of the official countdown to the service"s debut.Napster UK communications director Adam Howorth confirmed tomorrow"s launch-window announcement, but told The Register he was unaware of any deal with NTL.An NTL spokeswoman said the cableco does not comment on rumours.

You can read the full story over at The Register. As I see it NTL probably isn't the best ISP to partner with as it only is available in certain areas of the UK and with its current exit from bankruptcy restructuring it will not be expanding any time soon. Another downside to people signing up to the NTL broadband service is the 1 gig cap a day this means customers buying lots of songs off the Napster service wont have much bandwidth left over for anything else. More information on the NTL's cap policy can be found over at the AntiCap
site.

Source: The Register