America Online has refined its "Bring Your Own Access" (BYOA) broadband service to include a greater variety of video content, including material from ABC News, MLB.com, and Univision. An extensive "AOL for Broadband" marketing campaign is planned. The service is available to consumers nationwide over any DSL, cable modem or other broadband connection. Currently, approximately 2.7 million U.S. AOL members use the AOL for Broadband service despite little marketing to date for broadband and none for the "bring your own access" option. Existing AOL dial-up members can upgrade to a BYOA broadband subscription that includes five hours of monthly dial-up connectivity for $9.95 per month. After the end of the year, pricing will increase to the standard price of $14.95. New members will be offered a 45-day free trial, followed by one month at $9.95 before rolling to the standard price of $14.95.
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- Last month, Yahoo! Introduced a premium online video and audio service featuring branded programming from leading entertainment, sports and news providers for both broadband and narrowband consumers. Yahoo! Platinum rich media content is delivered in 56K, 100K and 300K bit rate streams. At launch, for $9.95 per month, Yahoo! Platinum programming includes: CBS' Survivor Insider, Fox's "American Idol," ABC News, CBS MarketWatch, The Weather Channel, "NASCAR Races to Go," "NASCAR Race Day Audio," and "Best of NASCAR" audio and video. A $16.95 per month package with additional sports programming is also available.
In Q4 2002, RealNetworks' consumer subscription audio/video service reached over 900,000 paying subscribers.
