In Los Angeles in 1980, CBS, NBC and PBS (KCET) collaborated in a trial of broadcast teletext, a system that allowed television stations to provide on-demand information services by leveraging an unused portion of the broadcast television signal. The on-demand capability via one-way broadcast was enabled by cycling a carousel of data for hundreds of individual pages of information. The add-on set-top "teletext decoder" was controlled with a simple remote.

The services were extremely popular in trials. Not surprising given the uniqueness of an on-demand information service. However, the FCC voted against establishing a single technical standard and consumer electronics manufacturers, fresh from a costly marketplace battle over videocassette standards (BETA vs VHS), could not reach a standards agreement and abandoned the US market. In the UK and other parts of Europe, teletext servces were standardized and the technology integrated in new televisions. It thrived for 25 years until its relevance wained with the dawn of the Internet.

The screenshots are from a booklet of photo prints of the PBS service. I made hundreds of these for use as my "powerpoint" deck in raising money from foundations.