35th anniversary: Can't beat the teletext

Time travel is not impossible: One push on the teletext button of the remote control and one is transported to the early 80s. Brief news dispatches appear, spelled out in bright, thickly pixelated text. As old-fashioned as it looks, the news on the screen isn’t from the ’80s—it’s from right now. Almost four decades after it started, teletext didn't change at all. And in a number of states like my home country Germany it didn't miss its popularity, too. 

German teletext of ARD
source: Wikimedia Commons

The navigation is troublesome and the design reminds of an old Atari game: It's probably no lie that the teletext is anything but attractive. Nevertheless millions of people around the globe obviously love to rummage through the virtual pages shown on their television screen. It's was 35 years ago that the German public TV turned on their Teletext service and still: More than twelve million people make use of this digital relict every day. Even though the number is finally decreasing, altogether 60 million Germans used the Teletext in 2013, that's still three-fourth of all citizens.
And the fan base of the Teletext does not limit itself to Central Europe: Scandinavian countries draw the same picture. In Sweden it's even the most famous public service medium: Out of 9.4 million Swedes, two million access teletext through their televisions every day, and about 3.5 million do so every week. Finland and Norway have similar percentages of the population using teletext regularly: about a fifth of the country every day, and about a third every week. Denmark’s share is even larger: 2.6 million people access teletext every week, which is almost half of the country’s population.

The goodbye note of Ceefax

It's bitter irony that of all systems the pioneer of the Teletext world has had to shut down: Ceefax, the BBC's teletext information service was the first in the world when it launched in 1974. Initially it contained just 30 pages and the data was carried in a previously unused part of the spectrum allocated to analogue television. But because of the switch to digital television, Britons had to say farewell to their news provider in 2012 and even Ceefax left a goodbye note, that still circulates on twitter. Anyway a piece of Ceefax lives on - the quiz game Bamboozle, that was featured on the Teletext of Channel 4, is now available as an application for smartphones.

contributions by Dan Farrimon..

..and Raquel Meyers
source: ITAF

Who acquired a taste for the Teletext's retro feel now, should take a look at this: The International Teletext Art Festival. Artists present their reduced pixel work on 24 lines with each 39 characters using six colours plus black and white - thus in the original teletext style. The work of last years participants can be admired on the website.

In a number of surveys people have been asked why they still use the teletext. The answers varified: To find out the latest sport scores, get some news, figure out what to watch. The teletext works as a pre-internet: It offers everything from quiz games to telephone sex numbers. The Teletext simply has something for everyone.