The Brighter Side of Television: Delivery of Information in the Vbi

THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF TELEVISION: DELIVERY OF INFORMATION IN THE VBI

Eric Rayman and William C. Schneck*

ABSTRACT information over-the-air in the vertical blanking interval ( "VBI") of the This article will attempt to describe television signal. the VBI to (and by) non-engineers, discuss some of the issues raised by the FCC's The Federal Communications rulemaking and copsider, in light of WGN Commission has authorized TV broadcast v. United Video , the effect of the stations to transmit teletext in copyr1ght laws on VBI teletext. connection with their regular television transmissions. On May 20, 1983, following over a year of public debate and comment, the FCC released a Report and Order which Television watching is undergoing established technical standards and some fundamental changes. Cable, regulator¥ policies to govern broadcast satellite distribution and home video teletext. recorders have, all had an effect on the use of the old TV set. Now a new More recently, the FCC has proposed technology, teletext, has arrived which, that television stations be permitted to while not yet fully developed, could employ their VBI's for various other data change the meaning of "watching transmission services, such as ~aging television". services, in addition to teletext. The Commission is currently considering public Teletext is a system for displaying comments on this proposal. information text and graphics on a television set in response to user TELETEXT IS INTERACTIVE, BUT NOT TWO-WAY commands. It delivers instantly access to news and sports information, entertainment First, a statement of what teletext guides, financial listings, emergency is not: it is not videotex. Videotex advice, educational material and recipes requires a two-way communications path as well as entertainment such as between the user and the system operator's horoscopes and video games. Some teletext computer. In a videotex system, such as services will probably be offered on a the Mead Data Central's Nexis service or subscription basis while others will be the terminal at an airline reservations advertiser supported, or both, depending counter, the user and the computer send upon the size of the audience and the information back and forth. Teletext, on medium's appeal to advertisers. the other hand, disseminates information in one direction only, making distribution While teletext can be transmitted in via television signals feasible. a variety of ways, including over cable television lines or by radio or microwave In the case of a VBI teletext signals, for the purposes of this article service, the information is broadcast by a we are going to concentrate on the legal TV transmitter in a repeating cycle and issues raised by broadcasting teletext received by all of the homes within reach of that TV signal. Each teletext page is digitally encoded and transmitted as a *Eric Rayman, Staff Counsel for the Time stream of binary electronic impulses. The Video Group, was formerly Vice President user selects a particular page for viewing and General Counsel of Time Video by pressing a button on a keypad, which Information Services, Inc., a subsidiary sends a signal to the user's teletext of Time Inc. which recently concluded a decoder. The decoder scans all of the test of cable-delivered teletext, and data as it passes by, "grabs" the data William C. Schneck, is an associate with selected by the user and displays it on the New York law firm of Kay Collyer & the user's TV screen. Boose. An earlier version of this paper appeared in two parts in the New York Law A teletext user who wishes to see Journal, December 2 and 9, 1983. news headlines, for example, pushes a

