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Registered Members of Usen's Free Net Content Service to Top 10 Mil.

Posted on: Friday, 16 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Jun. 16--TOKYO -- The number of registered members of Usen Corp.'s "GyaO" free Internet content distribution service is expected to top 10 million possibly by next week, Usen officials said Friday.

Usen began distributing 1,500 titles in movies, television dramas, animated shows, concerts and music programs only in April last year, with its revenue source being corporate advertisers on its website.

Live Net broadcasts of professional baseball games involving the Lotte Marines have helped bolster GyaO's popularity, as did the live broadcast of Wednesday's Livedoor Co. shareholders meeting. Usen has tied up with Livedoor, the officials said.

But Usen faces the challenge of actually getting its registered members to watch the Net-based content, rather than simply getting people to register, industry officials said.

Internet content audience rating research company Net Ratings said that a 3.82 million-person portion of Usen's registered members watched its content for one hour per day on average in May.

This means that more than half of its registered members at the time neither watched nor listened to Usen's content despite their membership, the officials said.

Usen is planning to increase the volume of content it offers via its website further through such means as production of its own programs.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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