ARCHIVE: Dave Baldwin
BBC News reports on the dramatic increase in sales of teletext sets since 1981.
Video content
[00:00:00] PROGRAMME: a news report about the increasing popularity of teletext.
By 1981, there were only 100,000 teletext sets in use in the UK – rented or sold. By 1983, the figure had reached 1 million.
To celebrate the milestone, set manufacturers were donating 18 teletext sets to various charities. Mrs Thatcher made the presentations on the industry’s behalf, at a ceremony in London.
Mrs Thatcher praised British inventiveness. In her speech, she stated that 98% of viewdata and teletext installations across the world used British technology.
The news report goes on to show examples of live Ceefax pages: news headlines; weather and travel index; weather map; farming meat and livestock prices.
The reporter mentions that the BBC has announced that it intends to increase the number of pages available on Ceefax and also improve page access time.
It was also confirmed that the BBC would shortly launch a telesoftware service via Ceefax, making computer programs available to download using suitable equipment, which can then be used on the BBC’s micro computer.
The tape recording then ends – it’s not clear if this was the end of the news report.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: Ceefax Citynews page. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
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