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Recently the Dutch telco operator KPN (a privatised PTT) announced the
introduction of a settop box for Internet on TV, called Net.box.

As it appears it will be a French product NetGem, which was introduced at
the Milia in cannes in the beginning of this year. It has the size of a
pocket book and is linked to the telephone line. Price $ 350 dollars.
Basically the price tag is covering hardware. There is a service thrown in,
but that KPN's claim to fame: Het Net, a free intranet for Dutch speaking
people. Internet service will have to be acquired separately at a price.

The press release give me a deja vu. In the stone age of online (beginning
80'ties), videotex was introduced with a TV settop box and never made it.
People were willing to use it on their PC, which was just introduced at that
time. Household conflicts were cited as the reason for the lack of uptake.
An attempt some 10 years later did not get off the ground either, despite
the fact that there is a TV in (almost) every room of the house. Now Net.Box
will makes its entree in October with a lot of blah blah (it will give a
boost and reach households Internet cannot reach at present). I guess you
can look at it two ways: it's a substitute for PC Internet ot it will become
an upograde of the present TV textservices that started with Ceefax (which I
beleive is not active in the States).

As WebTV is running now in the US and on trial in the UK. How is the success
rate and what are the perceived problems? WebTV has not been introduced in
continental Europe yet. Philips is holding back as it wants to have a roll
out of hardware and a service. Besides specially designed sites (to take
notice of the TV screen properties) are needed. 


a. Did WebTV make any impact yet; if so, why; if not, what is the turn off
factor;
b. Does WebTV cause household conflicts;
c. Is there any experience with settop boxes; I know there is market
research in projecting figures on these devices, but what is your observation;
d. are there any newspapers working as advocates of WebTV or settop boxes?



  
Jak Boumans
Johan Buziaulaan 75, 3584 ZV Utrecht, The Netherlands
tel. +31 30-2515433; fax + 31 30-2518233
e-mail: jak@euronet.nl, boumans@stb.tno.nl
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Subject: Re: Newsroom cooperation From: Jak Boumans  Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 13:14:31 +0200 (MET DST)
How the Web Was Won
Subject: Re: Newsroom cooperation
From: Jak Boumans 
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 13:14:31 +0200 (MET DST)

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