Teletext in Europe

I used to work for a company in the UK years ago, who were about the only manufacturers of teletext equipment such as inserters, etc.<p>One day we came into the office and the phones were on fire - people were giving our receptionists dogs abuse and threatening all sorts of repercussions as we&#x27;d apparently &#x27;hacked&#x27; their TVs.<p>It turned out that one of the broadcasters has done something silly with one of the inserters and reset it to factory defaults, meaning all pages were replaced with the default &#x27;Welcome to MRG Systems&#x27;, along with our phone number.<p>That was not a fun day...

It&#x27;s still popular in Holland and accessible via internet as well (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nos.nl&#x2F;teletekst" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nos.nl&#x2F;teletekst</a>).<p>I&#x27;ve been thinking about a sort of &#x27;internet magazine&#x27; broadcast on old analog TV channels using a mechanism similar to how teletext works: a continuous stream of pages where more popular pages occur more frequently in the stream to reduce waiting time. The infrastructure looks very simple. Instead of RF, what about visible light? It&#x27;s still possible for users to interact more closely by including slots with data directed for single users in the stream, with upstream via mobile data or wifi.

I know a few people that use the teletext almost exclusively instead of watching TV.<p>Teletext is a surprisingly good internet substitute for basic information consumption: you get the top news, the sport result, recipes, meteo, ... Until recently (smartphone and social apps), that covered 90% of what a lot of people would do with their internet connection.

I used to use it everyday before I moved to the US 4 years ago mainly for sports results, quick overview of news, weather and stock numbers.<p>Now it is of course different with apps and smartphones everywhere, but the simplicity of teletext was amazing. It was so clean information without distractions, you just went on page number and the information you were looking for was there. Without ads, quite quickly. I remember checking NHL results every morning exclusively on teletext.<p>The simplicity of it is unsurpassed till these days

My grandfather used to read it daily when he was visiting my family home. He was deaf so it was his main use of TV set. Also at the time he didn&#x27;t have TV with teletext at his own home. First channel of public television had news pages and that was what he was reading almost exclusively. He was in his 70s and didn&#x27;t use glasses to read, but he was sitting near the screen.<p>Now I wonder, if he would still be alive, would he use Internet with tablet. He also used to read newspapers, but teletext was cheaper :)<p>In Poland public television called teletext TeleGazeta (TeleNewspaper) and use of the name I believe was reserved only for public TV. Nevertheless most people I knew called teletext on every channel as TeleGazeta.<p>Our TV set was sold by the manufacturer without teletext, but it was added by a seller. Remote didn&#x27;t had keys dedicated for teletext so few keys had different function in teletext mode.

I remember following the chess world championship matches on Teletext back in the day. Not covered by TV or radio, this was the only way to follow it live. I have &#x27;fond&#x27; memories of waiting for the numbers to come round and wondering whether the latest move had been made.

I still use teletext pretty much daily. NOS (Netherlands) have a pretty good web interface as well.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nos.nl&#x2F;teletekst" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nos.nl&#x2F;teletekst</a>

Teletext is the only exception to the general rule that TV based information services (interactive TV) don&#x27;t get popular adoption. However it has to be remembered that in its day it was the ONLY live information service people had access to. Even rolling news was not available for most people.<p>The reasons interactive TV doesn&#x27;t usually take off is because at a distance interaction via a remote control isn&#x27;t a pleasant experience and the TV is a shared display whereas the interaction is usually a solitary experience.<p>Services where you can navigate to video&#x2F;photo content is different category and can be popular if the content is good.<p>Games are another different category that can be a social experience and the challenge of mastering the controls is part of the experience not a barrier (in good games anyway).

The BBC used to distribute software for home micros via teletext pages. Not source to type in, but encoded pages.

as far as I know &quot;Televideo&quot; (teletext by the public broadcasting) is still active in Italy, and useable via web too<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.servizitelevideo.rai.it&#x2F;televideo&#x2F;pub&#x2F;index.jsp" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.servizitelevideo.rai.it&#x2F;televideo&#x2F;pub&#x2F;index.jsp</a><p>I join the other commenters in remembering with nostalgia looking up sport results and weather forecasts.

Sweet sweet nostalgia... Thanks for that trip down memory late. Here&#x27;s the current version of the Portuguese national broadcaster&#x27;s teletext <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rtp.pt&#x2F;wportal&#x2F;teletexto&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rtp.pt&#x2F;wportal&#x2F;teletexto&#x2F;</a>

I remember spending hours as a child playing Bamboozle on Channel 4 Teletext. I distinctly recall figuring out how to always get the right answer by trying all options and seeing which one went to a different page than the others before the next page (Wrong Answer) actually loaded.

<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rtve.es&#x2F;television&#x2F;teletexto&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rtve.es&#x2F;television&#x2F;teletexto&#x2F;</a><p>Spain, from the national public TV.

I still use it almost every day. Today it has a web interface (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.svt.se&#x2F;svttext&#x2F;web&#x2F;pages&#x2F;100.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.svt.se&#x2F;svttext&#x2F;web&#x2F;pages&#x2F;100.html</a>), which has been interfaced to smartphone apps. Why do I use it? It&#x27;s a quick way to get summaries of what is happening at home.

The use of teletext news, even among younger people, was a surprising discovery from my time living in Sweden a few years ago. I wrote some observations about it at the time: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.meshul.am&#x2F;2013&#x2F;03&#x2F;05&#x2F;let-them-read-text&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.meshul.am&#x2F;2013&#x2F;03&#x2F;05&#x2F;let-them-read-text&#x2F;</a>

I still check the Swiss teletext (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.teletext.ch&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.teletext.ch&#x2F;</a>) multiple times a day. It remains the fastest way to check if something important happened. Most of my friends and colleagues make fun of me when I read blocky teletext on my quadHD phone though :)

Finland: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;yle.fi&#x2F;tekstitv&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;yle.fi&#x2F;tekstitv&#x2F;</a>

I learned to read by using Text-TV when I was three. Figured how to get subtitles for Swedish tv and that helped. Then I spent most of my time browsing all pages. I memorized the pages for the tv time schedule so I could find out when stuff like Spider-Man and Batman aired. Good times.

How big is teletext usage nowadays (if it&#x27;s still being used)?<p>Last time I used it, if memory serves well, was probably 1997, in a town in Indonesia. I was a kid back then, didn&#x27;t aware of internet, yet.<p>Boy it was pretty handy for browsing TV listing&#x2F;news :D

I have fond memories of browsing the Austext service when I was younger - was sad but understandable to see it go in 2009. :(