Millions of people in the UK can no longer access Ceefax after analogue television signals across London and parts of the south east of England were shut down last night in the latest phase of the digital switchover.
The real-time news and information service, which has been operational since 1974, is still accessible in areas of Kent, Sussex, north east England and Northern Ireland, although all transmissions will cease when the switchover is completed in October.
This spare space was used to create a news service which originally comprised just 24 pages, written by a single journalist who worked normal office hours, meaning there were no updates in the evenings or at weekends.
This later expanded to a service which included sports news and results, weather information, TV listings and lottery results. The Internet and digital television has meant that the importance of Ceefax has decreased and a full service has not been carried on many digital television services since 2002.
Nevertheless it has retained a loyal following who will have to find alternatives, while others have taken to Twitter to mourn its passing and discuss their memories.
“Although we won’t be saying our proper goodbyes to Ceefax until later in the year when switchover is complete across the country, I wanted to send a note of reassurance and a reminder: our digital text service, available via the red button to people who use cable, satellite or Freeview, provides national, local and international news, plus sport, weather and much else besides,” said Steve Hermann, editor of the BBC News website.
London was one of the last areas in the UK to have its analogue signal switched off, with the process beginning earlier this month and the switchover has already been completed in Scotland, Wales and parts of England.
Those who wish to continue watching television must either purchase a set-top box or television with a built in Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) tuner or subscribe to a cable or satellite service such as Virgin Media or Sky.
DTT uses the 700MHz spectrum in the UK and Ofcom has launched a consultation to discuss the feasibility of reusing the spectrum for mobile broadband services. However the regulatory authority has said that any such reassignment would be unlikely given the importance of television as a public service and the fact that it is subject to international cooperation agreements. Any reassignment would also necessitate another costly and potentially confusing switchover.
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funny how this becomes a news story when ceefax is switched off in the capital. has been gone elsewhere for well over a year but no bother, the whole of the uk populus lives within the m25 supposedly.
@chernov my thoughts exactly - the bbc is as bad - all journalists live in london i think ...
What about freesat? You don't have to subscribe to a satellite service. You just have to buy a box and hook it up to a dish.
Wonder if anyone with more than half a brain works at Ofcom - Wait until DTT is up and working then consider whether the band should be used for mobile!
They need to meet my Mum! - After the trauma of having to go digital - murder would be on her mind!
While Ceefax was amazing in it's day, since most people now have access to the internet, or have the television guide readily available via Satellite/Cable, it's redundant, except for subtitles of course.
I remember seeing this for the first and only time in the 1980s when visiting family in the UK (I live in America). I was impressed by this then. It was the first 'internet-like' thing (long before I had heard of 'The Internet', piping text messages and simple graphics as an alternative medium for news and information. It was reminisce of a 400baud modem BBS, albeit one-way.
This may have inspired some friends in high school to make a similar service on an Atari 800, written in BASIC and fed the composite signal into our community educational cable access channel. Not quite the same thing, but similar...