Ray Van Eng (12/20/96)
Introduced in the U.S. in September this year, the WebTV service requires a television set-top box for One-Thumb Browsing of the Internet via a television remote control. WebTV set-top boxes made by Sony, Philips, Hitachi, and many others are being sold in U.S. consumer electronic stores at about $330. The WebTV service in the U.S. cost $19.95 a month with unlimited access to the Internet. Based on a study that they have done, the Toronto-based consulting firm Bratch Goehrum claimed that in Canada, household Internet access penetration rate could jump from the present 7% to 8% to over 40% when WebTV gears and service become available in Canada early next year. Besides building a network operation center to host the WebTV service, Fujitsu will also work with others to provide branded Japanese content including TV listing services, an online magazine named Teleparc, the Wildbird map-based information service, among others. The Palo Alto, California based WebTV Networks will own 65 percent of the new company with Fujitsu owning the remaining 35 percent. |