Ireland’s teletext service Aertel is to close next week after nearly 40 years in service, 11 years after the UK’s last remaining traditional teletext service closed.
- Move follows a change in law allowing Irish broadcaster RTÉ to ditch teletext
- Money previously allocated to Aertel will be spent on improving online services.
RTÉ has this week confirmed it will be closing down its Aertel teletext service, with just over a week’s notice. The service was broadcast alongside the RTÉ TV signal since the mid-80s as Ireland’s answer to the BBC’s Ceefax service. Launching just over a decade after Ceefax, the service also closes just over a decade after Ceefax’s closure in 2012, with both services missing out on reaching their 40th anniversary.
Aertel offered up-to-date news, sport and TV schedules, but will now close on Thursday 12th October 2023.
Reasons for closure
Justifying its closure, RTÉ said many of Aertel’s technical components “were no longer supported by the manufacturer and that more elements are due to be lost later this year.”
Ireland’s RTÉ launched a new version of Aertel, using MHEG technology, at digital switchover. This version was carried on Saorview and cable. The old World Standard Teletext (WST) version continued on Sky, where receivers still supported traditional teletext. MHEG is now being phased out in favour of HbbTV services wherever it is still in use.
But a number of continental broadcasters, including in Germany, Austria and Italy, continue to broadcast WST teletext. Here, broadcasters are increasingly offering WST alongside HbbTV-teletext platforms, which offer the option to change text size and background colour.
However, in line with other broadcasters in both Ireland and the UK, RTÉ confirms it won’t be offering any direct replacement. Instead money allocated to Aertel will now help fund RTÉ’s online services.
Aertel’s online service now redirects users to the relevant pages of RTÉ’s main website.
In addition to the technical aspect of keeping the service running, Ireland’s Online Safety and Media Regulation Act (2022) means RTÉ is no longer legally obligated to offer the service.
Receiver support
Many smart TVs, notably those designed for pan-European use, do support WST used on the Sky version of the service, although some stretch the text to fit the widescreen panel. WST was designed for older 4:3 screens. With regards the newer version of Aertel introduced at switchover, not all newer devices automatically support MHEG. On some devices, MHEG is only active if the Republic of Ireland is selected from the country list. If this was done by a viewer in Northern Ireland, this could affect both the channel list and the list of on-demand services.
Aertel could be received with a suitable satellite receiver by manually tuning into RTÉ One or RTÉ Two on satellite, even without a Sky subscription.
Marc Thornham