Pay-per-view wrestling on cable, yes. But pay-per-view wrestling on computer?
Turner Broadcasting's World Championship Wrestling subsidiary is betting that the time is ripe for exactly that. At the end of October, wrestling fans will have the opportunity to subscribe monthly to a hybrid CD-ROM/Internet service that will let them see Hulk Hogan and other top wrestlers hit the canvas in full-motion video against computer-generated backdrops.
The technology for the show comes courtesy of United Internet Technologies, a Los Angeles-based startup that has developed a way to embed full-motion video from pre-recorded events into Web sites -- giving ordinary home viewers the illusion that they're watching a broadband-quality presentation on their 56K modem.
"Broadband will deliver that real experience in five to seven years from now, but we're using [CD-ROM] disks as the bridge," said Brian Shuster, United Internet's chief executive, who until four years ago made movies for customers such as HBO. "The average end user doesn't give a damn if the video streams, if it comes from a satellite, or if it's a hybrid technology embedded in the Web site."
WCW's first two CD-ROMs will be distributed for free at wrestling events, bundled with WCW Magazine or sent without charge to visitors to WCW's Web site. The company is hoping the disks -- with 10 matches between them -- will persuade some of wrestling's 25 million rabid fans to sign up for a US$4.95 subscription -- and give it a leg-up in the ratings war against its arch-competitor, the World Wrestling Federation.
"WCW will become the No. 1 site for wrestling on the Web," boasted Jay Hassman, vice president of WCW Enterprises.
Connecting automatically to the Internet, the CD-ROMs will be able to display video ads triggered to run on different days by WCW's Web site, giving viewers fresh ads each time they boot up. When clicked upon, the ads will disappear to reveal Internet-generated "instant prizes" for a lucky few, Shuster said. United Internet's technology got its first workout last month, when NBC handed out free CD-ROMs to promote its fall season. The CD-ROMs included videos of a star emcee and clips from the new shows.
NBC's Web site unlocked a different video on the CD-ROMs each day -- giving viewers an incentive to boot up each day to see another plug for the schedule.
The Internet connection allowed viewers to participate in a contest built around the fall season as they viewed the videos. Shuster says Internet Technologies is developing iterations of the technology for clothing stores, sporting events, and distance learning -- allowing students to listen to pre-recorded lectures and then answer questions on the Internet.
In some cases, the technology will be distributed for free. In others, there will be a fee, Shuster said.
The technology seeks to resolve a key problem with narrow-band Internet video: It stinks. View it as a video stream in real time, and the motion is choppy and often interrupted by Web traffic jams. Download a one-hour video over a 56K modem, and you'd better be ready to tie up your phone line for eight to 12 hours and use up to a gigabyte of memory.
Since that's the kind of modem most Americans have at home, Shuster reasons, they'll welcome a technology that at least gets them halfway to the nirvana of full-screen, TV-quality video on their computers.
The technology for embedding the action has also been designed so that it will migrate easily to a broadband pipe when that becomes available for most consumers, he said.
Analyst Peter Clemente of Internet market researcher Cyber Dialogue isn't entirely convinced.
"It's at best an interesting technology and an interim solution," Clemente said. "It doesn't solve the real problems of creating full-motion video over the Internet."
There's one other catch, of course: You can't watch wrestling matches in real time, like cable pay-per-views.
Shuster sees no problem there.
"In wrestling, it's all about entertainment value," he said. "Wrestling fans want to see new matches involving their favorite heroes. And that's what we provide."
