Otis Elevator in Media Venture

United Technologies Corp.’s Otis Elevator Co. said it will form a joint venture to put video screens in elevators to deliver news, weather and perhaps advertising to passengers. Otis said it will finalize the deal soon but that it is too early to predict revenue from the venture. UT’s partners in the venture, called E-Display, are IBM Corp., which will provide technical assistance and perhaps hardware and software, and Next Generation Network Inc., a media company based in Minneapolis that would provide content taken from the Internet. Otis services about 1.2 million elevators worldwide. Otis would sell and install the screens, which would carry no audio, for as much as $5,000 each, and it said it expects to sell at least 10,000 screens in the next two to three years, a spokesman said. Advertising would be carried only if building owners choose, Otis said, and Otis, Next Generation and the building owners would share the ad revenue.