Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium Diepeveen built an error-correcting coder-decoder that was delivered in the summer of 1978. The decoder was included in the CD prototype player that was presented to the international press. To commemorate this breakthrough, Philips received an IEEE Milestone Award on March 6, 2009. This breakthrough was also appreciated by Sony and they started a cooperation with Philips that resulted in June 1980 in a common CD system standard. Philips as a whole took a turn for the worse and by the end of the 1980s bankruptcy seemed a very real possibility. Under research director Kees Bulthuis the position of long-term
Philips CD-i rights from CDMATICS. In 1995 Philips introduced CD-Online, a service which provided the CD-i with full internet access (with a 14.4k modem), including online shopping, email, and support for networked multiplayer gaming on select CD-i games. The service required a CD-i player with DV cartridge, and an "Internet Starter Kit" which initially retailed for £99.99. Andy Stout, a writer for the official CD-i magazine, explained CD-Online: The CD-Online service went live in the UK on October 25, 1995 and in March 1996 in the Netherlands (for 399 guilders). The system was reportedly scheduled to launch in the US as "Web-i"