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.