Thomson Set to Ship Built-in Web Access

Thomson Consumer Electronics recently announced plans to begin shipping their RCA brand televisions with built-in Internet access in August. The deal was made with Microsoft’s WebTV.

Sources said that the WebTV circuitry and telephone line connection are to be built into all 27-inch or larger television sets.

it seems that Thomson is the first of many manufacturers looking at the possibility of shipping their large-screen TVs into interactive WebTVs. This means that soon more mainstream households will have easy Internet access that allows users to surf the Web, send and receive e-mail, chat and play games — all in their living room.