Ceefax
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:BBC Ceefax p100 10 9 1999.gif Ceefax (phonetic for "See Facts") is the BBC's teletext information service.
The system was announced in October 1972 and following test transmissions in 1973-1974 the Ceefax system went live on the 23 September 1974 with thirty pages. Developed by BBC engineers who were working on ways of providing televisual subtitles for the deaf, it was the first teletext system in the world. Other broadcasters soon took up the idea.
Over the years the technology became the standard European teletext system and replaced other standards, for example the Antiope system in France.
In 1983, Ceefax started to broadcast programs (known as telesoftware) for the BBC Micro, a home computer from the BBC. This stopped in 1989. (A similar idea was the French C Plus Direct satellite channel which used different, higher speed technology to broadcast PC software.)
Aside from small changes such as the introduction of colour (1976) and the four-page receivers with "Fasttext" shortcut buttons (early 1990s), the technology has remained the same since its introduction and now appears extremely dated. As the BBC's digital broadcasts now carry BBCi, Ceefax will almost certainly be retired when the UK goes through with its analogue switchoff around 2012.
The BBC is promoting the reuse of the Ceefax page numbers on the Freeview and digital satellite BBCi Ceefax-replacement services.
Pages from Ceefax
Those without access to teletext-equipped sets can still view limited Ceefax content via the Pages from Ceefax slot on BBC One and Two. This consists of selected Ceefax pages (typically news) transmitted as an ordinary TV picture. As a result, although Pages from Ceefax can be viewed on any set, there is no interactivity or choice, rather negating the purpose of the original concept. As of April 2006, the rolling pages as seen on Pages from Ceefax, referred to as a "newsreel" can be accessed on any analogue teletext television at any time of day by keying in page 152 on BBC1 or BBC2.
The service is typically accompanied by some form of easy listening music (nowadays from music production libraries such as Funtastik, KPM or BMG Zomba), or sometimes by a discontinuous tone.
Pages from Ceefax is normally only shown by the BBC in the absence of any other programming. Once a common filler during daytime (where it was very occasionally billed as Ceefax in Vision or Ceefax AM), it has been marginalised by the move towards a near-continuous service, where in recent years BBC News 24 would be placed in late night/early morning gaps in schedules. Since September 2005, there has normally been a gap in the schedule between 6am and 7am (or thereabouts) on BBC Two to accommodate Pages from Ceefax. During holidays when The Learning Zone is off air, Ceefax is shown through the night on BBC2. The last BBC One network broadcast took place on 9 November 1997, although it is still occasionally shown on BBC One Scotland, normally to fill the gaps between opt-outs and The Sign Zone. The selection of pages broadcast now is significantly smaller than that shown during the late 1990s.