Lycos is getting interactive, creating an online video channel for broadband customers that lets users watch movies online - and simultaneously chat about them.

The service, called Lycos Cinema is Lycos's attempt to combine two of the hottest internet sectors, online video and social networking, Reuters reports. Lycos says it will start allowing users to upload videos they have created as soon as next month or early next year.

Lycos Cinema now offers only about 1,000 mostly obscure titles for viewing, but Lycos is planning extensions of the service, including a similar model involving television programming; the company says it has almost reached an agreement with a major record label to allow Lycos to debut one of its artists with the service. Users would be able to view the artist's music videos while commenting on them in real time.

"We put together a video player, tied in with a chat and we're using what Barry Diller (InterActiveCorp CEO) calls 'hybrid content,'" Lycos Chief Operating Officer Brian Kalinowski said. "We have text, multimedia playing and real-time chat."