BBC "Red Button" text service supposedly ending in January 2020...Now semi-reprieved.

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The BBC must be having trial "end of item" runs already, as on the Football on their Sport section, all the running news and results seemed to end last Saturday. I suppose ending this service is part of their economy drive.

Does anyone on this website refer to it whilst watching BBC TV, as it has News, Sport, Weather, Travel sections to access.

 

[krus_aragon]

My father-in-law uses it regularly to look up football scores and check league standings, as well as browse through the news section.

 

[radamfi]

The Netherlands still keep traditional teletext running

https://nos.nl/teletekst#100

 

[scotrail158713]

I remember using it when I was a child. I loved looking at all the statistics for the football - however I no longer use it as the BBC Sport app has been more easily accessible for me for a good while now.
I’ll be sad to see it go but I can see why it’s being axed.

 

[4141]

I'll be sad to see it close; if I've been working on the laptop all morning I like to step away and flip through the news headlines etc. while having my lunch. Oh well, even longer spent online from now on, I suppose...

 

[Belperpete]

The BBC on-line news tends to highlight the latest news, and most-read news. I have often discovered news on red-button that isn't obvious on the on-line home page.

I will miss red button, as I refer to it at least once a day. It is just so easy to flip through the news whilst listening to a radio channel or even "watching" the TV. Yes, the news is available on-line, but that means going and sitting at the lap-top, or trying to read a small tablet screen. But then I am someone who isn't glued to their mobile 24 hours a day.

 

[SteveP29]

Does that mean the red button channel on Freeview will disappear too?

 

[4141]

Does that mean the red button channel on Freeview will disappear too?

No, it will still be showing programmes, it's just the text service that's finishing.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Some days, the Travel section is now not even shown on the index page.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The old Teletext/Ceefax service was great at the time, in particular the music pages on Channel 4 were up there with anything that the NME wanted over a quid for...

But times have moved on. We'll miss you, ghetto internet!

 

[RichT54]

I've noticed in the last couple of days that pressing the 'back' button on the remote now causes the TV to drop out of the red button text service completely, instead of stepping back to a higher level menu. At least the yellow button still works, but having used the back button for many years it's difficult to stop doing it! I don't know whether it's my TV that's been updated, or if the BBC have been tinkering with the service prior to closing it down.

I've use the service (and Ceefax before it) every day for years to catch up with the news while eating my breakfast. Despite it's foibles I shall miss it when it has gone.

 

[scotrail158713]

I've noticed in the last couple of days that pressing the 'back' button on the remote now causes the TV to drop out of the red button text service completely, instead of stepping back to a higher level menu. At least the yellow button still works, but having used the back button for many years it's difficult to stop doing it! I don't know whether it's my TV that's been updated, or if the BBC have been tinkering with the service prior to closing it down.

That may be your TV updating. I’ve had to use the yellow button for a while now - when I actually use it that is.

 

[John Griffiths]

The local news section is pathetic. Outdated stories, major stories overlooked, stories with no clear relevance to the area, stories that are merely the first three lines of some human interest tosh...

 

[Snow1964]

I guess like ceefax (1974 - 2012) it is virtually obsolete, and usage is falling.
Updating it must require staff so becomes costly per user

Most people you nowadays use an ipad (other brands available) and have much more comprehensive information if they want info

 

[Bald Rick]

My Dad will be beside himself!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I guess like ceefax (1974 - 2012) it is virtually obsolete, and usage is falling.
Updating it must require staff so becomes costly per user.

The BBC appear to have been able to run it so far out of the monies garnered from the licence fee

 

[RichT54]

The BBC has suspended the closure of its red button text service a day before it was due to have started being phased out after protests.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51295430

 

[scotrail158713]

The BBC has suspended the closure of its red button text service a day before it was due to have started being phased out after protests.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51295430

Genuinely curious. Why does the National Federation of the Blind of the UK care about the red button? Written down it seems blunt, but what effect does the red button have on blind people? It’s not something I’d have thought of - someone like Age UK seem more likely in my mind.