159 button on this keypad to display an index transmitted and setting such minimum of the available news stories. By pushing technical standards as are necessary to another button indicated on the index, he prevent interference to other broadcast can retrieve the desired story. The services. communication is between the television set, the decoder and the user. No signal The FCC has authorized broadcasters is sent back to an off-premises computer, to offer teletext service on six so the costly upstream path from the user designated scan lines in the VBI which the 4 back to the sender is eliminated. Commission thinks will not cause interference on existing television sets WHAT IS THE VBI? and which are not reserved for other uses. Over nine years, as newer television sets The picture on a television set is replace existing sets, four more lines created by a beam of electrons emitted will be made available, increasing the from an electron gun which scans from left quantity of information which can be to right across the back of the picture transmitted in a given amount of time. tube screen. When the gun reaches the end of a line, it drops down to the beginning One controversial aspect of this of the next line. When the gun reaches designation involved the possible use for the bottom right-hand corner of the teletext on line 21, which as noted had screen, it has displayed one television been reserved for closed-captioning. A field. The gun then shuts off and returns number of hearing-impaired television to the top left-hand corner of the screen viewers have purchased "Telecaption" to repeat the process. The VBI is the decoders which display the closed time period during which no television captioning transmitted with certain picture information is transmitted in broadcasts. These viewers were concerned order to allow the electron gun to travel that the success of teletext would make from the end of one field to the beginning their equipment obsolete. On the other of the next. It shows up as the hand, teletext has the potential to offer horizontal black bar you see when the the deaf a superior means of receiving picture rolls and you must adjust the information, including and in addition to vertical hold. closed-captioning, than was previously possible. The FCC established a standard for u.s. television manufacture and The Commission chose to withhold transmission: 525 scan lines per frame. authorization to use line 21 for teletext Each frame contains two interlaced fields for five years. How much information can of 262 l/2 lines and is transmitted 30 be transmitted in a given amount of time times per second. The first 21 lines in is a function of how many VBI lines are each field constitute the VBI. Not all of made available for teletext (see the these 21 lines are needed to separate the example of Teletext Arithmetic in the fields composing a television picture. Appendix). While appeasing those who have Some lines in the VBI are available to purchased Telecaptioning devices, the FCC carry information in digital form. For reduced the number of teletext pages which example, line 21 is .currently used with can be broadcast on the VBI and, some television program~ to send closed consequently, the attractiveness of the captioning for the deaf. Other lines are service and its ability to gain a foothold used to send a code which enables certain. in the marketplace. There seems to be ho color sets to make automatic color reason for the FCC to depart from its adjustments or to identify the broadcaster "hands off" approach in this area, as the and the place and date of the broadcast. competitive forces of the marketplace, in All of this information is invisible conjuction with the copyright ~aws unless you have some way of decoding the (discussed infra), would assure that digital data. closed-captioi1I"i1g had a place in the VBI. FCC VBI RULEMAKING TELETEXT TECHNICAL STANDARDS

The FCC has taken a laissez faire The Commission decided not to adopt a attitude toward teletext. The Commiss1on particular technical standard for has left entirely up to the broadcaster teletext, but to let the marketplace such decisions as whether or not to offer determine which systems would be used. a teletext service, whether to provide While the advantages of the open market such a service on an advertiser-supported philosophy are numerous, one area where or subscription basis and whether to its shortcomings are evident is the embrace a particular technical mode of selection of technical standards. transmission or display. The FCC has Television and radio broadcasts follow limited its role to designating the VBI technical standards which are designed to scan lines on which teletext may be create uniformity of equipment throughout

160 the country. A TV set purchased in New WHO OWNS THE VBI? York will work just as well in Philadelphia and San Francisco. On the The last significant VBI issue is other hand, a lack of standardization in often, if inaccurately, referred to as other areas, for example video cassettes "Who owns the VBI?" The FCC's rules will and video discs, results in incompatible permit broadcasters to transmit teletext technologies, delays in their with their television signals, but the implementation, increased expense to question arises: are others who retransmit consumers, and significant losses to all those TV signals required to include the the companies which invested in the VBI in their retransmissions? technology. WGN v. United Video This question of standards was one of the most controversial of the rulemaking The courts have only considered the proceedings. While the Commission's obligation to retransmit a broadcaster's "hands off" approach was preferred by some VBI in one case, WGN v. United Video, of the companies involved, for many U.s. supra, which arose in a copyr1ght context. companies a Commission abdication of decision-making in this area raises WGN, a Chicago television station, serious threats from foreign competition. was experimenting with teletext in the VBI of its regular programming. WGN is a The existence of an open marketplace "superstation," meaning that its signal is in the U.s. is questionable when all of transmitted via satellite to cable the leading technological work in this television systems nationwide which elect area has been done in Europe and Canada, to dis tribute WG N' s programming. A WGN where it was supported by government subsidiary operates a cable system in subsidies. The U.K. supports an open Albuquerque, New Mexico, which was to marketplace in the U.S. because it needs distribute WGN's signal to homes equipped the U.S. marketplace to expand. The U.K. with teletext decoders. system has six years of proven experience and claims a tremendous cost advantage United Video, Inc. ( "UVI") is the over other systems. satellite common carrier which picks up WGN' s signal and distributes it to cable In the view of many U.S. companies, operators, who pay UVI for the however, the U.K. system is the horse transmission. UVI does not obtain WGN' s and-buggy of teletext. Many U.S. firms authorization for this retransmission favor a standard known as the North because retransmissions by companies like American Broadcast Teletext Standard, UVI are not copyright infringements due to which can deliver superior graphics and is the so-called passive carrier exemp~ion in significantly more flexible. These firms the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. This are concerned that without FCC provision provides that retransmission of intervention, the transient advantages in a copyrighted television broadcast is not cost of the U.K. system would saddle the an infringement if the retransmitter "has U.S. with a de facto standard which fails no direct or indirect control over the to fulfill teletext's potential. content or selection of the primary transmission." The standards debate is not limited just to the VBI. While the FCC did not The controversy arose when UVI began rule on teletext standards for cable, stripping the VBI from WGN' s signal and radio or other transmissions, the lack of inserting its own when it distributed the a decision on a VBI standard will signal to cable operators. The new VBI undoubtedly influence development in these contained the Dow Jones business news other media. service. WGN sought an injunction against this practice, claiming that it infringed The key to the development of WGN' s copyrights in two of its evening teletext in the U.S. is reducing the cost news shows. The WGN teletext which was of the home decoder unit. As in the early broadcast (and stripped) was a test signal days of television and radio, a successful during the first show, and a program guide advertiser-supported teletext industry and news story during the second show. requires a significant number of homes WGN registered and claimed one copyright, with terminals which can receive the including the teletext, for each of the service, i.e. , an audience. Proper two evening news shows. standardization of teletext display devices, whether de facto or de jure, The District Court found that by would have hastened the introduct1on of "primary transmission," Congress meant the these services, by assuring decoder copyrighted work being broadcast, whether manufacturers the volume they need to cut or not it included teletext. The court costs. found, however, that WGN' s newscast and

