Still using Aertel

BrianD3

RTE announced their intention to get rid of Aertel over a year ago yet here we are, a year later and WST Aertel is still there on RTE 1 and RTE 2 if you have sky (channels 801 and 802) connected with a scart cable. Maybe I'm confused though, maybe the intention was to get rid of "digital" teletext on Saorview? I'm not familiar with it at all.

I'm not an old fart but personally I would like to see the WST service retained indefinitely and preferably expanded. It surely costs very little to run as the text appears to come from the RTE website - except with bullsh*t images stripped out and being quicker and less annoying to use.

Page 103, list of headlines, skim down through through them and pick out any you want to view. Then onto page 161 for the weather, a few lines summary without going near Met Eireann's woeful website. 154 for the currency exchange rates. 200 for sport. Still a pale shadow of the golden days of teletext with Ceefax, Teletext UK/Oracle at your fingertips and all of this continuing for years after the WWW went mainstream.

Is one of the problem here that this sort of broadcasting is simply too elegant, concise and lean and can't be monetised with "clicks" and doesn't appeal to the dopes who need BRIGHT FLASHING LIGHTS to draw their attention.

Elmo

BrianD3 wrote: »

RTE announced their intention to get rid of Aertel over a year ago yet here we are, a year later and WST Aertel is still there on RTE 1 and RTE 2 if you have sky (channels 801 and 802) connected with a scart cable. Maybe I'm confused though, maybe the intention was to get rid of "digital" teletext on Saorview? I'm not familiar with it at all.

I'm not an old fart but personally I would like to see the WST service retained indefinitely and preferably expanded. It surely costs very little to run as the text appears to come from the RTE website - except with bullsh*t images stripped out and being quicker and less annoying to use.

Page 103, list of headlines, skim down through through them and pick out any you want to view. Then onto page 161 for the weather, a few lines summary without going near Met Eireann's woeful website. 154 for the currency exchange rates. 200 for sport. Still a pale shadow of the golden days of teletext with Ceefax, Teletext UK/Oracle at your fingertips and all of this continuing for years after the WWW went mainstream.

Is one of the problem here that this sort of broadcasting is simply too elegant, concise and lean and can't be monetised with "clicks" and doesn't appeal to the dopes who need BRIGHT FLASHING LIGHTS to draw their attention.

Part of the act the need to remove that before RTÉ can drop it, Sky & Virgin media should be providing digital aertel.

The John Greene Show

RTE announce plans to discontinue something then tumbleweeds

atr2002

Internet for aul lads..

Great job for the sport

Elmo

The John Greene Show wrote: »

RTE announce plans to discontinue something then tumbleweeds

Not RTÉ's fault

Under the Broadcasting Act 2009
Section 114
Subsection 1
Paragraph b

to establish and maintain a website and teletext services in connection with the services of RTÉ under paragraphs (a), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h) and (i)

Though TG4 seem to have got away with no Teletext even though it comes under

Under the Broadcasting Act 2009
Section 118
Subsection 1
Paragraph b

to establish and maintain a website and teletext services in connection with the services of TG4 under paragraphs (a), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g) and (h),

el_gaucho

Who did uses this anyone? Get rid of it and put resources into something useful, like trying to get reliable live streaming on the RTE Player.

AMKC

Have not used that in Donkeys years. It used to be handy but sure you can get everything on the phone these days.

byte

el_gaucho wrote: »

Who did uses this anyone? Get rid of it and put resources into something useful, like trying to get reliable live streaming on the RTE Player.

It still gets used, though it seems to be minority of older people.

The service really can't have much life left.

BrianD3

Re: everything being on the phone/internet/Netflix now, a teletext service might still be surprisingly relevant if RTE intends to continue broadcasting in the traditional way. Clearly there are major pressures on it but maybe it shouldn't be trying to compete with new media and instead veer towards being a leaner, public service broadcaster. I think that there are loads of people that would use an improved/expanded Aertel service on Saorview and Sky for sport, news, weather.

Also, for say, ould ones watching The Today Show, the likes of food recipes could be put on teletext rather that directing them away from the broadcast medium to a website.

I was just thinking recently that I have a barely watched the BBC since about 2012 - why did I stop after years of being an avid viewer - maybe the demise of Ceefax had something to do with it.

Elmo

BrianD3 wrote: »

Re: everything being on the phone/internet/Netflix now, a teletext service might still be surprisingly relevant if RTE intends to continue broadcasting in the traditional way. Clearly there are major pressures on it but maybe it shouldn't be trying to compete with new media and instead veer towards being a leaner, public service broadcaster. I think that there are loads of people that would use an improved/expanded Aertel service on Saorview and Sky for sport, news, weather.

RTÉ want to be digital first, which largely means linear never.

I don't think it has amount to very much.

Today or Ireland AM or any cookery show could use Teletext for cooking, "if you want the ingredients on screen press red now."

SPDUB

They did get rid of the version of it available on the web during the year

You used to able to click this

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

and it would give you a version on the web

I actually preferred it to the news website as it give a glance to the headlines without the need to scroll

Ten Pin

AFAIK page 169 is the only place to check for up to date transmitter maintenance schedules.

Saorview and 2RN website / twitter are never up to date with those details.

That's not a reason to retain it but it shows that RTE hasn't got everyone on the same page with regard to integrating information across different platforms.

It will probably cost more to decommission Aertel than to keep it running.

Rick_

You can still access "Aertel" but it's been enhanced and just links to other pages on the RTE website where the information is available - http://www.rte.ie.aertel