Text on Text

Now at some point I can't quite recall I decided to abandon this particular waste of internet until the actual demise of teletext; after all there's only so much wistful writing you can do about the demise of teletext without it actually happening. And I was fairly confident no-one was too likely to usurp the market. And if they did good luck to them. Frankly reading back these pages disturbs me, and I can't help thinking I was a very odd, angry youngster direly in end of a hobby and/or an editor. Perhaps a slap round the head.

In any case, what can be gleaned from this frightening puesdo-diary is that I was always assosiated the demise of teletext with the demise of anolouge TV. So imagine the horror when, I think it was in earlyNovember, Teletext informed the nation it was to cease broadcasting in Janurary 2010. Well maybe the horror didn't quite have the impact they desired because they came back a couple of weeks later with the news Teletext shall cease on the 14th of December-AKA tomorrow!

Just to clear up any confusion caused by the arrogent franchaise naming, 'Teletext Ltd' which provides services the ITV, Channel Four and Five is what is closing down. Ceefax, a more asture, less colourful and much slimmed down beast than in its glory days, shall linger on. Teletext explain the demise of their service in terms sacerly more complicated than mine-it didn't make any money any more. They wanted more spectrum room (whatever that means; for all my admiration of teletext the technical stuff somewhat escaped me. I know its transmitted on spare lines. Or something) for advertising and didn't get it. Of course Teletext is part of a wider media group which probably isn't doing all that well either, what with the recession, no-one reading papers anymore (I do and know lots of people who do but the TV and indeed the papers keep telling me no-one does, which seems self-defeating on the latters part) and thus a lack of in advertising, the least profitable and most despensible part of that media group. Now to me the prospect sacraficing teletext in order to keep the owners of the Daily Mail exceedingly wealthy seems, shall we say, a slightly unsettling conception of priorities. Or more figuraitivly, akin to barbacuing golden-furred kittens to feed to a slightly peckish Nick Griffin.

Business, I can only presume is however, business. And you can understand companies no longer really desiring to advertise their product in blocky kitch eighties graphics. For whatever reason Teletext never became the fashionable counter-culture phenomenon it could have. Where are the Bamber Boozler T-shirts? Or special DVD's? And why do not I see 'All hail Cedric the dragon!' scrawled upon the walls of my university? And where the public-art demonstrations of those slightly overly self-aware zany mega-ziners? To be positive, Teletext maintained a true cult following, rather than one of those things which everyone knows about and sort of likes but is always referred to as a cult phenomneon. Like, lets say, The Flaming Lips.

I should also point it is not the case, as I first presumed, that the unlovably ugly digital Teletext will remain whilst fraily charming anolouge shall be turned off. No, its the whole thing, gone on a date defined as '14/15' of December. It is generally referred to as 'news and editoral content' closing but as far as I can understand, this contains anything that could possibly be written upon teletext. Or anything else. All that will remain will be Teletext Holidays, which now has its own Sky Digital channel anyway.

So no more planet sound, by far the best music magazine online or in, er, magazine, despite having to deal with a constantly reduced number of pages. No more Gamecentral (although actually that is supposed to be carrying on online somewhere), a feature I read regularly despite having almost no interest in the content. No more Bamboozle, unquestionably the hardest quiz on television. Show me someone who achieved the top strangly punning catogory of correct anwser and I'll show you a dammable liar. No more teletexts, in which various crackpots and the odd sensible person give their opinions on everything and anything. Similarly, no more Vortex, the mysteriously named forum on film and its TV equivlent which was amazingly critical of almost everything.

As you can tell, I find the 'write in' bits of Teletext the most appealing. Teletext appeals to such a strangely diverse demographic that can not be replicated. Everyone (well a lot of people: for most of the time I was writing this blog, whisper it softly, I didn't have regular access to teletext) can use Teletext, so it is restricted only to those who choose to. And have the time. Dear Ceefax, the BBC letter's page could be made into a sersis called Britain's Angrist Pensioners. I've written in once or twice, not to Ceefax but the Void, Planet Sound's music forum, but more to see my material printed on teletext than any desire to discuss musical matters with the likes of DJ Gordy or Tyler Durden (no offence to them, they were just the two regular names which came to mind, which is much more a compliment).

The media's famously navel-gazing when it comes to pondering its own signifigance and I do wonder how the passing of Teletext will be treated. Its not really the end of an era though, its the end of Teletext, which is much, much worse.

Page(s) of the (final) day- p105-109-Teletext farewell features
Delightful collection of pieces about teletext, including a Digistiser retrospective and a special Bamber Boozler quiz on Teletext itself! Hopefully I'll be able to write a quick overview of all the final day content, but I encourage all to go and have one last look themselves. Much of the content is published in the internet now if (like me) your TV reception is tempremental, although it really isn't the same. Happy teletexting!