NBC Teletext was a

teletext A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...

service provided by the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, based on the

NABTS NABTS, the North American Broadcast Teletext Specification, is a protocol used for encoding NAPLPS-encoded teletext pages, as well as other types of digital data, within the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of an analog video signal. It is standar ...

standard. Initial trials started in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in 1981. Transmissions started as a regular service on May 16, 1983 after

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

approval, in parallel with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

similar '' ExtraVision'' 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. 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 at the 1983 '' National Association of Broadcasters'' convention in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, the '' Organization of Iberian-American Broadcasters (OTI)'' in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, and the ''International Television Symposium and Technical Exhibition'' in

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approxima ...

. Special content was developed for these demonstrations. By 1984 NBC expected the teletext service to be profitable by 1987, and reach a take-up of 10 percent of American homes by 1990. These expectations were not met, and the system would close down in January 1985.

References

{{Teletext Teletext National Broadcasting Company 1981 establishments in California 1983 establishments in the United States 1985 disestablishments in the United States Products introduced in 1983 Products and services discontinued in 1985