NEW YORK (Reuter) - Software billionaire Bill Gates and NBC said Thursday they were forming a 24-hour cable television news channel and computer online service in a deal that marries a top broadcast network with the world's biggest software company.
The all-news cable channel, equally owned by Gates' Microsoft Corp. and NBC, would be a rival for Cable News Network, which has had the field to itself for almost all of the past 15 years.
NBC and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said they will form two joint ventures to provide news through a 24-hour cable channel and an online service.
Microsoft will invest $220 million over the next five years for its stake in the cable television venture, MSNBC Cable, which will make its debut within six months on NBC's America's Talking cable channel, the companies said.
The two companies also will invest another $200 million over the next five years to develop the cable news venture.
The second venture will be called MSNBC Online, they said.
``One of the key things is that both of the companies are saying we believe in the world of interactivity but we're bringing this world into broadcast,'' Gates, who is chairman of Microsoft, said in a satellite feed from Hong Kong.
At a news conference announcing the venture, NBC President Bob Wright said NBC will manage the cable network and the two companies will cooperate in managing the interactive network.
``Viewers will look to NBC News for headlines from around the world, tune in to the cable channel for in-depth analysis and click into the Microsoft Network for comprehensive information customized to the viewer's preferences,'' they said.
The announcement comes on the same day that Microsoft announced that an heir is on the way for Gates.
Gates and his wife, Melinda French, are expecting their first child in late May, company officials said Thursday.
Gates, 40, and French, 31, an executive in Microsoft's consumer division, were married in Hawaii Jan. 1, 1994.