Closure
On 21 January 2009, Ofcom reported that "The increasing availability of text based services, both broadcast and online may mean that post 2014 there is no longer clear justification for continued intervention to maintain a public service teletext licence."
On 16 July 2009, DMGT announced that due to competition from the Internet, current economic conditions and Ofcom's findings, the service would cease broadcasting most of its services on analogue and digital television, with the exception of the commercial services broadcast on Freeview channels 101-107 such as Teletext Holidays and the firm's profitable travel websites in January 2010, with the switch off date subsequently brought forward to 14 December 2009 (Sky Digital) and 15 December 2009 (analogue TV, Freesat and Freeview).
Teletext's news and information service were removed from: ITV, Channel 4 and Five on analogue TV; ITV and Channel 4 on Sky Digital; ITV, Channel 4 and channel 100 on Freeview; editorial on Teletext Extra on Freeview; editorial on ch 986 on Freesat. In addition, the Racing and Bookmakers section has continued. Viewers on Channel 4 analogue TV and Freeview. Viewers on Channel 4 on Sky Digital will also get the service in analogue form in due course, while the section is also due to be added to Freesat. The GameCentral section continued online on the Teletext website before joining another DMGT website Metro and can now be found at http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/
Despite the withdrawal of news and information content, the service continued to broadcast. On 29 January 2010, the broadcasting regulator Ofcom revoked Teletext's licence to broadcast but as of 12 November the service was still on the air. On 27 May 2010, Ofcom imposed a financial penalty of £225,000 on Teletext Limited following the revocation of the public teletext service licence. Public service broadcasting licences are offered for a fixed term, requiring the holder to provide the licensed service throughout the licence period. In accepting a licence, the broadcaster takes account of the likely cost of the obligations under the licence, and the value of the benefits associated with the licence, for the duration of the licence period. Teletext’s licence was for the licence period 2004 to 2014.
The main Teletext service on Freeview was removed from channel 100 on the EPG on 21 June 2010. Some content, which was available here, is still available by pressing the text button on ITV and other channels which used the Teletext Service. A very limited analogue service continues to run on ITV and Channel 4. Teletext Holidays has confirmed that it plans to go digital only from January 2011. In a deal between BBC Worldwide and Inview Technology Ltd, Teletext Extra was relaunched as Radio Times Extra on 31 January 2011, with editorial content from the Radio Times instead of Teletext Ltd.
Read more about this topic: Teletext Ltd.