A celebration of old technologyThe Teletext Gallery
From the various work with recovering Teletext content from VHS tape, I find various pages that are quite interesting, or for that matter worth sharing. Sure a lot of Teletext is quite humdrum and mundane, but every now and then there's something quite nice that props up.
Note: screenshots are produced using Teletext Meddler or vhs-teletext.
Table of Contents
- Text Appeal - advertisements within Teletext services
- Press Reveal to Win - competitions within Teletext services
- Commercial Break - stills of UK adverts ("commercials") and TV shows that reference specific Teletext pages to visit for more information...
- Interactive TTX - examples of some of the "interactive" elements of Teletext.
Text Appeal: Adverts in Teletext
Everything from food to holidays to cars were advertised in the blocky teletext style, here are some examples.
Not covered here are adverts for holidays, as that would take up the majority of the stills.
| Image | Service | Date | Product/Service |
|---|---|---|---|
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Quorn |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | British Meat |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Bupa Healthcare |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Body Matters |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Kwells Travel Sickness |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Eagle Star Direct Motor Insurance |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Lucozade |
Press Reveal to Win: Teletext Competitions
It wasn't entirely unusual for there to be various competitions to win a myriad of items from the small to the rather large. Here's a few examples:
| Image | Service | Date | Prizes |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
CEEFAX | 25th December 1991 | Akai VS-F310 VCR Pathe News videos |
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CEEFAX | 25th December 1991 | Matsui 1481 14" colour TV set (with teletext!) Barbour jacket matching couples Adidas tracksuit set |
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CEEFAX | 25th December 1991 | [1st] Granada HS5 VCR [2nd] Compact pocket-sized minicom by Teletec or [2nd] a Tribune amplified telephone with acoustic coupler by BT [3rd] Advantage vibrating travel alarm clock or [3rd] Clear-Patra listening aid |
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CEEFAX | 25th December 1991 | GBH videos Musidisc's 16 CD Jazz Anthology The entire Booker Prize short list. |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | £500 cash prize. |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | [1st] £100 cash prize [2nd] CD of choice. |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Super Streetfighter II |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Mortal Kombat II Gladiators merchandise Sega Mega Drive Super Nintendo Mountain Bike |
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Teletext | 14th September 1994 | Cliff Richard at Wembley Arena |
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CEEFAX | 17th January 1999 | Godzilla merchandise |
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Teletext | 11th November 2000 | Toy Story 2 merchandise |
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Teletext | 11th November 2000 | Cold Feet Series 1 and 2 DVDs |
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Teletext | 11th November 2000 | St Lucia holiday |
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Teletext | 11th November 2000 | Folding scooter |
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Teletext | 11th November 2000 | Love from Italy by Giovanna Bozzer (book) |
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Teletext | 11th November 2000 | Lapland holiday |
Commercial Break: Stills from Televised Adverts
Throughout the history of the Teletext service it was not uncommon for televised advert breaks (certainly those on ITV and Channel 4) to refer the viewer to a specific page; which would often include further details that were not outlined in the advert, such as price, purchase locations and further information.
At the moment this gallery also includes stills from the sponsor segments that appear before the advert breaks.
Interactive TTX
Many people remember Teletext services as being a pure read-only "one way street" kind of service. Someone, somewhere would be preparing the data and then broadcasting that to your television set. The only interactivity you as a viewer would have would be to type in the number for the page you wanted to view, and maybe hit Reveal now and then when playing a quiz or similar.
However there are numerous examples of pushing the Teletext technology further, turning it into something truly dynamic. Many of these services would expect you to call a number (often premium rate), enter a code displayed on screen and then proceed through a telephone menu system to "begin" the interactive process. This could be to play games, get information about your personal finances, mortgage quotes etc.
Considering even the internet was in its infancy at this time, examples of these interactive services are hard, if not impossible, to find. Not because they didn't work, just people probably didn't trust them. The systems were often well designed however, and years before data privacy was on the forefront of everyones mind the data presented was often obsfucated in such a way that no harm could come from using such a service - however it would generally feel rather "alien".
Even outside of Teletext, there are various other examples in the UK alone of companies (such as British Telecom and Sky Television) trying to get these interactive services through your television set off the ground. Almost all of them failed to take any mainstream adoption, no matter how many fullsize keyboards and high production "demonstration" videos were produced.
In my experience the most popular interactive services that I recall most people using would be playing Beehive Bedlam or ordering the latest movie via Sky Box Office (or similar NTL, Telewest, Virgin Media service etc.). With the ever increasing speed of development of mobile phones, many took to those devices for interactive services, certainly around personal finances and once the world became used to smartphones, "online banking" (as it still is generally referred to today) became entirely portable. To the extend that many individuals no longer use a desktop computer or laptop for this service at all.
