Teletext Ltd.
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Teletext Ltd was the provider of
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 ...
and digital interactive services for
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
,
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 ...
and
Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...
in the United Kingdom.


Origins

''Teletext Ltd'' started providing
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 ...
services for
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
and
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 ...
on 1 January 1993, replacing the previous
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 '' ...
service which had lost the
franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...
.


Ownership

The company is now owned by A&N Media, the consumer division of
Daily Mail and General Trust Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is ...
's Associated Northcliffe Digital. Its main source of income is from the UK travel website
Teletext Holidays Teletext Holidays was a British travel company that specialized in the sale of short and long haul beach holidays, city breaks, UK getaways and cruises. The company ceased trading as of 29 October 2021. Headquarters Teletext Holidays is headqu ...
. The Chairman of Teletext Ltd is Chris Letcher who acquired a stake in Teletext Holidays from parent company A&N Media. From 1 December 2013, Teletext Holidays moved from advertising holidays from 14 holiday suppliers (including Qwerty Travel, Lowcost Travel Group and Hays Travel) to working with one supplier, Truly Travel.


Closure

On 21 January 2009,
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
reported that "The increasing availability of text based services, both broadcast and online may mean that post 2014 there is no longer clear justification for continued intervention to maintain a public service teletext licence." On 16 July 2009, DMGT announced that due to competition from the Internet, current economic conditions and Ofcom's findings, the service would cease broadcasting most of its services on analogue and digital television, with the exception of the commercial services broadcast on
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), ...
channels 101-107 such as Teletext Holidays and the firm's profitable travel websites in January 2010, with the switch off date subsequently brought forward to 14 December 2009 ( Sky Digital) and 15 December 2009 (
analogue TV Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude, phase and frequency of an analog s ...
,
Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...
and Freeview). Teletext's news and information service were removed from: ITV, Channel 4 and Five on analogue TV; ITV and Channel 4 on Sky Digital; ITV, Channel 4 and channel 100 on Freeview; editorial on Teletext Extra on Freeview; editorial on ch 986 on Freesat. The GameCentral section continued online on the Teletext website before joining another DMGT website Metro, renamed Metro Gaming. Despite the withdrawal of news and information content, the service continued to broadcast. On 29 January 2010, the broadcasting regulator
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
revoked Teletext's licence to broadcast. On 27 May 2010, Ofcom imposed a financial penalty of £225,000 on Teletext Limited for ceasing to provide part of its service whilst its licence was still extant. Ofcom regulations state: "Public service broadcasting licences are offered for a fixed term, requiring the holder to provide the licensed service throughout the licence period. In accepting a licence, the broadcaster takes account of the likely cost of the obligations under the licence, and the value of the benefits associated with the licence, for the duration of the licence period." Teletext's licence was for the licence period 2004 to 2014. The main Teletext service on Freeview was removed from channel 100 on the EPG on 21 June 2010. Teletext Holidays went digital in January 2011. In a deal between
BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...
and
Inview Technology Ltd Inview Technology (Inview Technology Ltd or simply Inview) is a UK-based digital TV software company. It specialises in advanced EPGs, interactive broadcast, IP services and solutions for Pay-TV and analogue switch off markets. Their OTT TV ...
, Teletext Extra was relaunched as
Radio Times Extra Radio Times Extra is a means of extending advertising into the medium of digital programme guides provided by Inview Technology. It offers full television listings and synopses forward 14 days, as well as editorialised selections include 'pick o ...
on 31 January 2011, with editorial content from the ''
Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'' instead of Teletext Ltd.


Other teletext services

In spite of its name, the ''"Teletext"''-branded service was neither the first nor the only teletext service in the UK. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
(one of the original developers of teletext) launched its
Ceefax Ceefax (, punning on "seeing facts") was the world's first teletext information service and a forerunner to the current BBC Red Button service. Ceefax was started by the BBC in 1974 and ended, after 38 years of broadcasting, at 23:32:19 BST ( ...
teletext service in 1974, the same year that ''Teletext's'' predecessor,
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 '' ...
, also appeared. Although ORACLE closed at the end of 1992 (when Teletext Ltd outbid it for the franchise), Ceefax continued to run on BBC analogue channels until the cessation of analogue signals in October 2012. FourText, originally called 4-Tel, was first run in conjunction with ORACLE, as an auxiliary teletext provider for Channel 4 from 1982. 4-Tel occupied pages 410-469 within ORACLE's page space. When ORACLE lost its licence and was replaced by Teletext Ltd in 1993, 4-Tel moved to its own page space on pages 300-399 (effectively its own magazine). Channel 4 enlisted Intelfax to run the service. In 2002, 4-Tel was renamed FourText. In addition, FourText also launched on digital television. In 2003, Channel 4 ended their contract with Intelfax and contracted out the service to Teletext Ltd. The new service was named
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 ...
and operated on pages 400-499 (which replaced pages 300-399 as Channel 4's page space). However, on 30 October 2008, Teletext on 4 on Channel 104 closed and replaced in December 2008 by 1-2-1 Dating. using Teletext on 4's old channel number.


See also

*
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 ...
- the system *
List of teletext services Teletext (or "broadcast teletext") is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weathe ...
*
Teletext Holidays Teletext Holidays was a British travel company that specialized in the sale of short and long haul beach holidays, city breaks, UK getaways and cruises. The company ceased trading as of 29 October 2021. Headquarters Teletext Holidays is headqu ...
*
Ceefax Ceefax (, punning on "seeing facts") was the world's first teletext information service and a forerunner to the current BBC Red Button service. Ceefax was started by the BBC in 1974 and ended, after 38 years of broadcasting, at 23:32:19 BST ( ...
*
ITV (TV network) ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passi ...
*
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 ...
*
Timeline of teletext in the UK This is a timeline of the history of teletext on television in the UK. . 1970s * 1972 ** October – Ceefax is announced by the BBC as a new service providing pages of text on ordinary television screens. * 1973 ** No events. * 1974 ** 23 Sep ...
* Bamboozle, a teletext multiple choice quiz game on Channel 4 *
Digitiser ''Digitiser'' was a video games magazine that was broadcast on Teletext in the UK between 1993 and 2003. It originally billed itself a"The World's Only Daily Game Magazine" The page was launched on 1 January 1993 on page 370 of the Teletext serv ...
, the service's initial videogames section * GameCentral, the service's later videogames section *
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 ...
, Channel 4's text service run by Teletext Ltd


References


External links


Teletext HolidaysTeletext CarsA history of Teletext pages from The Guardianmb21's Teletext Then and Now
{{Daily Mail and General Trust 1993 establishments in the United Kingdom 1993 in British television 2009 in British television 2010 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Daily Mail and General Trust ITV franchisees Teletext