Internet kills off Teletext news and information service
Back when the World Wide Web was still a twinkle in the eye of Tim Berners-Lee, there was already an up to the minute, real-time news and information service running. It was the teletext system which started in the U.K. in 1974 and is still operating to this day. Unfortunately, it’s time is now up.
The Internet and World Wide Web have become such an everyday part of life for most of us that we sometimes forget how utterly brilliant it is. Here we have a connected network of pages covering all manner of topics that can be accessed by everyone with the right equipment. But that description can also be placed on a much older and basic technology.
Back in the 1970s, a system for sending closed captioning information to television viewers was developed. This basic system was then used as the template for a means to send regularly updated news and information to viewers who owned a television set with the capacity to receive a Teletext signal.
The BBC had Ceefax, and still does to this day, while ITV had Oracle, which then became Teletext in 1993. For nigh on 35 years, these two systems have been allowing television viewers in the U.K. to access real time updates on news and sporting events, as well as television listings, the lottery results, and other forms of entertainment. All well before either rolling news channels or the Web came into existence.
The problem is the Web is now so all-pervasive that there really is little need left for Teletext, except maybe for use by older people whose grandchildren haven’t yet persuaded them to venture on to the Internet. So the current owner of Teletext, Daily Mail and General Trust, has announced it is to switch off the service in January 2010. According to BBC News, DMGT said:
The continued fragmentation of television audiences and the growth in the use of the Internet has resulted in a significant reduction in the audience and volume of commercial activity generated by the television services.
This is a sad day because it is truly the end of an era. While the BBC has vowed to keep Ceefax running until the digital TV switchover is complete in 2012, this age-old technology is now being replaced. Sure, the Web is much better at doing the job that Teletext struggled with but for many of us for many years it was the best way of accessing news and sports updates throughout the day.
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July 19th, 2009
Shame. I remember getting stuff for my BBC B off ceefax with a teletext adapter. At the time it seemed ahead of it’s time.
July 19th, 2009
Its a shame really, since once the tv system is all digital and tv sets have web browsers and such exactly this same sort of service on your tv will come raging back as something “new”.
July 20th, 2009
Here in the U.S. there was talk many years ago about teletext …but nothing ever came of it.