In brief: NTL and Acer tie up set-top deal

NEWS NTL, the owner of WebTV rival Netchannel, began its assault on the European TV-Internet market with a 30,000 strong order of set-top boxes from Acer. A spokesman for NTL said: "This is preparation for other major deals in the pipeline." The company is planning to launch a complete Internet and telephony package later this year. It is competing with Microsoft's WebTV initiative which grabbed headlines earlier this year when it teamed up with the BBC. Oracle will also be brought in on the NTL and Acer deal to provide the software for the set-top boxes.