Ofcom revokes Teletext licence

Ofcom has revoked Teletext’s licence, bringing to an end 17 years of text-based interactive TV services.

In December, Teletext reduced its service by taking out local information and news pages, which were a requirement of the licence.  Ofcom has warned Teletext twice since then that the changes mean it fails to meet the criteria needed to continue to transmit.

However, Teletext has not reinstated the content so the regulator has now issued a final revocation of the licence to provide the service on both analogue and digital platforms.

Teletext has been broadcasting since 1993, providing an interactive service for ITV and Channel 4.

However, the service has struggled to compete with the internet for ad spend in recent years, despite adding digital images to Teletext pages.  At one stage, it was used for purchasing cheap last-minute holidays in the UK but now that market has largely been taken by online sites such as lastminute.com.

As a result, Teletext was forced to pull a number of services late last year, including its news pages that featured local information.

Interactive TV will now be limited to the BBC’s Ceefax service, which is funded by the licence fee.