said Neil McManus, analyst with Digital Media.

Officials at the Big Four are well aware of the need to keep up.

More importantly, the service plans to change itspricing model.

Each additional hour costs $2.95.

While company officials declined to provide specifics, plans for lower pricing for high-frequency users will be a priority.

Users will also gain access to a global version of AOL.

Currently, America Online leads the Big Four with 4.5 million users.

That’s why AOL is a success: because it has an intuitive look and feel.

They have the community look and feel that makes them theBen & Jerry’sof online services," said Krasilovsky.

The company started testing its viewer technology with the O. J. Simpson and Susan Smith trials.

“There is another window for a closed-caption transcript of broadcast programs likeCNN,” he added.

Called Worlds Away, the feature is slated for delivery in a few months, company officials said.

“We hope this will mark the beginning of the virtual conferencing world,” he added.

“We think we will be the first service that is totally Web-centric,” she said.

Officials declined to discuss pricing or further details.

In addition to offering Web access, Prodigy, like AOL, is planning to beef up content.

This spring Prodigy plans to launch an online magazine called Living Digital.

“The magazine has been called the ‘real man’s magazine,'” said Sargenti.

“We will have Netscape’s web client integrated with Prodigy in the spring,” said Sargenti.

A Macintosh version of the web app customized for Prodigy is also in the works.

The latecomer to the party is Microsoft’s MSN service.

Launched last August, the fledgling service has about 600,000 members.

The company plans to focus most of its energy on its online effort withNBC.

MSNBC is slated to launch midyear.

The project will boast a 24-hour news channel delivered via cable TV and MSN.

The plan is to keep existing users and attract new ones through a subset of original content.

“We are going to expand our relationship withParamountby bringingEntertainment TonightandStar Trekto the service,” said Cohen.

“This becomes a problem when [online services] want to attract content providers.

Content providers can go directly to the Net rather than going through a middleman.”

“Exclusive information isn’t going to be the key,” he said.

That means paying one flat fee instead of hourly charges.