The BBC is switching off its Red Button text services from the start of next year to focus on “even better internet-based services”.
The sports content for the digital platform, which replaced the analogue Ceefax in October 2012, is produced from MediaCityUK in Salford. The closure will mark the end of ‘teletext’ on the BBC, 46 years after Ceefax (a phonetic take on “see facts”) in 1974.
Only the text services are being closed and the BBC explained: “TVs will still be able to access other red button services, like picking a stage to watch at Glastonbury or a court to watch at Wimbledon.”
A spokesperson for the Corporation added: “From early 2020, viewers will no longer be able to access text-based BBC News and BBC Sport content by pressing red.
“It’s always a difficult decision to reduce services, and we don’t take decisions like this lightly, but we have taken it because we have to balance the resources needed to maintain and develop this service with the need to update our systems to give people even better internet-based services.
“Viewers can still access this information on the BBC website, BBC News and Sport mobile apps – as well as 24-hour news on the BBC News channel.”
