Mobile rides high as Teletext dies
Jinfo Blog

22nd July 2009

By Tim Buckley Owen

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People on the move now have even more access to business data with the launch by the Financial Times of an iPhone application. But as one technology continues to accelerate, another – Teletext – is nearing the end of its days. Initially available as a free download from Apple’s App Store, the FT’s iPhone and iPod touch application adds greater functionality than its mobile website m.ft.com is capable of; as well as offering access to all Financial Times news and analysis, it also provides market data with interactive charts, plus a currency converter – and it’s location-aware (http://digbig.com/5bacad). Although the app is currently free, almost all of the content has to be bought; registration secures 10 free articles a month, non-registered users get just three (http://digbig.com/5bacae). It’s all part of the current dash to mobile highlighted elsewhere on VIP LiveWire, with reports by Gary Price on Hoover’s (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e19885) and Nancy Davis Kho on Thomson Reuters’ efforts to catch up on rivals Bloomberg and Associated Press (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e19484). As Nancy also reports, 55 million people are currently using their mobile devices to access the Internet and the number is projected to climb to 80 million by 2011 (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e21141). Meanwhile, though, a 35 year old online pioneer will finally close next January. Owned by the Daily Mail & General Trust, Teletext currently broadcasts a mix of news, sport and weather, piggy-backing on the analogue television signal. It was the wonder of the age when it started back in 1974, and the original intention was to continue till the completion of the United Kingdom’s digital television switch-over in 2012. But although some parts of the business – travel, gambling and online dating – are still profitable and will continue into the fully digital era, the general analogue service isn’t and will end two years early (http://digbig.com/5bacaf); the BBC’s rival Ceefax service is expected to soldier on until the analogue signal is finally switched off (http://digbig.com/5bacag). We continue to agonise over the future of the 400-year old printed newspaper industry, but it seems that the 35-year old Teletext will go without a murmur. Ring out the old, ring in the new.

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