Thomson Reuters plans new billion dollar TV service aimed at YouTube generation

London, Mar 3 (ANI): Thomson Reuters, the leading international multimedia news agency, is planning to invest one billion dollars this year on a new television service and other new products at its markets division.

Chief Executive of markets division Devin Wenig will on Tuesday reveal plans for the new global television service, which would help in updating Reuters technology and bring it in sync with "the YouTube generation".

The Daily Telegraph quoted Wenig as saying there are plans for "an entire reinvention of the product," and the group has committed One billion dollars to spend purely on innovation in 2009, an increase of 35 percent on last year's budget.

Even as the television service is expected to launch in June, Thomson Reuters has already employed more than 100 staff members and two former CNN and CNBC presenters.

Studios have been built in London, New York and Hong Kong and videos installed in bureaus around the world in preparation for marketing.

Moreover, the staff members are likely to increase even more in the next year depending on the success of the television venture.

The television service will be accessed via an icon on the home page of its terminals and users will be able to search for videos by name or business sector.

A transcript of each video will also be provided and users will be able to receive video feeds to their BlackBerry cell phones.

The group is seeking between 50 to 75 content partners and is particularly keen to sign up with other news organisations.

While the new service will be available to its 140,000 premium customers at no extra charge, 360,000 of its other customers will have to pay extra if they want to sign up. (ANI)