Today marks the 50th anniversary of Ceefax, a teletext service available in the UK launched by the public service broadcaster BBC. While not the only teletext service available globally, it was the first to come out, according to UK digital regulator Ofcom.
Launched on 23 September 1974, Ceefax eventually closed down on 23 October 2012 during the UK's switch over from analog TV signals to digital. The switch to digital broadcasts was brought in a decade after Freeview became available in 2002. Freeview had a replacement on Freeview called BBC Red Button, which showed similar content but was arguably not as good as Ceefax. BBC ended up partially closing the Red Button service in 2020 due to budget constraints and the general shift to smartphones for getting the news.
For those who have never used it, Ceefax can be thought of as a retro internet. You put in a three-digit page number using your TV remote, and then after several seconds (it has to cycle through to your page number first!), your desired page will load. While it initially launched with news, sports, and weather content, it ended up having more than 600 pages of content that was regularly updated by editors at the BBC.
According to Ofcom, when Ceefax first launched, not many TVs in UK homes could access it. Eventually, better TVs came out with support for Ceefax, and at its height, it has 22 million weekly users. The closest comparison for anyone too young to remember teletext is browsing a news website on your phone. It was convenient because you could get the latest news and football scores without waiting for it on the news or in a newspaper.
To have any real remembrance of Ceefax, you would have needed to have been born in the 90's or early 00's. Interestingly, unlike the internet, it seems to have been used by pretty much everyone, including pensioners who avoided computers and smartphones.
Do you remember Ceefax or similar teletext services? Let us know in the comments.
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