PHILIPS PLANS TO AVERTISE TV GADGET FOR INTERNET
By Adnews Staff
Philips Media Systems of Washington, D.C. is coming out with a CD player that allows people to surf the Internet by television. Philips plans a North American launch in the fall and is looking for an ad agency to help with the job, PR director Meredith Clements told Adnews last week. The company hasn't decided yet whether it will hire a U.S. agency to handle all North American advertising, or if it will also take on a Canadian shop, either to localize U.S. ads and do the media buy or to do original creative. Clements wouldn't give a time frame for a decision, but said it would have to be made "soon." Called CD-Online, the CD-i device can browse the World Wide Web, do emailing and post to news groups. It also acts as an entertainment centre. It can play a catalogue of over 300 CD-i games, as well as music, video and photo CDs. The system comes with a 14.4 bps modem and an on-screen keyboard. Users will also have the option of buying a custom keyboard for those who will use e-mail a lot, and a child proofing mechanism so people can block out certain sections of the Internet they think is inapproporiate for children. CD-Online has been in Europe for eight months.