Anyway, back to Teletext and being interactive. Below you'll find some examples (screenshots mostly) of interactive things that I have uncovered in my recoveries. A lot of how these services has been generally lost to the sand of time, and all we have to go on is whatever is being presented on-screen. If you have any further information about any of these please reach out to me via email at archive-work (at) computer-legacy.com - I'll be happy to cite and credit you for any information you can provide!
Televox (1988-199?)
Televox was an interactive service broadcast on IBA's ORACLE system. Living on page 777, it would be frequently advertised on either the main home page (100) or other popular information pages as a banner advert, with messages like Have you talked to TELEVOX yet? (evidenced on ANGLIA 4th November 1991 around 11PM, pg 100). There is also chance innocent viewers stumbled onto the service by accident when trying to activate the subtitles system (which would have been in place from c. 1985) on 888.
There are a few references to this interactive system in some late 80's issues of Television magazine, with one appearing as a letter of curiosity in the August 1988 issue...
Oracle Puzzle Could any reader tell me what's going on with HTV teletext? For some months HTV page 777 has consisted of a continuously-changing display of jumbled numbers and figures,but now there's an intermittent flash of a text page.I've recorded this with a camera and on playing it back with pause I find that the page heading has "Televox" or "Myrzad".It appears to be a computer service of some sort. Any ideas would be welcome. Chris Plaice, DER, Swansea
It would seem that this newly introduced service (seemingly referred to as either Televox or Televox Link) didn't explain itself very well, showing the garbled mess on screen. Even in 1991, the adverts pointed to pg 182 as the "entry" point but how exactly the system works was vague at best. Luckily for Chris Plaice, and those of us looking back at this from 2026 the November 1988 issue of Television included a better explanation of what this new system was...
With reference to Chris Plaice's "Oracle puzzle" (Letters,August), the complete answer is as follows. The quickly scrolling information seen on page 777 is a new nationwide service called Televox Link .It uses an interactive speech recognition telephone arrangement and the teletext alarm clock setting to provide information on various subjects including homes, holidays, jobs, cars, travel and quizes. The service operates with telephone numbers 0898444777 and 0898444747, which are charged at 38p per minute peak and 25p per minute off peak. In my view this is too expensive considering the length of time it takes to obtain information.A short demonstration of the service is available by dialling the freephone number 0800515333. The front page of Televox can be viewed by selecting page 777 then setting the teletext alarm clocktime to 3333. When you phone the Televox number you are asked to repeat several keywords (star, next, zero, one, two and three),then you are given a new number to enter into the alarm clock. After this the menu-driven pages can be obtained by saying various combinations of keywords such as "star next". Andy Worrall, I.Eng., MIElecIe, Bexleyheath, Kent
However going back to the August issue again, under Teletopics there is a short piece about Televox (page 742) which categorises it as an advertising service. It again confirms that the service is from McCallum Televox, based in Cambridge and uses "voice recognition equipment" to work. It also refers to there being 400 pages of advertising, with that to expand to 4,500 by the end of their first year of operation.
This short news bulletin continues to explain that the service is quite slow, and you could imagine that those who did use it might be a little miffed by the rather high telephone bill received later on, considering 38p today with inflation would be roughly £1.09 to pay per minute! The article ends mentioning that there is an on-going "legal dispute" but gives no further information.
However in this archive article from The Herald it details that actually it was Televox taking up the legal action against Oracle as they felt Oracle were "blocking" (unclear exactly how) their Televox service from working.
Information about the service, at least in publications and with my rudimentary research skills, seems to dry up after this. We know that the service certainly continued until November 1991 (see my screenshots below) - so the threat of ending the service never came about. We also know from the 1991 recovery that the call charges were still considerably high at 36p/min "cheap" or 48p/min "other times". However there is little to show that it continued once Oracle became "Teletext" on the 1st January 1993.
For other people who may be researching this, here's all of the bits I've gathered:
Company Name: McCallum Televox Limited / McCallum Televox Ltd / McCallum Vox Limited
Company Number: 02028865
Company Address: Cambridge Science Park, CB4 4GD
Company Director: Dr. Malcolm McConachie (likely passed February 2014 nr. Cambridge)
Incorporated: 17th June 1986
Fate: Unknown
Product/Service Name: Televox, Televox Link
Provided Services: Holidays, property listings, shares, quizzes with monetary prizes
Associated Telephone Numbers: 0800 515 333, 0898 444 777, 0898 444 747
As always, if you have more information to add to this service let me know via email by contactin archive-work (at) computer-legacy.com!
Screenshot gallery from November 1991
What follows is an example of the Televox services (page 777) from November 1991, broadcast on Anglia as part of an Oracle service.
