I used to love teletext when I was a kid in the uk. Every morning before school I would read digitiser on channel 4. Great Times. Sad days when technology moved on and they just switched it off.
Oh sure. Digital teletext limped on for a while... But Jr wasn't the same. The great writing was gone. It was smaller. The Internet had won.
So quelle surprise that here in Switzerland teletext seems alive and well. My partners dad always read the news on rts. Proper old school analogue looking teletext.
I'm wondering from anyone who might be better informed on such nerdery: how did this come to be?
Was there a consideration to turn off the signal at some point but a big campaign kept it alive? Would it require a referendum to do so? Is this at all noticed by many Swiss people?
Any info on the crack with Swiss teletext would be really interesting.
There actually was a referendum in 2007, where an overwhelming majority of 86% voted to keep teletext, even though it meant that the Billag/Serafe fee increased by 110 CHF per year.
People living in remote mountain areas with bad tv signal can even get a monthly printed version for free.
Switzerland tends to move very slowly when it comes to 'progress'.
I believe it still exists in Germany also.
Italy as well (“Televideo”). Seems to be still popular.
There is even a web version
https://www.servizitelevideo.rai.it/…p?p=101&id=880
It does. And in the Netherlands.
Whodda thunk Switzerland is that big.
who remembers Bamboozle game on teletext? do they have something like that still?
For the Swiss one as well: https://www.teletext.ch/