It hasn't gone away you know....Aertel

whisky_galore

Actually gobsmacked to hear that this dinosaur still exists!

https://extra.ie/2018/04/22/entertainment/movies-tv/rtes-aertel-digital-cost-e3m-to-run-for-4-years

RTÉ is spending €700,000 a year on a digital version of the archaic teletext service, Aertel, the information platform that has largely been made redundant by the internet.

jeff bingham

Used to get all my sports scores/stories from here when I was a young lad. Hard to believe it's still there, it's almost like the last person out just forgot to hit the 'off' button.

JohnnyFlash

whisky_galore wrote: »

Actually gobsmacked to hear that this dinosaur still exists!

https://extra.ie/2018/04/22/entertainment/movies-tv/rtes-aertel-digital-cost-e3m-to-run-for-4-years

RTÉ is spending €700,000 a year on a digital version of the archaic teletext service, Aertel, the information platform that has largely been made redundant by the internet.

Still heavily used by older people and those who decide not to bother with the internet. Circumstances may vary as they say. Public service broadcaster has an obligation to its customers and providing this service is one of them.

Next.

lawred2

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

whisky_galore wrote: »

Actually gobsmacked to hear that this dinosaur still exists!

https://extra.ie/2018/04/22/entertainment/movies-tv/rtes-aertel-digital-cost-e3m-to-run-for-4-years

RTÉ is spending €700,000 a year on a digital version of the archaic teletext service, Aertel, the information platform that has largely been made redundant by the internet.

Still heavily used by older people and those who decide not to bother with the internet. Circumstances may vary as they say. Public service broadcaster has an obligation to its customers and providing this service is one of them.

Next.

Is it heavily used? How heavily? Do you have stats for that?

pixelburp

"... plans to dump the service some years ago ... were called off because 'a number of rural TDs wrote in to complain'."

In many respects, right there, is local/Irish politics in a nutshell.

Not that there aren't a dozen other candidates for budget tightening in RTÉ, but I honestly had no idea this most archaic of services is still being maintained out of the public purse. I like how it's also available on the internet, a double redundancy right there. And archaic it is: I appreciate rural broadband is a hot topic outside of urban centres, but I don't buy the idea that there isn't a baseline availability to everyone in the country. Sooner or later technology has to move on.

judeboy101

I still use it, quicker than getting off my seat to grab the phone

geecee

I use this page all the time to read the news:
http://www.rte.ie/aertel/desktopxhtml/103-1.html

No waiting for stupid RTE ads and "file" photos etc to load

Peatys

Aul lads internet

icdg

Well, not only is there a digital Aertel, but believe it or not, the original WST (“analogue”, though that’s the wrong term to use) Aertel service also still exists! It’s now only available to Virgin Media analogue customers (that’s being shut down next year) and to Sky customers who have their box connected to their TV with a SCART (not HDMI) cable.

The reason it’s not been shut down hasn’t really to do with complaining TDs. It’s because section 114(1)(b) of the Broadcasting Act 2009 places an obligation on RTE to run a teletext service. Even though the technology is more or less defunct.

OfTheMarsWongs

icdg wrote: »

Well, not only is there a digital Aertel, but believe it or not, the original WST (“analogue”, though that’s the wrong term to use) Aertel service also still exists! It’s now only available to Virgin Media analogue customers (that’s being shut down next year) and to Sky customers who have their box connected to their TV with a SCART (not HDMI) cable.

The reason it’s not been shut down hasn’t really to do with complaining TDs. It’s because section 114(1)(b) of the Broadcasting Act 2009 places an obligation on RTE to run a teletext service. Even though the technology is more or less defunct.

I’m pretty sure it’s still available on RTE+1 on Virgin Media Digital too. Not on any other RTE channel on Virgin though.

johnpatrick81

I still check 183 on the digital version every day to see what films are on the free channels

JeffKenna

I check the soccer results on it! Society is gone too high tech...rather have that than another Ray Darcy.

