SO MUCH on the Internet is free that you have to be brave to launch a site that expects you to pay for something.

But one fledgling site is not only hoping to pick up subscribers, but make money by charging them to download old news.

Newsplayer (www.newsplayer.com) offers is streamed video covering moments in history, such as the crash of the Hindenberg and JF Kennedy's speech in Berlin and interviews with the Beatles.

It's not all black and white material though, and the site also carries more recent footage, like an interview with Tiger Woods.

All of these are available in the preview section, where you can try out the offering for free though you will need to download the Windows Media Player if you haven't already.

If you want unlimited access to the Newsplayer archives, you will have to pay a subscription fee of £25 per year.

This might seem a lot, but you could argue that it's less than you'd pay for many magazine or newspaper subscriptions.

Newsplayer is a product of the times. Only now, with much faster Internet connections starting to become available, are people going to start having always-on, high-bandwidth connections.