Remember Lycos? The huge Internet portal company that was purchased for $12.5 billion by Terra in 2000, then became Terra Lycos, only to be resold to Korea’s Daum Communications Corp. for $95 million in 2004?
The once-hot company is looking to get its mojo back with a new broadband channel aimed at teens. But this is no ordinary video channel. Called Lycos Cinema, the site blends social networking with videos and video sharing and enables users to simultaneously watch the same video while chatting about it — kind of like multi-player video gaming only with videos.
Lycos also will allow users to watch full-length motion pictures, although admittedly most are grade-Z films such as “Big Bry’s Western Style BBQ,” “Bleeding Iowa,” and “Embalming Love.” Lycos has licensed 1,000 movie titles for the service and is negotiations to license 3,000 more.
One section of the site lists movies that are currently “playing” and how much time is left in the film so that users can jump in and watch along with the other viewers. Up to 10 viewers can watch schedule a movie in advance and watch it simultaneously, and Lycos is planning to add voice chat to the service.
The Boston Globe’s Hiawatha Bray likens the Lycos channel to the Sci-Fi Channel’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 program,” where scripted, silliouetted “people” shouted back at the big screen during films.
An interesting idea that may actually attract some segment of the teen market if Lycos pays proper attention to viral marketing. The low quality of the films is a plus — who wants to make ongoing snarky comments to buddies during good films?
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:51 AM|Comments(0)
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