Final analogue switch off date announced

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15293469

This date will also mark the closure of Ceefax.

I wonder what the future of Pages from Ceefax is. Presumably there's no reason why it can't continue internally at the Beeb in the short term as it's all automated from the same feeds that produce the red button and website (apparently they've had to feed it up the line to Glasgow when BBC Scotland have scheduled a closedown earlier than network as Scotland has completed DSO)

Almost but not quite... there's a Teletext decoder in PQ which can be fed with the BBC 1 (or 2) sustaining feed, so that they can run with a service identified as CEEFAX 1 or CEEFAX 2 as appropriate.

Ah, I assumed that the analogue distribution circuits to PQ would have been discontinued as soon as it was redundant to save the cost of renting the circuit. Or is CEEFAX carried on the digital distribution too? I guess they must do the VBI insertion for PRESFAX so might as well include it?

I don't think the analogue sustaining feed was ever installed at PQ - after they moved from Queen Margaret Drive, everything was derived from the digital sustaining feed.

Ireland is switching off analogue the same day. Or at least, that's the plan...it might need to be reviewed if (as I suspect) the government turns out to have a hard time convincing people to switch.