Doctors room ghost

She was good for joke of the day. If there was a big page for reading and it ran into a second one you would have to press hold.god be with the days.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Clareman

My father-in-law checks the horse racing results constantly on Aertel, he got a new TV and got rid of it straight away because it didn't have Aertel on it, he loves it

Mr.Nice Guy

Ah leave Aertel alone. The old reliable. Stick the telly on and then go to 103 for the news. Then off to 220 for the football headlines. Followed by 183 for the film schedule. And then off to 300 so I can see what Louis Walsh is up to and avoid it.

Will be a sad day when it departs. I still fondly remember when Teletext was wound down and losing the computer games news that would form my daily routine as a youngster. Oh for the days of Digitiser and Fat Sow. Excuse me I have something in my eye...

Lucena

Aertel was brilliant! Didn't realise how good it was until I moved to France 20 years ago and they had nothing really equivalent. They technically had a teletext service, but apart from TV schedules and dodgy 1550 numbers, there wasn't really anything on it.

Peatys

Is Bamboozled still on C4 teletext?

DeanAustin

OfTheMarsWongs wrote: »

I’m pretty sure it’s still available on RTE+1 on Virgin Media Digital too. Not on any other RTE channel on Virgin though.

Is Aertel an hour behind on +1?

KildareP

The charges per the article are mostly bandwidth related, mostly for SaorView.

The entire platform was automated about 10 years ago, the same content used to drive rte.ie is pushed into the Aertel platform and it automatically renders it for the TV. So there's no-one actually sitting "running" the Aertel platform.

If Aertel goes, the freed up bandwidth on SaorViee has to be paid for so RTÉ will still end up paying for it anyway!

OfTheMarsWongs

DeanAustin wrote: »

Is Aertel an hour behind on +1?

The Aertel clock at the top is always an hour behind. Not sure about the content though.

dieselbug

Ha, found it on me sony bravia now I can get me slow broadband disconnected

icdg

Peatys wrote: »

Is Bamboozled still on C4 teletext?

I kid you not, the company that once ran C4 (and ITV) teletext is now a travel agent.

https://www.teletextholidays.co.uk

Del2005

pixelburp wrote: »

"... plans to dump the service some years ago ... were called off because 'a number of rural TDs wrote in to complain'."

In many respects, right there, is local/Irish politics in a nutshell.

Not that there aren't a dozen other candidates for budget tightening in RTÉ, but I honestly had no idea this most archaic of services is still being maintained out of the public purse. I like how it's also available on the internet, a double redundancy right there. And archaic it is: I appreciate rural broadband is a hot topic outside of urban centres, but I don't buy the idea that there isn't a baseline availability to everyone in the country. Sooner or later technology has to move on.

My 70+ father still uses it and he lives in Dublin, doesn't have Internet, and since if as said above its an automated system then what harm is it doing?

WoollyRedHat

I still use it. Im retro baby.

Del2005

Lucena wrote: »

Aertel was brilliant! Didn't realise how good it was until I moved to France 20 years ago and they had nothing really equivalent. They technically had a teletext service, but apart from TV schedules and dodgy 1550 numbers, there wasn't really anything on it.

The French went for a phone based system for information sharing instead of TV and it was much more useful

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel

Clareman

Del2005 wrote: »

The French went for a phone based system for information sharing instead of TV and it was much more useful

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel

That was available in Ireland as well, we used to have 1

Hotblack Desiato

Lucena wrote: »

Aertel was brilliant! Didn't realise how good it was until I moved to France 20 years ago and they had nothing really equivalent. They technically had a teletext service, but apart from TV schedules and dodgy 1550 numbers, there wasn't really anything on it.

France had Minitel though which was kinda like Teletext meets Prestel meets BBS meets Pornhub.. in the 80s on dialup on terminals which you got for next to nothing because it was cheaper to give them away than print phone books..!

OfTheMarsWongs

Subtitles are still provided through Aertel on analogue so I suppose for accessibility purposes RTE will have to continue with old Aertel till Virgin drop the analogue.

