Teletext on Freeview: ITV, C4, ch 9

Teletext on Freeview - we have a full screen service on Ch 9, with another service on Ch 4, namely Teletext on 4.

I'm guessing that as these have different layouts, there are effectively two different services on the ITV/C4 multiplex. Many Freeview viewers would also like to see Teletext on ITV, but in the current format is there space?

I also have a more couple of questions:

Is there a BBCi text service on both BBC multiplexes, or can it be hosted on one multiplex and accessed from all BBC channels?

Is there sufficient capacity for ITV to host a service similar to Channel 4's Teletext on 4? Also, if Teletext made it so the "Teletext on 4" service could be accessed via ITV, would it be possible for the C4 pages to be blocked on ITV and vice-versa? Similarly, could the same text service have different "Change TV" options on different channels (different for ITV and C4).

Is it possible for the Teletext service on Ch 9 and Teletext on 4 to be the same, but with no in-vision C4 on the Ch 9 service?


What I'd suggest is a core Teletext service (News, Sport, Weather, ITV/C4 Listings etc) on ITV/C4 stations. ITV and C4 would each have their own pages as well.

Other pages, mainly features such as Lifestyle, entertainment sections such as Cinema Listings, the dating service, Teletext Holidays, Teletext TV Guide, the Premiership pages etc, wouldn't be available directly on ITV/C4, but would be available on Freeview as part of the "Ch 9" Teletext service (with Holidays/TV Guide in the 50's). Whether it's technically possible for these to include the audio of the ITV/C4 stations, I don't know!

I'm guessing that by having News, Sport etc covered in the "Teletext on 4" pages, more room would be available on the "Ch 9" service.

For example, calling up the TV Guide on p110 on ITV/C4 would bring up ITV1-3 (p111-113), C4, E4, FilmFour, More 4 (p114+), and offer the option of full TV listings by switching to Teletext TV Guide, in a similar way to how you can switch from Teletext on 4 to Teletext Holidays now.

Any comments welcome!

teletext is on the digital 3&4 mux, which is not part of "freeview".

The problem with your proposal is that it assumes Teletext operates on DTT in the same environment as it does on analogue; it doesn't.

Teletext Ltd hold the national teletext licence, which initially provided them with the Lion's share of space on the ITV/C4 VBI (the Teletext on 5 service is separately licenced, and was not held until Teletext until 2002). As part of that licence, they then gained some gifted capacity to broadcast on the DTT platform, and became entitled to 'due prominance' in the EPG.

Despite common misconceptions, they are not providing the 'ITV' or 'C4' teletext service (under the terms of their national licence anyway), and although their analogue service is accessed by pressing the text button on ITV/C4, there is nothing to say that their digital service should be linked to in the same way - they might appear to be bedfellows with ITV/C4, but they're not.

For this reason, the main Teletext channel 9 service (and incidentally, the reason Teletext gets such a high profile number whilst all the other text services are in the 50's is because of it being recognised as an existing analogue broadcaster and thus entitled to priority over other services) is not and will not be linked to from any ITV/C4 channels. 'Teletext on 4' is a completely separate service which C4 have contracted Teletext Ltd to provide, it is NOT directly linked to the main C9 service.

Some of you are just obsessed with the technicalities.

Everything said above I'm fully aware of - I'm just asking is it possible?

Maybe if I rephrased it so is it possible for BBCi to offer it's core text service on all BBC channels, but with additional content on each channel which is blocked from the other channels?

In answer to one of your questions in your first post, BBCi is hosted on both BBC multiplexes. It's not possible to use BBCi on BBC Four (Mux B) without the service also being broadcast on Mux B.

There is no reason why parts of the text service can't be blocked on some channels and only be available on others. BBCi already does this with the overly screen used to enter the service. The overlay (also often referred to as the bridge) is a different colour on the different BBC channels (red on One and News 24, purple on Two, black on Four etc.) as well as having slightly different content.

Teletext could also do this. The main service on channel 9 with channel specific parts available from ITV1, Channel 4 etc. But as cwathen rightly points out, Teletext and the commerical analogue channels are not bedfellows but seem to be associated as such because the Teletext service is available from these channels on analogue TV. But there is no reason why the above could not happen if Teletext and these channels came to some sort of deal, bearing the above in mind.

Thanks for the info Mark - but the Mux issue leaves me with another question.

With my aerial, I get both BBC North West and BBC Wales - and everytime I go to text on BBC1 NW or BBC2 NW, I get the BBC Wales version of the BBCi bridge - which is technically on a different multiplex (although the same!).