 

[DaleCooper]

If it's any consolation I have never used the red button (indeed until I just now Googled it I didn't know what it was) and yet I have survived the last twenty years relatively happy, healthy, wealthy and wise. OK, you might want to argue with the "wise".

 

[mmh]

Genuinely curious. Why does the National Federation of the Blind of the UK care about the red button? Written down it seems blunt, but what effect does the red button have on blind people? It’s not something I’d have thought of - someone like Age UK seem more likely in my mind.

From their petition, linked to from the BBC article:

The BBC Red Button Teletext service is vital for visually impaired, deaf, disabled and older people, as well as many other people who want to find out information independently in an easy, convenient and accessible format, who are not online. The NFBUK is concerned that by withdrawing the Red Button Teletext service, it will leave many people, who are already vulnerable, further isolated and marginalised from society.

"Blind" doesn't mean no vision at all, and people don't live in a vacuum. It seems quite a reasonable thing to expect the BBC to carry on providing. I use it occasionally and when I first heard it was going I thought it was a bad idea.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The Red Button service is one that I have always found handy when watching TV is for the sport latest scores, match results/league tables etc that I might want to access without the need to use other modes, as well as UK and overseas news, road and rail travel information and UK and overseas weather information.

 

[John Griffiths]

If they update it. The regional news pages are appalling in both quality and speed of updating.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Glad to see the service is still functioning for those people who were given as examples of why it is useful, especially in the current pandemic situation.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If they update it. The regional news pages are appalling in both quality and speed of updating.

Do they no longer come from the BBC News website? It used to be the case that the articles on there had the first couple of paragraphs quite short so they could be automatically interfaced onto there (and Ceefax).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Do they no longer come from the BBC News website? It used to be the case that the articles on there had the first couple of paragraphs quite short so they could be automatically interfaced onto there (and Ceefax).

Believe it or not, there are still a number of the more elderly of us around who have never subscribed to any internet-based media. Many of these are elderly ladies.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Believe it or not, there are still a number of the more elderly of us around who have never subscribed to any internet-based media. Many of these are elderly ladies.

I do feel sorry for such people at the moment. This must be really hard if you don't have any kind of tech, but as such people typically won't adopt it even if it's free there isn't really a solution. (Most older people who will adopt tech have done)

 

[Belperpete]

I do feel sorry for such people at the moment. This must be really hard if you don't have any kind of tech, but as such people typically won't adopt it even if it's free there isn't really a solution. (Most older people who will adopt tech have done)

You rarely miss something that you have never had. I suspect that they get by quite well with the radio and telly. Probably better, as they only get the news every hour, at best/worst. With "tech", it is easy to become overwhelmed by the constant news-feed.

 

[krus_aragon]

(Most older people who will adopt tech have done)

The trouble is, there's always some new tech coming out: as soon as you've gotten the hang of one new-fangled thing, they come up with something else!

(I remember my grandmother's astonishment one Christmas, when we were using a VCR to watch and simultaneously recording a program. She was shushing us at one point, but was then surprised to learn that the VCR was able to record the sound of the program, without also recording the sound of us!)

 

[Bletchleyite]

You rarely miss something that you have never had. I suspect that they get by quite well with the radio and telly. Probably better, as they only get the news every hour, at best/worst. With "tech", it is easy to become overwhelmed by the constant news-feed.

True, but what tech can do is provide contact with others. Though the telephone can of course do that too, and I still see videoconf (as distinct from screenshare) as a bit of a gimmick.

 

[Belperpete]

My mother was very averse to any new technology - it took us a long time to persuade her not to unplug the video recorder every night along with the tele. As I have got older, I have come to see her point of view a bit more - I will embrace new technology IF it makes my life easier. However, a lot of new tech just seems to take more time to operate than it saves.

I used to feel an old fogey because I didn't see the need to get the latest model of mobile phone every year. However, it looks like I am becoming hip again with that view!