Commercials (200) such as television commercials are augmented by obtaining additional information (300) regarding an advertised product or service from a remote server (182, 184, 192, 194, 195) via a computer network (180) such as the Internet. Commercials are identified and descriptive information is extracted (170). The descriptive information may indicate, e.g., the type of commercial. A user provides preferences (400, 500) regarding commercials via an interface. The preferences may indicate a desired level of detail (500) for the additional information. For commercials whose descriptive information corresponds with the user preference, the computer network is searched to located additional information, e.g., in the form of a web page or link (300). The additional information may relate to promotions, availability, and specifications of an advertised product or service.