Microsoft Corp is to hike the monthly price for its WebTV Networks Inc’s WebTV Plus service by $5 to $25, with the old WebTV Classic service staying at $20 per month. The price increase is effective June 1, while users who sign on before then will only pay $20 until the end of this year, when the price rise will kick in. Microsoft says the move is necessary to help cover the increased costs from its subscriber base, which it now claims is more than 300,000. It also says that’s a jump from 250,000 at January 1 and 150,000 last October, before WebTV Plus shipped. Microsoft would not break down how many Plus users there are versus Classic. The company launched the WebTV Plus service around the turn of the year, and the set-top boxes, which are manufactured for the US market by Sony Electronics Inc, Philips Consumer Electronics Co and Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America now cost $200 in US consumer electronics stores plus another $50 for a keyboard. The Classic box costs $100. Microsoft says it doesn’t have any timetable for integrating the function of the set-top box into the television, or into a cable set-top box, which many see as crucial if the concept is really going to take off. It says that it will issue upgrades through this year, such as searchable week-long TV listings, personalization and improved picture-in-picture technology, which will be followed by the next generation boxes running Windows CE. That will lead eventually to digital set-top boxes, but it’s a long way off, says Redmond. Redmond claims WebTV users stay online for an average of 41 hours per month. WebTV Plus users that already have an ISP account will see their charge rise $5 to $15 a month.
