Blair Witch Project, Ghost Dog and John Carpenter's Vampires are among an initial 200 features that will be offered by Germany's media[netCom] during its second set of video-own-demand (VoD) trials at the end of January.

The trials will initially be launched in 25 test households in the Hamburg suburb of Rahlstedt Hoehe, but is to be extended to 1,800 homes in the area over the next few months. The number of films available is to expand to more than 3,000 titles.

"In the first phase of the Rahlstedt project it will also be a question of looking at the users' mode of acceptance vis-a-vis the film offer, pricing policy and ordering procedures," said media[netCom] CEO Frank Hackenbuchner.

The company also plans to hold its "Cinema on Demand" trials next year in Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Rosenheim and Schweinfurt. The first trials took place earlier this year in some parts of the East German Laender of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Media[netCom], whose shareholders include Kinowelt Medien and Highlight Communications (with a combined 13.43%), began trading on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt at the beginning of July this year.