What happened to the iconic Teletext? Still 2 million people use it

Before the Internet came along, long before Smart TVs, long before mobile phones, long before everything was ultimately just a click away, a British man,

, created

.

Probably few in Spain know it by that name, but

Now yes.

It was 1972 when

in the form of text that is broadcast along with the television signal.

The mechanics are very simple:

, which are chosen through the remote control.

Write the page number -three digits- and after a while, it is displayed on the television screen.

.

The creation of the BBC, a pioneer in this service, was adopted in many European countries such as Germany or the Netherlands.

.

It took time, but currently

, since in the rest of the European countries it has been eliminated due to lack of use.

And here is the surprise:

Because 2 million people continue to use it daily, according to data from 2021. A 2020 study calculated that

.

The main purpose of this system, in addition to informing, was and still is to

.

In this way they began to create subtitles for the main programs of the stations.

But also as a means to search and choose information.

At present, with the new technologies, the use of

does not make much sense, although those who like to continue using it still remain nostalgic.

"For me

. If when I was a child I went in to look for the games, now as an adult I feel a regression every time I enter those years," says Manuel, one of those children who discovered in his childhood that everything was within reach from a command thanks to

.

Among the queries made, the viewer could receive

,

or even

dependent on the Lottery or ONCE.

In short, it offered services similar to those of any newspaper and, therefore,

.

Although it may seem so at first glance,

is not an interactive system, which is why it arrived before the incorporation of the Internet into homes.

Teletext

not have any type of return.

That is,

.

However, it was so modern for those times that it could even be recorded.

All those who had a VHS at home, or who currently have one, although it is complicated, could record and, therefore, save what appeared on Teletext on a given day.

It sounds like Mari Castaña times, but in those years

.

How did you feel when doing the first search when the Internet and search engines arrived?

Well, surely the same as when

arrived .

Everything or almost everything could be found on pages 100 to 888.

To Teletext.

Did you want to know who died on January 12?

To Teletext.

To Teletext.

All kinds of information and services in 40 columns by 24 rows of text and in 32 colors -first there were only seven-.

His first name in Spain was not Teletext

The first television that broadcast it in Spain, obviously,

.

Private channels did not yet exist and only the two public channels could offer a service that at first was not called

, but

.

It sounds like a joke, but it's not.

It is not very well known why a name was chosen that a few years later was going to take one of the private channels.

It was probably because

and, therefore, in some they could tune in four channels.

Someone at

must have thought that

, which they wanted to implement as if it were just another channel, added up to five and, from there, Telecinco.

When T5 was born in March 1990, what was called Telecinco became

.

Thus, trouble was avoided for the viewer.

The main page was and is 100 and from there to search for what you want by entering the three-digit number that corresponds to each service.

.

With the numbers you wrote the page you wanted to go to and with the colors you changed the section:

-red-,

-green-,

-yellow- and

-blue-.

If there was something that triumphed in

, when all the channels broadcast it,

, it was the

.

However, when the RTVE journalist

retired in 2016, the ephemeris ended.

Although when it reached Spanish television it was an advance,

, especially browsing its pages.

Taking into account that it was broadcast through television antennas and that the Internet was still a utopia, browsing its pages was slow because you could not go from one to another immediately.

.

With the advent of the Internet, its use was declining.

With the advent of smartphones, where everything can be consulted instantly,

.

Even so, the televisions do not want to get rid of it nor do they discard it.

still keep its flame burning.

In addition,

has also been modernized and can now be consulted from web pages with the same speed as any search.

Even the famous chats, discarded with the arrival of

,

or other applications, continue to work.

An example, when it was still broadcast on Cuatro

, you could enter Teletext, search for the program and participate in the chat.

And there were people who did.

.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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