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Teletext to end

the main core ITV/C4 service (July 2009)

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SP
Steve in Pudsey
Markymark posted:
What an extraordinary situation, that the UK's broadcasting and 'wireless telegraphy' agency can't simply instruct Arqiva to go in and disconnect the equipment. It's madness !


True, but Arqiva's contract will be with Teletext Ltd. He who pays the piper calls the tune, so OFCOM might need to get a court order or similar before Arqiva will action such a request. I'd imagine they'll also need a hefty purchase order for the engineer time in these enlightened times!

It would probably be more effective to compell Teletext Ltd to instruct Arqiva, as their service provider, to pull the plug. Of course in the old days, when Arqiva was the IBA and OFCOM was the IBA, it would have been so much simpler!
MA
Markymark
Markymark posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
Markymark posted:

There is the matter that some teletext decoders still require a full teletext page to be present in order to reliably decode the subtitle data. It might take time to arrange a new holding page on P100 supplied by either Arqiva, or the broadcasters.

It might be the case that the equipment at each site is Teletext's and not Arqiva's of course

This would mean that it would require either the need for replacement equipment at each site, the addition of a page 100 from the broadcasters (they used to provide ancillary services so that shouldn't be that difficult) or the co-operation of Teletext to send out a blank magazine to replace their current ones


Looking tonight on Meridian, the remnants of their ancillary service is still there, with holding pages on 600 and 699, plus a leftover prog info page from HTV West ! on 615. Possibly the easiest method would be to reprogramme those to 1** pages, and update the content. I suspect the same generators/inserters handle 888 data anyway.


There's evidence that is starting to happen. Here's a screen shot from Five analogue Hannington. P100 is flip-flopping between Teletext's and an Ofcom 'licence revoked' notice that seems to derive from their ancillary service. The two versions of the pages keep corrupting each other.

http://www.markyboy.net/c5text.JPG
BR
Brekkie
Is Five text still going then?

Be interesting to see what happens on digital, where the situation is slightly different. Is what's left of Teletext still accessible via ITV and C4 on Sky?
LI
littlesmegger
Everything seems to be normal at the moment, so unless they're keeping it as Teletext until a more specific static page is made.
IS
Inspector Sands
Markymark posted:

There's evidence that is starting to happen. Here's a screen shot from Five analogue Hannington. P100 is flip-flopping between Teletext's and an Ofcom 'licence revoked' notice that seems to derive from their ancillary service. The two versions of the pages keep corrupting each other.
http://www.markyboy.net/c5text.JPG

It looks like it's a Channel 5 thing, here in London it's business as usual on ITV and C4 but the message about license revocation is there in full on five (it's not flip flopping with anything as far as I can see): http://up.metropol247.co.uk/1264983945_1661890530.jpg
I assume this is because Teletext on Five was a newer and simpler setup and it's easier to do on that channel - distribution might even go via five itself.
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 1 February 2010 12:27am
MA
Markymark
Inspector Sands posted:
Markymark posted:

There's evidence that is starting to happen. Here's a screen shot from Five analogue Hannington. P100 is flip-flopping between Teletext's and an Ofcom 'licence revoked' notice that seems to derive from their ancillary service. The two versions of the pages keep corrupting each other.
http://www.markyboy.net/c5text.JPG

It looks like it's a Channel 5 thing, here in London it's business as usual on ITV and C4 but the message about license revocation is there in full on five (it's not flip flopping with anything as far as I can see): http://up.metropol247.co.uk/1264983945_1661890530.jpg
I assume this is because Teletext on Five was a newer and simpler setup and it's easier to do on that channel - distribution might even go via five itself.


Interesting. Where do the 'fastext' shortcuts on that page map to though ?
MA
Markymark
Brekkie posted:
Is Five text still going then?

Be interesting to see what happens on digital, where the situation is slightly different. Is what's left of Teletext still accessible via ITV and C4 on Sky?


Five text is still going as an ancillary service. As far as text via D-Sat on ITV and C4 it's all rather a hit and miss affair whenever I try to access anything, sometimes P888 dribbles through, sometimes not, never seen a P100 so that's probably why !! I've not seen the racing pages that are supposed to be on C4 D-Sat.
IS
Inspector Sands
Markymark posted:

Interesting. Where do the 'fastext' shortcuts on that page map to though ?

They go to 120, 300, 112 and 101 respectively although there's only page 100 in that magazine so the page counter doesn't go round to anything else.

18 days later

GU
Gusan
The appearance of numerous pages in the Channel 4 400s (particularly p410) suggest that the Book,makers and Racing sections are going to move to the ancillary services on ITV and C4.
OV
Orry Verducci
I also noticed today that one of the subpages of P100 on ITV1 Anglia has returned to one of the subpages from before the service closure.

98 days later

DV
DVB Cornwall
Daily Mail and General Trust fined £225,000 by Ofcom for closing Teletext

Ending loss-making TV service four years ahead of licence expiry was 'serious breach of obligations', rules regulator

Teletext lost £4m for Daily Mail and General Trust in its final year

Daily Mail & General Trust has been fined £225,000 by media regulator Ofcom for closing the Teletext TV service.

DMGT, which announced last July that it would shut Teletext's TV service after 17 years, has been fined for breaking its public service broadcasting licence by shutting the service in December.

The company closed the service, which had operating losses in the year to 4 October 2009 of £4m, 33% more than the year before, despite its licence running until 2014.

more….

WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
Is it OFCOM's intention to find a new licence holder then ?

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