London Times to launch Internet TV service

LONDON: The Times newspaper, aiming to increase its online audience by supplying video news clips, said on Tuesday it planned to launch an Internet television service this week.

Third-party providers will initially provide news clips for the new service, Times TV, which plans in the longer term to encourage its readers to contribute newsworthy video, the British daily said.

Such providers were not disclosed, but the daily said it could include Reuters, the British news and financial information group.

The Times said it was not clear whether BSkyB, the broadcaster that is 38 percent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, would supply clips when the service is launched.

The service is part of a plan to triple our page impressions in the next few years for Times Online, Les Hinton, executive chairman of News International, the daily's British parent, said when announcing the initiative.

In May, Times Online generated 59.9 million page impressions.

Hinton said that News International's strategy was to protect and extend its newspapers by developing online and mobile audiences.

He said The Sun newspaper, which is also owned by News International, had more than half a million subscribers who paid at least five pounds a year to its online fantasy football, it said.

Hinton also said that online poker on the Page 3 glamour website was already outperforming the original Page 3 site.