ELECTRONIC PROGRAM GUIDE AND TEXT CHANNEL DATA CONTROLLER

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a data controller for managing text and electronic program guide(EPG) information flow that is made to flow to cable television viewers. SOLUTION: The data controller (16) receives text and EPG information from one or many permission data sources 20 through a communication connection, processes the received data with the internal database managing device of the controller (16), performs data compression and subsequently transmits the test information to the viewers under the control of a head end controller (34). In a suitable form, the test data are formatted to the transaction of a length preliminarily decided on a screen basis, and the EPG data are formatted to the transaction of the same length on a program basis. Next, the transaction is inserted into the vertical blanking interval of a channel with corresponding text or electronic program data assigned thereto.