The US television network CBS Corp is paying to insert wafer-thin videoscreens into the entertainment publication to promote its new season of TV series launching in the autumn, its marketing chief George Schweitzer announced Wednesday, media reports said.
The 2.7 millimetre thick screens have a diagonal width of 5 centimetres and mini-speakers and were developed by Los-Angeles-based Americhip Inc. They play when their page in the magazine is turned, much like greeting cards that play music when someone opens them.
They are to play clips of new and returning TV series and an advertisement for PepsiCo Inc, which is helping fund the promotion. CBS refused to say how much the campaign would cost, but a magazine industry executive familiar with the devices gave an estimate to the Financial Times that would indicate a cost of several dollars per videoscreen, which must be manually inserted into the magazine.
CBS has yet to decide how many videoscreens would go out as part of the promotion, saying only "thousands".