161 accompanying teletext could not be covered "integral part" of the underlying by a single copyright as "they were not broadcast, since refusal to retransmit one intended to be viewed together as a single of two separate and distinct copyrighted work by the same viewer at the same time," works is not an infringement. This is 523 F.Supp at 412, and that the teletext sure to be the case in many situations, as was not part of the "series of related the market for separate teletext services, images" which made up news show. As a such as the Dow Jones news service which result, UVI remained within the passive UVI transmitted or a brokerage firm's use carrier exemption when it stripped WGN' s of teletext to transmit information to its VB I. customers, is at least as broad as that for program-supplementing teletext, such The court also found that UVI's as a sports statistics service during retransmission to cable operators was not sports programming or closed-captioning a performance to the "public" even though for the hearing-impaired. those operators sent the signals to a general (albeit subscribing) audience, Nevertheless, the end result of the thus making it impossible for UVI 's WGN case is to place retransmitters at the retransmission to be a copyright mercy of broadcasters. If the teletext is infringement. not retransmitted and subsequent judicial examination determines that the "integral The Seventh Circuit reversed, holding part" test was met, then the cable company that the primary transmission is the or resale common carrier will be liable complete broadcast signal, and the fact for copyright infringement. that the viewer has to switch from one picture to another to watch the teletext THE FCC "MUST CARRY" RULES does not preclude the underlying program and the teletext togethfr from being a As part of its rulemaking, the FCC single copyrighted work. The court set had to decide whether a cable operator who up a three-pronged test, requiring that a carries an off-air broadcast station passive carrier must retransmit the should be required to carry the VBI of original teletext with the underlying that station (in the absence of a relevant program if "the teletext is intended to be copyright) or should be permitted to seen by the same viewers as are watching delete data in the the VBI and even [the underlying program], during the same replace it with other data of different interval of time in which [that program] origin. is broadcast, and as an integral part of the program." 693 F.2d at 626 In the relatively early days of cable (emphasis added). The court also TV, broadcasters became concerned that if expressly stated that its holding was not their signals were not retransmitted by that WGN "owns" the VBI in the programs the cable systems in their market, they that it copyrighted, Id. at 628. would lose their audiences to these systems. Broadcasters are obligated to UVI petitioned for rehearing. In provide community programming, cover denying that petition the court took the issues of local interest and present opportunity to clear up some imprecise balanced discussions of issues of national technical language in the original impact. In order to assure the continued opinion, and to state that the "integral availability of local broadcast signals to part" test is not a "loose and spongy local communi ties, the FCC adopted rules 'relatedness' test More than (the "Must Carry" rules) requiring the 'relatedness' is required, and is present carriage by a cable system of the UHF and here." Id. at 629. V~F. t.elevtsion signals broadcast in its VlClnlty. Although its test was phrased in precise language, the Court was In the case of teletext, the nevertheless sloppy in applying it to the Commission specifically chose not to facts of the case. The teletext broadcast impose any content requirements upon with the first of the two news shows broadcasters. Nevertheless, broadcasters contained test signals, and the second argued that communications policy, wholly contained "a news story and program apart from copyright, should compel a schedule." 523 F.Supp. at 408. Only the cable system to include the VBI teletext news story could pass the "integral part" of the broadcast stations it carries. test, as the other material was not even "related" to the news shows. Any other The broadcasters argued that 1) the application of the test would indeed be viability of teletext requires the FCC to "loose and spongy." assure it access to its full potential audience, 2) the VBI should remain under Under the Seventh Circuit's test the the control of the TV station licensee, VBI may be stripped when it is not an and 3) cable systems will willfully delete

