Today was the biggest of days for America On-line. This morning chief executive Jonathan Miller was supposed to wow investors and analysts alike with details of a new content and broadband initiative. So anticipated was the news that the wires were over-run for the past several days with stories doing little more than reporting anticipation over the announcement. So what's new at AOL?

The day didn't start well for the nation's largest ISP. In an unrelated announcement the company revealed that advertising revenue for 2003 was expected to drop by as much as fifty percent. The news sent the Dow into an early morning dive; not exactly the most optimism inducing backdrop for a presentation on "the new AOL".

Much of what Miller was expected to discuss had been leaked to the media in one form or another last week. The primary thrust of Millers approach is to create a walled-in content garden of eden, offering Time content from various magazines and websites exclusively to AOL customers, broadband or not. The company also announced the creation of a broadband radio service late last week, which failed to excite many analysts.

While Miller has been busy answering a long stream of questions about content which no-one really asked, the promise was made that his new battle plan would contain some significant undivulged insight into the company's broadband agenda. To some degree there was, though content continued to be the stutter in the company's otherwise eloquent speech.

To start, Miller did acknowledge some mis-steps on the part of AOL in the morning's presentation. "We did not innovate as much as we should have, and our competitors have gathered steam," noted Miller, who announced the company will release a new 9.0 version sometime in 2003. "We largely missed the first wave of broadband," Miller admits, "But this does not mean we are out of the game."

AOL 9.0 will be far more video-oriented says Miller, offering users exclusive content from the Time Warner media empire, including access to CNN's pay video news services. AOL customers will also be offered exclusive first peeks at Warner Music Group videos and films, and some Time Warner television content as well (including some offerings from HBO).

Miller spent much of the presentation focused on the content aspects of the company's facelift, but revealed little of the company's broadband partnership plans, other than to announce some future wireless feature agreements with Sprint, Verizon, AT&T Wireless, Motorola, and Nokia.

Miller once again reiterated the company's dedication to being a provider of dial-up services first and foremost. "Narrowband is not going away. It will continue to be a part of this market for many years".

As part of that commitment to narrowband users, the company intends to invigorate its focus on connectivity issues, security, and spam, though precise details were not forthcoming. While repeating the mantra "AOL ends now" throughout the presentation to impress the crowd with AOL's forward looking idealism, Miller made it clear that the company's primary focus is keeping the customers they already have.

AOL has had the world's largest media empire sitting at its kitchen table since the merger, so an announcement involving an exclusive content partnership seems less of an innovation and more of a very late arrival. Should customers be impressed with plans for an AOL broadband service that mirrors television content? Is exclusive access to the on-line version of People magazine going to help the company compete with other broadband providers and a world of free content?

Users interested in the presentation can find a copy of this morning's powerpoint presentation via this link (halfway down the page).