Date   : Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:56:21 +1000
From   : danielbowen@... (Daniel Bowen)
Subject: Fwd: Fw: Fwd: ITV Teletext to shut down in January

(Caught again by the mail list settings)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daniel Bowen <danielbowen@...>
Date: Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Fw: Fwd: ITV Teletext to shut down in January
To: Mick Champion <rs423@...>


On Sat, Jul 18, 2009@... AM, Mick Champion<rs423@...> wrote:
> They won't be saving any bandwidth as teletext is transmitted as some of
> the 625 lines of the picture. Where ITv will save money is the sacking
> sacking of ?around 70? staff. Makes more sense than the CEO and board
> taking a wage cut! ?Teletext page 888 ?is still used for subtitles here,
> so I doubt the technology will be removed until the terrestrial
> transmission has itself gone. Mind you, if it breaks down, will there be
> anyone left to fix it?. I'm assuming subtitles will remain?

They've said that in Australia, subtitles (page 801) will remain...
bearing in mind Teletext is only run by one of the networks (Channel
7) -- the rest only transmit page 801 subtitles. The analogue
switch-off will be done over the next 4 years or so.

The main reason seems to be a shrinking audience and the money for
staff to maintain the content, though I'd have thought it would be
relatively simple to set up a mostly automatic update of wire stories
and weather forecasts.


Daniel



-- 
Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia
danielbowen@...      
http://www.danielbowen.com/