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The site, which will be accessible by early summer, is part of the company's strategy of expanding its services across a multi-media platform in Ireland. The company has not yet decided on a brand name, although it is thought it will have a local theme.
The site will cover regional, national and international news. UTV also plans to include on it a facility through which people can listen on-line to its recently acquired local radio stations, Cork 96FM, 103FM and 103FM, West Cork. The company has acquired a 60 percent stake in these stations, at a cost of IEP5.8 million, which are operated by County Media Ltd.
"We are very excited about the potential for radio and Internet to come together. We hope that in the near future we can stream the County Media stations through the Internet," Jim Downey, finance director, UTV told ElectricNews.Net.
Although the company is anxious to develop all its media platform, current ownership laws in both the North and the Republic of Ireland restrict this to a certain degree.
"Because of our dominant interest in TV, we don't have a lot of scope for development in Northern Ireland, but we see County Media as the first step towards developing an Internet platform in Munster," Downey said.
In March 2000, UTV acquired Direct Net Access Ltd., which was re-launched as UTV Internet on 01 June 2000. The re-branding was supported by a major advertising campaign, which caused financial loss for the company during the period.
However the company is now confident that it is on target to reach its aim of 60,000 users of its Internet site, www.utvinternet.com by the summer.
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