TECHNOLOGY - April 30, 1992

Philips Announces Interactive TV Venture With GTE: Philips Electronics announced a joint research venture with GTE Corp. to develop interactive television technology. Philips, Europe’s largest consumer electronics company, said it will supply key hardware for the venture while GTE Imagitrek, a division of GTE in the Unites States, will develop the software. Interactive TV, which will be tested in Dutch homes later this year, will allow viewers to call up information or images related to a TV program from an interactive compact disc player, which Philips calls CD-I. Coded signals in TV broadcasts will activate information stored on viewers’ compact discs, Philips said. The information can then be manipulated by the viewer using CD-I technology.