162 broadcast teletext in order to promote 6. 17 u.s.c. §lll(a)(3). their own services. 7. The court also held that public performance includes "indirect trans Those opposed to mandatory carriage mission to the ulimate public," in this urged legal, technical and policy case the public being the Albuquerque rationales. First, since teletext is a cable subscribers, 693 F.2d at 625. service ancillary to television 8. 47 C.F.R. §§76.51-67. broadcasting and without any obligation to provide local community programming, it should be classified with other ancillary services, such as pay television and low TELETEXT ARITHMETIC power TV, for which cable carriage is not required. Second, a cable operator may experience technical problems in the How many teletext "pages" can you transmit delivery of teletext. If so, it would be in the VBI? preferable to allow the cable operator and broadcaster to negotiate the steps Constants necessary for the cable operator to deliver a usable teletext signal and to o U.S. television picture resolution is allocate the costs so involved. Lastly, 525 scan lines/frame ("NTSC"). the open marketplace approach favored by o The VBI is 21 lines/field. The first 9 the FCC in other contexts suggests that are not usable for data. the solution here is to allow the o There are 2 fields in a frame. broadcaster and cable operator to o U.S. TV "flickers" at the rate of 30 negotiate between themselves the terms of frames/second. cable carriage in the absence of a o One line contains 27 data bytes (in the compelling need for government regulation. North American Broadcast Standard). o The FCC designated 6 lines for The Commission, noting that copyright broadcasters to use for teletext. concerns are quite distinct from communications policy, rejected the Assume mandatory carriage of teletext by cable systems. Accordingly, a cable system o An average teletext page is 1000 bytes. evaluating whether to retransmit a o Ten seconds is probably the longest a particular broadcaster's teletext needs to person will wait for a page ("access consider whether it meets the "integral time"). part" test of WGN, and if not, it can then exercise its discretion with respect to Therefore such carriage. Of course, the cost of deleting the teletext signal and the 27 bytes attractiveness of the teletext offering to X 6 lines the cable operator's subscribers will 162 bytes/field likely deter cable operators in many cases from taking affirmative steps to delete a 162 broadcaster's teletext. X 2 fields in a frame 324 bytes/frame

1. 523 F. Supp. 403 (E.D. Ill. 1981), 324 rev'd 693 F.2d 622, reh. denied 693 F.2d X 30 frames/second 628 (7th Cir. 1982). 9,720 bytes/second 2. Some companies, such as Time Inc., have experimented with the delivery of 9,720 teletext in the full video signal of a X 10 seconds max. access time cable channel, instead of in the VBI of a 97,200 bytes/10 seconds broadcast signal. The FCC has not sought to exercise jurisdiction over cable 97.2 delivered teletext. 1,000/97,200 3. Federal Communications Commission, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Docket No. Approximately 97 pages of 84-168, Released March 8, 1984. teletext can be carried in 4. The teletext system operator has no the VBI with a maximum record of the page accessed by the user access time of ten and, consequently, no new privacy problem seconds. is created. 5. "Closed" because a viewer requires a For full-field teletext delivered by special decoder to display the cable, do the same arithmetic with 506 information; "open" captioning refers to lines (i.e., 525-(2x9)-l) instead of 6. subtitles displayed over the video picture without the use of a special decoder.

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