`Blair Witch' Brings New Respect to Movie Web Sites.

WITH the fall movies now coming out at a furious clip, most every movie advertisement these days is emblazoned with that now-familiar trio of letters: www.

Movie Web sites have been around for as long as five years, but it was the "Blair Witch Project," this year's indie horror smash, that turned them into major marketing vehicles that have the potential to attract huge numbers of visitors.

"What `Blair Witch' primarily did for us was give our group more credibility," said Ira Rubenstein, vice president of marketing for Culver City-based Columbia TriStar Interactive, one of the first groups to create marketing Web sites for films. "Now, we're getting calls earlier from the film (division's) marketing department, and it's gotten a lot easier to get permission to reveal aspects of the film and use original content on the site."

The cost-to-return ratio for these promotional Web sites is impossible to determine, industry insiders say. But the sites, which often boast the best glitz and creative content that Hollywood can muster, are not intended to be moneymakers. Their goal is to grab eyeballs on the Net and get people into movie seats.

The sites themselves usually look more expensive than they really are, according to Rubenstein, Many studios have in-house teams that develop and maintain Web addresses for their respective movies. The remainder of the work is farmed out to the multitude of independent Web development companies around town, which helps keep costs down.

DreamWorks SKG has hit upon a different approach that further reduces costs: It not only farms out the development of some of its movie Web sites, but also where those sites are posted. The Web site for DreamWorks' "American Beauty," for example, is not on the main DreamWorks site, but is located on Amazon.com's domain.

To rise above the Internet's cacophony, movie Web sites are guaranteed to become bigger, better, more hyped and launched earlier in the movie-production cycle. In fact, movie buffs who are curious about what the summer 2000 blockbusters will be can start surfing for their Web sites around Christmas.

Another Gemstar buy

Fresh from its announced acquisition of TV Guide, Pasadena-based Gemstar International is pushing into new realms of digital television. The company has invested $9 million in Telecruz, a San Jose-based start-up company developing microprocessors that turn plain-old television sets into state-of-the-art, interactive machines.

Telecruz's microprocessors will feature such gadgets as a modem, digital. audio and graphic capabilities to let TV watchers cruise the Net - not to mention Gemstar's electronic VCR programming guide software. Telecruz will begin manufacturing its microprocessors within the next couple months.

Cable access

After months of suggestive but inconclusive rhetoric on the issue of whether local cable companies should be required to open their systems to competitors, a Federal Communications Commission bureau has finally stated its position.

It is advocating a hands-off approach, meaning cable, companies should not be federally required to give competing high-speed Internet service providers such as America Online access to their networks.

But don't expect that FCC position to result in any quicker action on the issue by the Los Angeles City Council.

A deputy for Councilman Alex Padilla, who chairs the council's Information Technology. and General Services Committee, merely said Padilla will consider the FCC document along with other relevant information.

The Information Technology Committee was supposed to present its position to The full council this fall, but Padilla's office says that further testimony on the issue will continue to be gathered for several months.

News and notes

Peter Chernin, president and, chief operating officer of News Corp. and chairman and CEO of the Fox Group; is joining E*Trade Group Inc.'s board. Executives at E*Trade say they expect Chernin to play a key advisory role in helping the company leverage financial media to broaden its appeal to investors....

Santa Monica-based Cooking.com announced a $30 million round of financing from a handful of investors, including net-Worth Partners, Times Mirror Co., Idealab Capital Partners and DynaFund Ventures...

El Segundo-based NetBase Computing has announced a $35 million first round of equity financing from ABS Capital Partners and Chase Capital Partners. NetBase helps middle-market companies integrate operations on the Web and develop Web presences.

Site of the Week - www.epubliceye.com

Because most of the new e-commerce opportunities don't bear a familiar and trusted name like, say, www.gap.com, the chance that online shoppers will run into shoddy operations has skyrocketed.

To help combat the problem, Glendale-based ePubliEye.com has created an online database that provides aggregated customer satisfaction information for more than 8,500 small and mid-sized e-commerce operations.

A would-be virtual shopper can check out the desired company's track record on such key areas as on-time delivery, refund policies, comparative prices, reliability of advertising claims, payment security and access to management - all for free. The online merchants, who hope to attract more customers by establishing their reliability, pick up the tab for a listing and ongoing assessment at ePublicEye.

Also highly conscious us that Spanish-speaking Web surfers have even fewer resources than other online shoppers, ePublicEye provides all its information in Spanish as well.