NBC Teletext

Last updated
NBC Teletext
Developer NBC
TypeTeletext
Launch date1983
Discontinued1985
Platform(s) NABTS
StatusDiscontinued

NBC Teletext was a teletext service provided by the American TV network NBC from 1981 to 1985, based on the NABTS standard. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Initial trials started in Los Angeles in 1981. [5] Transmissions started as a regular service on May 16, 1983 [6] after FCC approval, [7] [8] [9] in parallel with CBS similar ExtraVision [10] service.

Initially, the NBC Teletext was composed of a 50-page magazine, with the index page listing the following topics: Newsfront, Weather, Sports, Money, People, Your Body, Living, Your Stars, On the Soaps, Fun & Games, Kid's Korner, Partners, Credits. [9] Graphics were reasonably detailed, allowing a detailed rendition of weather maps or movie posters. [9]

Since teletext provides real-time updates, it was expected that the service would attract advertisers like airlines, stores or businesses interested in constantly updating their rates and schedules. [11] As there were no available standalone consumer decoders on the market, it was hoped that by launching the system manufacturers would soon built teletext capability into all television sets. [6] [11]

Demonstrations of the system were performed at the 1983 National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, the Organization of Iberian-American Broadcasters (OTI) in Mexico City, and the International Television Symposium and Technical Exhibition in Montreux. [12] [1] [13] Special content was developed for these demonstrations.

In 1984 projections, NBC expected the teletext service to be profitable by 1987 and reach 10 percent of US homes by 1990. [11]

These expectations were not met, and the system was shut down in January 1985. [14] [15]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Portfolio 1981-89: Teletext". The Communication Studio. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  2. ↑ Ellers, Ed. "TELETEXT GALLERY - TELETEXT AROUND THE WORLD - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA". The Teletext Museum. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  3. ↑ Graziplene, Leonard R. (2000). Teletext: Its Promise and Demise. Lehigh University Press. ISBN   978-0-934223-64-5.
  4. ↑ Technology, United States Congress House Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Science, Research, and (1984). Developing Technologies for Television Captioning: Benefits for the Hearing Impaired : Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, November 9, 1983. U.S. Government Printing Office.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ Gingras, Richard. "Broadcast Teletext, 1980". www.richardgingras.com. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  6. 1 2 Watson, Barbara (September 1983). "NBC offers teletext" (PDF). RCA Engineer. p. 18.
  7. ↑ Renner-Smith, Susan (September 1984). "Teletext decoder for network-TV "magazine"". Popular Science. p. 40.
  8. ↑ Hoard, Bruce (April 25, 1983). "FCC Authorizes Teletext Broadcasting". Computerworld. p. 71.
  9. 1 2 3 Astle, B. (September 1983). "Teletext standards in North America" (PDF). RCA Engineer. pp. 15–25.
  10. ↑ Carlson, David (2009). "ExtraVision". David Carlson's Virtual World. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  11. 1 2 3 SHAW, SYDNEY (May 2, 1984). "Teletext, a new service that displays 'pages' of information..." United Press International, Inc.
  12. ↑ Vaughan, John (2019-01-13). "TV In-Channel Magazine NBC Teletext". John Vaughan - my Portfolio. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  13. ↑ Dixon, Douglas (July 1989). "Life before the chips: simulating digital video interactive technology". Communications of the ACM. 32 (7): 824–831. doi: 10.1145/65445.65449 . ISSN   0001-0782. S2CID   17999029.
  14. ↑ Gillies, Donald (1989). Technological Determinism In Canadian Telecommunications: Telidon Technology, Industry and Government. Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. p. 6. doi:10.22230/cjc.1990v15n2a549 (inactive 31 January 2024).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
  15. ↑ Downey, Gregory J. (2008-02-25). Closed Captioning: Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television. JHU Press. p. 224. ISBN   978-0-8018-8710-9.
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