Xenite.Org News

Netscape to handle new official LoTR film forums

September 04, 2001 at 15:35:13

The Washington Post reported in late August that Netscape would be handling the new official forums for New Line Cinema.

In an article published on August 21, The Washington Post reported on how Netscape, a division of AOL Time Warner, has been re-engineering itself to provide new services that boost its membership and revenue streams.

One of their recent projects consisted of promoting Warner Bros.' Internet toon series, "Toon Marooned" (a spoof of the popular "Survivor" television show). Warner Bros. is another component of the AOL Time Warner media empire.

Netscape is doing the same for Time Warner's other movie studio, New Line Cinema. At another staff meeting, Bankoff talked about using Netscape's software technology to support a message board linked to the Web site for "The Lord of the Rings," the upcoming New Line film. The idea would be to require consumers to get a Netscape user name and pass code for access to a message board where notes about the movie are posted. The same user name and code could be used to access other sites. The movie Web site, in turn, could drive traffic back to Netscape.

" 'Lord of the Rings' could be a good launchpad," Bankoff said.

It's part of a formula for Netscape that seems to be working. Netscape.com had 19.8 million visitors in June, ranking it ninth among all Web sites, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, an Internet audience-measurement service. That's up 6 percent from 18.7 million in June a year ago.

The official film site has previously offered communities in conjunction with a Lycos subsidiary.

The official community with compete with popular fan Web sites for community, but will have the power of brand and AOL Time Warner's empire behind it to ensure that it quickly becomes the largest online community of Lord of the Rings fans.

Tolkien discussion groups have existed for years on news groups and mailing lists. Xenite.Org launched the Web's oldest Tolkien-related forum in 1997. Several hundred Tolkien-related forums have been created on Web sites and through free forum services over the past two years.