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Ceefax journalists would monitor the various newswires, and then when news broke or was updated, they would use a computer terminal to update the appropriate Ceefax page (of which there were originally only 24). Often, the first place breaking news could be found was on the service.
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But unlike newspapers, Ceefax’s information was updated in real-time. The service provided a variety of information typical to newspapers of the day, including news, weather, sport, finance and community updates, as well as articles on science and technology subjects. Users typed desired page numbers into their remote control, and could navigate the information quite efficiently. Pages could link to other pages by referencing their numbers. Some pages provided information, and others directories of other pages. Users could navigate a menu-system eventually consisting of hundreds of numbered “pages”. The encoder inserted an invisible signal containing the data into the BBC’s TV channels.Ĭeefax was an extremely simplified form of the World Wide Web. Ceefax team members encoded pages using computer terminal, which would then be transferred to the video encoder using paper tape. The BBC began test transmissions in 1972 and rolled-out the system in 1974. Ceefax broadcast digital text information which was decoded and displayed on television screens using a simple computer system. However, technology was advancing quickly, and the project was soon revived in electronic form. However, the printer was noisy! Who was going to want that in their house clattering away at 3am? The project (called Beebfax) was shelved in 1970. It worked by rasterising (converting into lines) text, sending it as a TV image to a special printer that could receive and print it. In the 1960s, the BBC experimented with the idea of broadcasting a newspaper to hard-copy printers in homes during the early hours of the morning.