Teletext and its stable mate Oracle were probably where many of us in the UK first got to tap into a stream of pre-Internet information which was available via our analogue television sets. Page 888 for subtitles together with pages for news, cheap holidays where page numbers were accessed via a remote control.
Teletext did make the jump to digital TV though these days is often a reworking of content available on the Internet which of course has largely taken its place.
Ofcom have now stated that they see no reason to renew a public service teletext license beyond 2014 and so teletext services will slowly become another technology of the past going the way of VHS video recorders, film cameras and other gadget of the analogue era.
The BBC had already committed to phase out its own Ceefax service in the run up to the 2012 digital TvVswitch over. Subtitles are likely to remain on separate streams for digital TV programmes.
It’s thought that hybrid IPTV and Internet service enabled televisions are more likely to appear over the coming years
Photo by lambigred under this creative commons license
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