Comcast to buy Fandango movie tickets site

By Kenneth Li

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top U.S. cable operator Comcast Corp. said on Wednesday it will buy movie tickets site Fandango as part of a new online business that will offer viewers a single pipeline for video entertainment.

Financial terms of the deal were not furnished.

The new entertainment site, called Fancast.com, will debut in the summer and let consumers search and watch online video. Unlike Comcast.net, its broadband Internet portal for subscribers, Fancast will be available to all U.S. viewers.

Down the line, Fancast will not only help consumers find what to watch online and on TV, but also serve as a conduit to purchase or record it as well, Comcast executives said.

"Fancast is born of our belief that our consumers generally know there's a lot of content out there but don't know where to find it," Amy Banse, president of Comcast Interactive Media, told Reuters. She described the new Business as a super-charged electronic program guide.

Fancast is Comcast's answer to the surge in Internet media via the likes of Google Inc.'s video sharing site YouTube and Apple Inc.'s download service iTunes.

Traditional media companies are attempting to court a new generation of viewers who split their leisure time watching television with surfing the Internet and playing video games.

"Consumers are finding more places to watch more videos," said Sam Schwartz, executive vice president of Comcast Interactive Media. "That doesn't mean they're watching the same thing as they're watching in their living room."

Technology companies are also aiming to make it easier to bring Internet video to regular television sets. Apple TV helps transfer computer downloads to a set-top box, while AOL Video has made its videos available on new Sony TV sets.

Analysts have said that the surge in popularity in online video viewing could pose a threat to traditional media distributors, including cable and satellite operators.

Cable stocks surged in 2006 as investors bid up the stock on a belief that the cable industry's package of products -- television, high speed Internet and digital phone services -- would continue to attract new customers.

Comcast shares rose nearly 80 percent since January 2006, but has fallen about 10 percent from a January 2007 high on fears it would have to spend more heavily to sustain growth.

New add-on services, such as online video, is seen as a longer term growth source as well as a defense against new start-up Internet businesses by Wall Street.

Fancast will eventually let viewers control when shows are recorded on digital video recorders, offer short and long-form shows directly on the site, make shows and movies available on DVDs or make them available digitally through an online store.

Some of these features, such as the ability to buy movie tickets from your living room TV, could be made available on set-top boxes by 2008, executives said.