Internet kills Teletext

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 16 Jul 2009 at 13:18

Teletext's news service is about to disappear from our televisions, as the internet puts paid to another venerable institution.

The service will go dark in January 2010, though its money-spinning holiday service will continue to air on Freeview. Teletext says the closure puts around 70 jobs at risk.

Teletext has been running since 1993, when it replaced the ITV-run Oracle service. It provides news, weather and information such as channel and cinema listings.

However, the signs have been bleak for quite some time. Back in January, Ofcom warned the service may lose its public license in 2014 - meaning Teletext would have needed to pay for the signal that carries the broadcast.

In February it was forced to outsource news production to PA, resulting in 16 job cuts. At the time the service complained that its public service obligation - which requires it to produce 30 pages of national news and 12 regional news pages to 19 regions - was "unsustainable going forward".

"We investigated and researched every means to keep the news service going, but in the end we couldn't find a viable option," says Teletext's group managing director, Mike Stewart.

"The fragmentation of television audiences and the boom in online use for news, information and commercial services, have contributed to a significant reduction in Teletext's viewing figures over recent years."

Indeed the service claims users have dropped from around 20 million at its peak in 1993, to 11 million. It's still a substantial figure, but Teletext claims the service is no longer financially viable.

"The volume of commercial activity generated by this part of the business has fallen sharply, with revenue declining by 50% since 2003. As a result Teletext's television services have been loss making for the last three years."