From: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.uk
Subject: Re: Teletext in the U.S. ? (Re: More about CNN International)
Date: 12 Sep 92 23:41:24 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computing & Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <1992Sep11.134520.26928@pixel.kodak.com> dj@ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones) writes:
>><That doesn't surprise med, really. When I visited the U.S. for the
>><first time last month, I discovered that nobody I asked had heard of
>><teletext. Does teletext exist at all in the United States ? 
>>
>>Nope!
>
>Well, yes, up to a point.  There's "Closed Caption" service available
>for many programs on various channels, both broadcast and cable.  This
>puts up a box with text in over the top of a picture to provide a 
>transcription of the sound for deaf viewers.  There's a similar
>capability in Ceefax/Oracle in the UK.

Yes, but Ceefax/Oracle/4-Tel are *MUCH* more than subtitling. Closed caption
boxes in the states have only one purpose, and I bet they ain't free ???

There is just so much other good stuff on teletext. News, sport, TV info,
movie reviews, recipies, competitions, *OBTRUSIVE AD's on Oracle/4-Tel*,
TV listings, subtitling and so on ..... Maybe why Prestel never really took off
???

Teletext TV's cost only a little bit more than non-teletext ones and are
pretty much standard these days.

>Apart from that, there's no "piggyback" teletext, where the text signal
>is carried on unused lines the picture.  On the other hand, many cable
>systems carry channels devoted to various information screens, such as
>weather maps, program listings, even houses for sale (with pictures).

There was an article somewhere commenting on this fact. Teletext is fairly
useful in the UK and is a common and accepted technology. In the US, cable
is very common (*VERY* rare in the UK) and there is so much stuff on this
like mentioned, a market for teletext had no niche. Plus I think (may be
wrong), teletext (as developed by Phillips amd BBC) is PAL only ???

>I think the problem, as with so many things in the US, is the highly
>fragmented nature of the TV industry.  It's one thing for the Beeb to
>announce it will convert its transmitters for teletext.  

The transmitters have nothing to do with it. The digital teletext data is
overlayed on the standard signal in the sync frame area.

>It's quite another to convert several thousand
>transmitters across the US, each serving a single TV station in a small
>area.  Admittedly, the stations tend to be owned by a much smaller
>number of media conglomerates, but the profit motive always makes them
>look at the bottom line and say: How will it make us more money?  Short
>of putting ads in each teletext screen, the answer is, it won't.  It
>can't be a coincidence that the Closed Caption system was pioneered by
>the non-profit Public Broadcasting Service.  Even now the captions
>themselves are created by a non-profit organisation.

As an aside, I think there is a non profit organisation in the UK which
offers a service to subtitle videos for the deaf population, possibly a
BBC subsiduary.

>The big changes in TV technology recently have been improved colour (bad
>colour upsets the advertisers) and stereo sound, both of which help to
>hold audiences, who are the real "commodity" in the industry.

Does NTSC stereo use the BBC/Ferguson developed NICAM digital stereo system ???

Neil


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