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The Teletext Museum. |
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TELETEXT TIMELINE
This page attempts to construct a timeline showing the evolution of teletext from its early development and trials through to the new digital text services now starting to evolve. Included are articles describing Teletext services, press releases, technical documents, advertisements and promotional material. Alongside these you can find copies of the printed indices issued by the teletext services from time to time, which are an excellent way of seeing how the services developed. |
REAL VIDEO CLIPS: Contributed by ORACLE
commercial 1 (355kB) |
| TIMELINE | FEATURES,
INDICES and PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL Charting the history and development of teletext services... |
| pre-1972 | Experimentation takes place by the BBC and ITV Engineering teams after BBC Research comes up with the idea of sending digital information in a hitherto unused part of the television signal. |
| 1972 | The BBC announce CEEFAX and ITV announce ORACLE towards the end of 1972. Test transmissions were under way by the early part of 1973. |
| 1973 | |
| 1974 | The first version of the teletext specification is agreed by the BBC, ITV and set makers. On 23-Sep-1974 CEEFAX begins a full 30 page public Teletext service. ORACLE starts full transmission. |
| 1975 | The first ever teletext
subtitles are transmitted by Ceefax
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| 1976 | A second, enhanced version of
the teletext specification is agreed, with extra features such as coloured backgrounds, double
sized text and so on.
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| 1977 | With the new
specification making displays more attractive, teletext promotion starts in
earnest.
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| 1978 | Interest in
teletext
among the public begins to pick up, with early adopters buying external adaptors for their
TV sets.
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| 1979 | |
| 1980 | Teletext
gains momentum, with teletext capable TV sets starting to become more
widely available, but take-up is still very small. Subtitling expands, with
experiments on live broadcasts.
Tests of Level 2 teletext begin, a development intended to give hi-resolution colour displays but which never really caught on.
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| 1981 | A boost
for the emerging services as the Government designates October 1981 as
National Teletext Month. To mark the occasion, teletext transmissions
were doubled in data rate, using four lines per frame instead of two - a
significant speed improvement, making the service a lot more useable.
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| 1982 | Government
promotion continues as teletext ownership crosses the magic million mark in the
UK. Teletext makes its first appearance on broadcast TV in the early morning before
programmes start. In a related development, the BBC Micro is launched as part of
the Government computer literacy programme with promised teletext support. ORACLE
expands on to the new Channel 4.
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| 1983 | Teletext
ownership rises rapidly, with 1.5 million sets now in use. CEEFAX reaches 600
pages in total and the Telesoftware service is officially launched in September,
initially supporting the BBC Micro.
BBC Research and IBA Engineering are jointly given the Queen's Award to Industry for Technology in recognition of their work to pioneer teletext.
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| 1984 | By 1985 teletext
ownership reaches 2 million sets and services expand subtitling and events
coverage.
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| 1985 | |
| 1986 | |
| 1987 | With
several competing teletext add-ons available for the BBC (and other) Micros,
Telesoftware use increases.
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| 1988 | |
| 1989 | In 1989 CEEFAX
Telesoftware closes down.
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| 1990 | |
| 1991 | |
| 1992 | The end
of an era - the date 31-Dec-1992 is ingrained on in the memory of all
teletext enthusiasts as ORACLE closes and the ITV/Channel 4 Teletext franchise is awarded to
Teletext Ltd. The teletext news service provided to ORACLE by ITN are a
major casualty.
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| 1993 | On 1-Jan-1993, at the
stroke of midnight (give or take a few seconds) ORACLE disappears to be
replaced by the new service
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| 1994 | During the mid-1990s "traditional" teletext settled into comfortable maturity, with the introduction (for CEEFAX) and development (for both services) of regional Teletext services being the most significant change during this time. Telesoftware may have gone, but PCs and add-on teletext cards brought new ways to manipulate data, and the introduction of data broadcasting to teletext introduced new applications. |
| 1995 | VCRs began to develop "intelligence", able to read Teletext programme listings and then to automatically set themselves up and start and stop under the control of PDC (which started on Channel 4 in 1991, spread to BBC2 in late 1995 and thence to most other terrestrial channels during the following few years). |
| 1996 |
In November 1996 Ceefax reacted to the popularity of the ITV Teletext service with a major relaunch. At first the relaunch meets with a mixed reaction |
| 1997 |
Meanwhile, teletext's life was beginning anew as the huge number of new satellite channels brought their own Teletext services with them and other countries continued to adopt the technology.
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| 1998 | |
| 1999 | With its
25th birthday behind it, and still going strong, teletext began its evolution
into a new form - digital teletext (teletext has always been digital - this
refers to new information text carried as part of freshly introduced
digital TV services).
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| 2000 | The first live "digital teletext" services begin, cable company ntl launch the interactive text service on their DigitalPlus service and Sky TV launch their first "active text" service on Sky News and launch their full SkyText service in December 2000. Meanwhile, Ceefax and "traditional" teletext is still with us, and still part of millions of daily lives.
On 31-Dec-2001 the main 5-text service on Channel 5 closes, three months early. The ITC will re-advertise the franchise. BBC World text ceased to ceased to carry news, finance and sports news, and would now carry only programme support information. See The Beginning of the End in The Gallery. |
| 2001 | |
| 2002-2011 | Following the closure of
the main 5-text service the 5-text
ancillary teletext service is revamped, and in May the BBC appears
to have a bit of a rethink
During the remainder of the decade teletext in the UK began to fall into a decline. Editorially the BBC's online staff took over the day to day updating of the CEEFAX service and ultimately the CEEFAX content was largely derived automatically from stories prepared for the BBC web site and the 'Red Button text service. From 2009 the Digital Switchover process saw analogue tv gradually switched region-by region with the NW and SW of England being the first two regions to complete the process. ITV and Channel 5 teletext services become shadows of their former selves. |
| 2012 | By April 2012 the Digital Switchover process finally reaced London and on 18-Apr-2012 London completed DSO and around 1.3m people are deprived of the efficient and once excellent teletext service. Its loss is noted and reported by the BBC themselves. 22-Oct-2012 saw BBC2 broadcast their final Pages from Ceefax sequence. 23-Oct-2012 saw the end of 625-line analogue television broadcasts in the UK |
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The Teletext Museum
is a collaboration with |
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