NBC Teletext explained

NBC Teletext
NBC Teletext
Developer:	NBC
Type:	Teletext
Launched:	1983
Discontinued:	1985
Platform:	NABTS
Status:	Discontinued

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. Graphics were reasonably detailed, allowing a detailed rendition of weather maps or movie posters.

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.

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] ^[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.

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

Notes and References

Web site: Portfolio 1981-89: Teletext . 2022-12-15 . The Communication Studio.
Web site: Ellers . Ed . TELETEXT GALLERY - TELETEXT AROUND THE WORLD - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA . 2022-12-15 . The Teletext Museum.
Book: Graziplene, Leonard R. . Teletext: Its Promise and Demise . 2000 . Lehigh University Press . 978-0-934223-64-5 . en.
Book: Technology, United States Congress House Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Science, Research, and . 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 . 1984 . U.S. Government Printing Office . en.
Web site: Gingras . Richard . Broadcast Teletext, 1980 . 2022-12-15 . www.richardgingras.com.
News: Watson . Barbara . September 1983 . NBC offers teletext . 18 . RCA Engineer .
News: Renner-Smith . Susan . September 1984 . Teletext decoder for network-TV "magazine" . 40 . Popular Science .
News: Hoard . Bruce . April 25, 1983 . FCC Authorizes Teletext Broadcasting . 71 . Computerworld .
News: Astle . B. . September 1983 . Teletext standards in North America . 15–25 . RCA Engineer .
Web site: Carlson . David . 2009 . ExtraVision . 2022-12-15 . David Carlson's Virtual World.
News: SHAW . SYDNEY . May 2, 1984 . Teletext, a new service that displays 'pages' of information... . United Press International, Inc. .
Web site: Vaughan . John . 2019-01-13 . TV In-Channel Magazine NBC Teletext . 2022-12-16 . John Vaughan - my Portfolio . en.
Dixon . Douglas . July 1989 . Life before the chips: simulating digital video interactive technology . Communications of the ACM . en . 32 . 7 . 824–831 . 10.1145/65445.65449 . 17999029 . 0001-0782. free .
Book: Gillies, Donald . Technological Determinism In Canadian Telecommunications: Telidon Technology, Industry and Government . Ryerson Polytechnical Institute . 1989 . 6. 10.22230/cjc.1990v15n2a549 . 31 January 2024 .
Book: Downey, Gregory J. . Closed Captioning: Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television . 2008-02-25 . JHU Press . 978-0-8018-8710-9 . 224 . en.