Sbectel () is the name of S4C's former ancillary

teletext A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...

service. It was named after the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

S4C programme magazine called ''Sbec'' (Welsh for 'peek') which was originally a pull-out of the ''

TVTimes ''TV Times'' is a British television listings magazine published by Future plc. It was originally published by Independent Television Publications, owned by the participating ITV companies. The magazine was acquired by IPC Media in 1989, which ...

'' in the

HTV Wales ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

area.

Content

Sbectel provided listings and information about S4C's programmes, such as previews of programmes and further information related to the programmes. Pages were provided in both

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. The programme was separate from the auxiliary and separately-licensed teletext service also available on the channel. Sbectel also provided

subtitles Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...

for S4C's programmes on page 888 in English and page 889 in Welsh.

History

Sbectel was first run in conjunction with

ORACLE An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

, the auxiliary teletext provider on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

in the 1980s. Sbectel occupied pages 410-499 within the page space. When ORACLE lost its licence and was replaced by

Teletext Ltd. Teletext Ltd was the provider of teletext and digital interactive services for ITV, Channel 4 and Five in the United Kingdom. Origins ''Teletext Ltd'' started providing teletext services for ITV and Channel 4 on 1 January 1993, replacing th ...

in 1993, Sbectel moved to its own page space on pages 300-399 and became directly run by S4C. In 2003, Sbectel moved to pages 400-499 (which replaced pages 300-399 as S4C's page space). This was due to

(the equivalent of S4C in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

outside

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

) closing their Sbectel equivalent,

FourText Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

(formerly ''4-Tel''), and launching a new teletext service in conjunction with Teletext Ltd,

Teletext on 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

, on pages 400–499. In September 2007, the bilingual digital text service available on S4C Digidol was launched only to

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

viewers in Wales. When the first area in Wales (most of South West Wales) completed its

Digital Switchover The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...

on 9 September 2009, 'Sbectel' also ceased. Partly it has been replaced by service pages from S4C and BBC on the internet.announcement s4c
/ref>

References

External links

4-Tel and Sbectel gallery
{{Television in Wales Teletext BBC 1982 in British television Products and services discontinued in 2009 1982 establishments in Wales 2009 disestablishments in Wales

Content

History

See also

References

External links