To control image pickup at a crucial moment in reproducing video.

At a broadcasting station 1, during a desired vertical blanking period of an inputted video signal, an image pickup control signal is superimposed and sent as a television broadcasting signal. To a tuner 16, the television broadcasting signal received from the broadcasting station 1 is inputted. An output of the tuner 16 is sent to a separation part 18. The separation part 18 separates from the television broadcasting signal a video signal and a data signal. The video signal is sent to a video processing circuit 20, whereas the data signal is sent to an image pickup control signal extraction part 24. The image pickup control signal extraction part 24 extracts the image pickup control signal from the data signal. The extracted image pickup control signal is transmitted to a digital camera 200 via a communication interface 29. The digital camera 200 controls image pickup according to the received image pickup control signal.