MIAMI -- Viewdata Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Knight-Ridder Newspapers, announced Monday a market test of a comprehensive home information service called Viewdata.
Albert J. Gillen, president of Viewdata Corp., said the one-year market test will start in mid-1983 and will involve some 5,000 participants in an area of south Florida not yet chosen.
The test will be held in cooperation with American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Viewdata and AT&T are currently joint sponsors of a smaller concept trial in Coral Gables involving some 200 participants. That trial started in July 1980 and will run through September.
It permits participants to receive in their homes news, weather, sports, stock market, travel and entertainment news, consumer advice, educational aids, games, quizzes and advertising on a television screen in the form of text and graphics.
'We have been greatly encouraged by the results of the Coral Gables trial,' said Norman Morrison, VCA executive vice president. 'The overwhelming majority of our trial participants indicated an interest in subscribing to a Viewtron service.'
As in the Coral Gables trial, AT&T will provide terminals and network facilities for the 1983 market test and VCAwill provide the computers and database.
Participants will need a telephone line, television set and a decoder with a keybooard.
In the current trial, participants are not being charged but they will be in the new service.
