Geo Interactive Media Group Ltd, the Israeli internet application software company, is going into direct competition with Broadcast.com and other web-based broadcasters with the launch of its own WebRadio.com, web broadcasting service. The advantage of Geo’s software is that users do not need to load a plug-in as the first applets they download handle the decompression of the rest of the material. Geo is signing up GTE Corp’s GTE Internetworking unit to be the main provider of internet bandwidth for the new service and the two companies will undertake a joint marketing operation. WebRadio.com will launch in the second quarter of the year and Geo says it has already entered into broadcasting agreements with 25 radio stations in the US. Geo had high hopes when it raised 23m pounds in a London IPO in April 1998 and the shares raced upwards on hopes that it had a ‘killer app’ for the internet. But expectations were dashed in November 1998 when the company announced it was delaying by six months the launch of a new generation of software for a major re-write. Now under the direction of a new CEO, Geo has moved beyond just licensing its software to the provision of services such as WebRadio.com.
Content from our partners
