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Teletext/digital teletext
NickLangley
Posts: 561
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The authorities have really missed a trick in the current travel chaos by not using teletext and digital teletext to provide the kind of basic information that a broadcast service is ideally suited to.
Far more effective than relying on websites and telephone call centres. But then the management at Teletext was pretty dim towards the end of its franchise.
Far more effective than relying on websites and telephone call centres. But then the management at Teletext was pretty dim towards the end of its franchise.
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BBC text service appears to have travel information there.
ITV and CH4 text services only seem to be interested in carrying dodgy advertising last time I looked.
Since we lost analogue in the North West in December last year, I've not bothered with the digital equivalent (and never did before, either). It's a pile of unworkable shite and I'd rather look on a website.
Also, with Ceefax I'd use my TV remote which I have to hand, whereas my Sky remote is tucked away somewhere (don't need it when I've got my TiVo remote) and I only look at the occasional red button thing anyway. Yes, I could use my TV remote for Freeview's digital text, but I refer you back to my thoughts on it being unworkable shite.
(b) Poor underlying engineering, or just mis-application of the basic service proposition.
Ceefax and teletext (ie World Standard Teletext (WST)) were right on the mark, but of-course in a technological sense had no competitors. Their successors in the SD DTT and D-SAT worlds fare badly against WST on speed and against the web on everything else. Why wait years (sorry minutes then) for a flight grid to carousel round when all airline and airport web sites allow you to interrogate near real-time data? Why look at flat tables of fictional train running data, when live departure boards jumps out of the screen, and reveals clearly when it is lying?
The BBC have done a better job with their digital apps than anyone else, but even with the bridge menu structure the whole thing is clunky and slow.
Edit - I was trying to sat what DVDfever (above) has said much better.!
They took their PSB licence away ages ago, and fined them a fair whack too. Teletext worked out it would be cheaper for them to close and pay the fine rather than to carry on until the renewal of their PSB licence as they were haemorrhaging money.
The licence they have now is a purely commercial one, and as such, they can do what they like on it.
For instance last week some of the football pages were not updated for three days.
OK, so in that example it was only the gossip pages but other pages too have problems, for instance the Championship table disappeared all together for a few days.
The "formatting" is often a mess too I've seen unreadable pages on football, cricket and rugby.