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BBC to switch off red button text

Service to end in early 2020 (September 2019)

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RO
rob Founding member
BREAKING: The phasing out of the red button text service has been suspended.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51295430
JA
JAS84
Petition organised by the National Federation of the Blind? Wouldn't blind people be unable to use the text service? Confused
JO
Jon
JAS84 posted:
Petition organised by the National Federation of the Blind? Wouldn't blind people be unable to use the text service? Confused

Being classed as ‘blind’ doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t see anything.
BR
Brekkie
Just easier for some people pressing the red button and using arrows than using an app or website.
Night Thoughts, rob and Markymark gave kudos
BM
BM11
Interesting - feels like Hall will end up leaving it to his successor to decide.
HC
Hatton Cross
Why do I sense a compromise coming?
Very basic text based news and sport headlines.

No regional content, no weather, no news and sport subsections, no lottery results.

Just the five main news and sports headlines, condesened into a couple of paragraphs per story.
Jeffmister and Capybara gave kudos
BM
BM11
Why do I sense a compromise coming?
Very basic text based news and sport headlines.

No regional content, no weather, no news and sport subsections, no lottery results.

Just the five main news and sports headlines, condesened into a couple of paragraphs per story.

The Lottery results seem to be one of the more popular features - especially among older people who will face paying the fee from June.
JO
Jon
What are the main costs in providing the text service? Surely it’s mainly on the transmission side? How many people are working solely on the text service? Were those working on it about to be made redundant and suddenly are not?
TE
Technologist
No one works on it ..... the cost is to replace unmaintanable hardware and software ... whuch is roughly 20 years old
And to keep it up to date ... a lot if current quality issues are because it has nit been updated to match the website where us scraped it’s data .
MI
TheMike
When did "Red Button text is closing on 30th January" turn into "Red Button text was due to be have started being phased out [on 30th Jan]" ?


Slight change of wording there reveals there had already been some backsliding, meaning something of the Red Button text service would have lived on beyond tomorrow anyway...
BR
Brekkie
The right call. I understand the technical reasons for closing the MHEG based service and though personally I'm fine with that (but they should keep the connected service) there is still the accessibility issue, though considering the BBC were forced to run part of the nationwide broadband roll out a shame it was only for the benefit of international corporations rather than making broadband available cheaply to those who either can't afford it or have no desire for it for the traditional internet, but would benefit from OTT services.
Last edited by Brekkie on 29 January 2020 8:24pm

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