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Teletext is a medium where encoded pages of information are broadcast alongside a television programme, and can be decoded on-screen by the viewer at the touch of a button.  Developed in the UK in the early 1970s, the last British teletext service was discontinued in the mid-2010s but teletext is still used in many countries around the world.

Once broadcast, teletext was generally overwritten on the server and the archive status of teletext pages is patchy at best, with (at least in the UK) only a few examples of pages saved by the broadcasters and some pages saved by the public using PC decoder cards.

This website covers efforts to recover teletext pages from television programmes recorded on regular domestic videotape and other methods.

Tape donation and loans

The Teletext Archaeologist archive consists of pages ranging from 1976 until 2018 and is continually expanding.

In particular, we are looking for:

  • Video tape recorded between 1974 and 1980
  • BBC1 before 1984
  • BBC2 until December 1989
  • ITV before 1984
  • Channel Four and S4C, from any era
  • Paramount Comedy Channel recordings

…can you help to plug the gaps?

First-generation copies are best – copies do blur the teletext signals recorded on the tapes.  But if you don’t want to part with original tapes then a good quality dub can still be useful as long as it hasn’t been through a time-base corrector – these can overwrite the teletext data with their own signals.  Please do get in touch via the contact section below!

Bluesky Latest

The latest curated finds are shared primarily on Bluesky – here are the latest posts:

The Teletext Archaeologist

The Teletext Archaeologist

@ttxarchaeologist.bsky.social

Jason Robertson (@jaseinblack.bsky.social) presents a curated selection of teletext pages recovered from videotape. Also on Mastodon at @grim_fandango@mas.to and Facebook www.facebook.com/teletextarchaeologist

1,558 posts 659 followers 73 following
Just working on a bit of Level 2 action for TeletextPlayer
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They sent you a cardboard-framed colour printout of your Gallery contribution and also some more graphics grids "for your next masterpiece". Still got the printout and accompanying letter.
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The daily news quiz on either Oracle or 4-Tel (if you were first to phone through the right answer after the question went up you actually won something) and the Teletext Gallery. I won the quiz once (got an off-screen photo of that somewhere) and got a picture of K9 on the Gallery.
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I'm going in chronological order (at a snail's pace) with the #Teletext50 videos...but next up is the brilliant impromptu interview with @mrbiffo.bsky.social!

It's a good watch if you're a Digi fan, but also if you're relatively new to it all, as that's where I'm coming from.

youtu.be/8VazX1vAVGY
youtu.be Teletext 50 - Interview with Paul Rose, Digitiser's "Mr. Biffo" YouTube video by Jamie Nemeth
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A new service has been recovered by mdeplo: Retequattro from 21 February 1994 09:47

www.teletextarchive.com/Pages/List/3482
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Ian Hislop tapping pen gif #keir #kier #whichspellingisit #ikea
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A new service has been recovered by mdeplo: Retequattro from 21 February 1994 09:47

www.teletextarchive.com/Pages/List/3482
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Here's where you can get Teletext Player for Ubuntu/Debian Linux, with the all-new live teletext from the playing video tape feature! This will also update when up upgrade stuff on the rest of Ubuntu too!

software.teletextarchaeologist.org/teletextplayer
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It’s so dinky!
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Blog

Archive Launched!

EXCITING NEWS! The Teletext Archive is launched – browse teletext services through your web browser, whether desktop, tablet or phone. You can do text searches, search by broadcaster and/or date, or just mooch around! https://archive.teletextarchaeologist.org

Interview on The Retro Hour podcast

Great to speak to Dan and Ravi from the Retro Hour podcast about all things teletext! Please give it a listen and subscribe, it’s a very professionally produced show. https://theretrohour.com/teletext-archaeologist-ep147-2/

The Archive

The site now has a list of the services recovered so far, over 1200 teletext services from 1976-2016.  Scroll though at your peril here: https://teletextarchaeologist.org/the-archive/