Hotblack Desiato

In Dublin anyway, there are lots of OAPs like my mother in law who have analogue cable, have had it for 40+ years, and can't be dealing with set top boxes and the like. They'd be mad to turn away from this market, they're probably their most profitable customers.

lawred2

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

In Dublin anyway, there are lots of OAPs like my mother in law who have analogue cable, have had it for 40+ years, and can't be dealing with set top boxes and the like. They'd be mad to turn away from this market, they're probably their most profitable customers.

Profitable? How?

Hotblack Desiato

Paying money for free to air TV, no internet or anything like that... More profitable than us, where they have to maintain the cable running across our eaves but we don't pay them anything

AndrewJRenko

lawred2 wrote: »

Profitable? How?

Loyal customers - they're not going to switch to Sky when a price increase lands. They'll just pay it.

lawred2

They pay the same tv license as everyone else..

icdg

OT of course, but Virgin are dropping the analogue - they’ve announced closedown plans in the last few weeks and it will all be gone by the middle of next year. Their predecessor Chorus NTL closed analogue (except for the Irish channels) in Cork over a decade ago, though there were specific local factors as to why this was done that early.

Teletext, in its WST form is a dead technology at this stage, in the UK and Ireland at any rate, and Aertel is pretty much the last of its kind. The “digital teletext” (which isn’t really teletext at all, but an MHEG-5 application) might run on for a bit but really the advent of smartphones has made it defunct too. The BBC is pretty much the only U.K. broadcaster still running a service of that type.

whisky_galore

I'm sure people shed a tear for the last telegraph message ...things move on you know. A lot of 'ah shur God love them' here for the perpetually befuddled older generation.

AndrewJRenko

lawred2 wrote: »

They pay the same tv license as everyone else..

I wasn't talking about the license. I was talking about their Virgin subscription fee.

thebull85

lawred2 wrote: »

They pay the same tv license as everyone else..

so they dont pay the TV licence.

Del2005

whisky_galore wrote: »

I'm sure people shed a tear for the last telegraph message ...things move on you know. A lot of 'ah shur God love them' here for the perpetually befuddled older generation.

The telegram was replaced by something more efficient and easier. A smartphone/tablet/PC is not a simpler more efficient system for accessing news and information than teletext.

r93kaey5p2izun

I still use it. I also have Virgin Analogue. Dreading its shut down - doesn't seem to be any comparable option out there. Just massive price increases for hundreds of channels I don't want.

PCeeeee

lawred2 wrote: »

They pay the same tv license as everyone else..

Over 70's get free TV license.

lawred2

Khalid Mysterious Backstop wrote: »

I still use it. I also have Virgin Analogue. Dreading its shut down - doesn't seem to be any comparable option out there. Just massive price increases for hundreds of channels I don't want.

Saorview and Freesat cost you a grand total of one license fee

r93kaey5p2izun

lawred2 wrote: »

Saorview and Freesat cost you a grand total of one license fee

We aren't allowed a satellite dish.

Herlihy82

Teletext will probably survive another few years. Teletext services are still operated by German tv networks such as ARD and ZDF, until recently anyway.

corkie

RTÉ Could Be Getting Rid Of One Of Its Most Used Services
It just wouldn't be the same if this went off-air.

We're not going to lie, we'd be sad to see this go off the air, even if we haven't looked at it in a while.

Long gone are the days of typing in 220 into TeleText to find out the score of the Manchester United v Arsenal game. Advancing technology and the introduction of Sky or some sort of satellite service into Irish homes meant Aertel wasn't needed anymore.

Well it turns out that RTÉ has told the Minister for Communications that it wants to reduce its Aertel service on television in order to reduce funds.

The service is also available on the internet but RTÉ seem to want to leave that as it is, for the time being at least.

It has been in operation for the last 30 years but in the last three, it has cost nearly €3m to run, according to The Journal.

Someone wish of it been removed could be granted!

https://www.rte.ie/aertel/desktopxhtml/100-1.html

Mr.Nice Guy

Seems like it may be going away now.

https://twitter.com/gavreilly/status/1192212832122810368

Will be sad to see it go. I still use it to check on news, sport and films. Had a feeling its days were numbered, though. Suppose it's an achievement it has clung on as long as it has.