Cable Forum - View Single Post - Does anyone use the BBC Red Button text service?

RWCable · 09-12-2019, 08:03

Since the BBC's digital equivalent to Ceefax is due to close next month, I'm wondering how popular it actually is?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthe...7-98930425302a

I still do actually use the Red Button text service about 4 times daily to quickly scan through the news without picking up my phone or computer... It's much more convenient. It's certainly nice to have interactive internet-style information in the air, "free" (as part of license fee), but without an actual internet connection or the complexity of today's alternatives. No analytics modules, no tracking and loads instantly.

Why would this service even cost anything to maintain? The only thing that changes is 4 lines of each most popular story copied from the BBC website/feed... And that's easily automated, or have they not figured that out? (Last week I wrote a tiny 145-line pure JavaScript proof of concept in 1 hour that largely mirrors the Red Button experience and always has the most up-to-date news direct from BBC.... I know I'm oversimplifying a little bit.... But I still can't imagine any real "significant technical effort" required as mentioned. Please correct me if wrong.)

So who still uses the service?

09-12-2019, 08:03	#1
RWCable cf.member Join Date: Jul 2018 Services: Virgin Media TiVo / Broadband / Somehow still the landline Posts: 39	Does anyone use the BBC Red Button text service? Since the BBC's digital equivalent to Ceefax is due to close next month, I'm wondering how popular it actually is? https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthe...7-98930425302a I still do actually use the Red Button text service about 4 times daily to quickly scan through the news without picking up my phone or computer... It's much more convenient. It's certainly nice to have interactive internet-style information in the air, "free" (as part of license fee), but without an actual internet connection or the complexity of today's alternatives. No analytics modules, no tracking and loads instantly. Why would this service even cost anything to maintain? The only thing that changes is 4 lines of each most popular story copied from the BBC website/feed... And that's easily automated, or have they not figured that out? (Last week I wrote a tiny 145-line pure JavaScript proof of concept in 1 hour that largely mirrors the Red Button experience and always has the most up-to-date news direct from BBC.... I know I'm oversimplifying a little bit.... But I still can't imagine any real "significant technical effort" required as mentioned. Please correct me if wrong.) So who still uses the service? Last edited by RWCable; 09-12-2019 at 08:06.