• Teletext is a British invention. It was developed in the UK in the 1970s and rolled out in 1974. Initially, Teletext decoders were still expensive, but by the early 1980s, the first million Teletext TVs had been sold.

• Teletext reached its peak in 1993, with more than 20 million users in the UK alone.

• FixC, an artists’ co-operative in Helsinki, is preserving Teletext by organising the world’s first international Teletext art festival next month.

• Teletext was considered the most reliable text news service during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as the websites of major news sites became inaccessible due to high demand.

• When BBC’s Ceefax service first went live, it was updated by just one journalist who produced 24 pages of news daily.

• The basic Teletext format has remained unchanged in almost four decades.

• BBC’s Ceefax service is the last remaining text service available via analogue TV transmission in the UK. When the analogue signal is switched off next month, Ceefax will not be replaced.

• In 1994, Ceefax erroneously broadcast a newsflash that the Queen was dead. It was removed after 30 seconds and the BBC issued an apology.

• Digitiser, a video games magazine, was broadcast on the Teletext service on Channel 4 in the UK. In its 10 years of existence – from 1993 to 2003 – it gained a cult following of 1.5 million readers. Given the magazine’s risqué humour, Digitiser was stopped by Teletext in 2003. However, Teletext was inundated with letters of complaint and was forced to ask the Digitiser writers to reinstate the magazine – however, the writers only returned for a five-month run as a thank you for the fans.

• Comedian John Cleese once wrote to Ceefax to complain that the latest Somerset cricket scores were not updated.

Sources: Wired, BBC.