Ceefax shut down last night forever.
For those who are too young ceefax/Teletext was the internet before the internet existed.
Obituary...
For football fans, Ceefax has an almost mythological status. Many of its epitaphs relate to the football service, with ‘page 302’ assuming Old Testament proportions of deity. For years, Ceefax was the de facto method of keeping up to date with how your team was doing, unless you were part of the world’s financial elite who could afford to dial up Clubcall on a regular basis. The premise, particularly on match days, was simple. Fixtures would be laid out on a screen, and load across several pages. This would usually amount to three per division, though real aficionados could always tell when a glut of goals went in as the pages would extend to four, five or even six to accommodate the goal scorer’s details. The rotating nature of the pages added to the tension. At times, their cycle would be infuriating slow, as if the technician in charge of content had a conspiracy against your team.
Ceefax’s demise was inevitable in the face of instant news delivered to mobile devices, tablets and PCs. Like the The Pink or The Green ‘Un results newspapers, it is another part of our football heritage consigned to history. Whilst it would be easy to become maudlin, modern technology offers a wealth of services that simply didn’t exist a decade ago. Yet, in many ways, this transition can be seen as a microcosm of wider football culture: everything seems less personal and more functional now. Sitting in Starbucks with your iPad checking the football scores is an undoubted luxury, but it can’t match the camaraderie of a cold November night stood outside Tandy in a fog of breath and shared anticipation.
Goodbye old friend.
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Comments
Do you remember when telly developed and on the remote control they put on the four coloured buttons so you could navigate faster through the pages ?
That was like upgrading from a Nokia to an iphone !
After spending 500 notes on a 2 week holiday, you'd get there and some smart arse would always tell you they got it for 200 quid 'off teletext', yet I could never find the decent offers.
Anyone else book holidays 'off teletext' ?
the best match being the 4-3 comeback at Newcastle.
if the tv reception was crap (like the tv in my old bedroom) then all the letters would scramble up. pissed me off big time.
page 313 was where the results would come thru
311/312 was news in brief/gossip i think
and as mentioned above there was the local stuff on 390 and was it 170ish on itv
the build up as the screen flicked over to the charlton scoreline page was sickening and also if you had a bet on a match it was good for that sick gamblers feeling almost like the roll of a roulette ball
cute piece smudge7946!
News 102 with local on 160 I think
Something used to be on 330 - can't remember if it was footie or cricket
All these numbers - 'bookmarks
oh for f**k sake did we win or not? ha!
302 footy home page
312 news in brief
338 fixtures,results,tables home page
390 regional sport
I used to miss teletext so much when on holidays.
One other thing I never understood is why some TV's were silent when putting in your page numbers where others would send out a Spectrum stylee BEEEEP at 100 decibels per number. Could you switch this on/off?